The Fragrance Foundation UK

Scent memories can come in all shapes and sizes and aren’t always associated with perfume. One of the most evocative smells for me is Pledge Furniture Polish. My mother was, and still is, a fanatical polisher and woe betide you if house keys or a wallet were left on a newly cleaned sideboard. Growing up in Wales the housewives were immensely proud of their homes and the routine of daily cleaning and tidying was entrenched in me from a very young age. I lovingly blame my mother, with a wink, for my inability to work unless my desk is clear of all clutter and any dust is swept away. Allegiance to many products and perfumes have shifted over the years but, to me, Pledge Furniture Polish is irreplaceable.

One of my first perfumes was LouLou by Cacharel and when I got my first bottle I used to wear it every day, even in school – making my presence known! My old school friends still make remarks how I used to scent the whole school!

In the greenhouse, potting my geranium cuttings, the bruised, aromatic leaves, piles of terracotta pots, sweet pea seeds, sowed from last year, pressed into damp soil. This weekend’s smells!

So many wonderful perfume memories come from the distant past; but one more recent fragrance souvenir is always in my mind.

The glorious coast of north Suffolk. The smells of beautiful Southwold and its environs: especially in early June when all the garden roses bloom in profusion. The flowers’ sweet fresh odour blends with the exhilarating air, the cold bracing smell of the great grey North Sea, and the tang of the heron-haunted swampy marshes beyond the town. The gorse on the heath is always in bloom – “when gorse is out of flower/kissing’s out of fashion” – and when the sun touches the spiky bushes they glow like gold, exuding a creamily delicious redolence of coconut.

Sitting with my school friends in the back of my dads car absolutely drenched in CK Obsession – the smell still gets me every time – happy memories!

Usually each one of these fragrances corresponds to each memory. The Frangipane is a memory or a palace in India. The Tiare is a memory of Tahiti and the beaches bordered by wild flowers and trees. The Vetyver I created because I loved it so much on men- I wanted a version I could wear. I added fresh lemon to it so that it would be an energetic fresh fragrance with the warmth of vetyver on the bottom. Le Wild reminds me of the 1960s on the South of France and how my mother wore classic white fragrance. The flowers around my bedroom had that marvelous scent. Kalimantan is the dream of Borneo and the rich scent of the Orient—it’s a very sexy fragrance. It’s an amber fragrance. Apple baking is always for me the smell of home. Vetyver is my memory of my father and now of my husband. Jasmine is my childhood summers on the French Riviera. Gardenia is my first night life in Greece as a young woman.

My earliest memory is when my father returned home from working overseas, he gave my mother a bottle of Chanel No 5. It was huge. I was about 9 years old, and my mum let me have a little bit to dab only on my wrists. She said it was special and I felt so grown up wearing it. When I see Chanel advertising it always takes me back to that moment during my childhood. It is still one of my favourites. The scent of rose, ylang ylang, lily a truly green and floral scent-sation!

My fragrance memories spin around my Mum – the stories of the huge box of Chanel Number 5 that my Dad bought her for their engagement to Seeing the classic beautiful  Estée Lauder Youth Dew bottle on her dressing table when I was a child. The memories of smell and perfume last with you forever.

My favourite fragrance memory was when I smelt flower bomb for the first time at the 2005 launch – I was 29 and had just got started to get my beauty career off the ground. I saved up to buy one and it symbolised hard work success and my first taste of luxury and I still wear it now!