My mum died when I was only 2 years old. In my dad’s bedroom, on the dressing table, there was an empty perfume bottle that he never threw away, no label on it, cut glass, that had been used to decant perfume into. I always remember that when I was a kid, I was forever taking out the stopper and sniffing the bottle, I never knew what it was, but I knew it was my mum’s. When I got older and was truly interested in perfumes, I happened to try out Guerlain’s Shalimar, as soon I as I took a sniff, I started crying, because I realised that Shalimar was the perfume that the mum that I never knew wore, and was the scent of that empty scent bottle.

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