Ode to a Perfume
Reflecting on a scent from the past.
“Perfume is that last and best reserve of the past,
the one which when all our tears have run dry, can make us cry again!”
– Marcel Proust
Today I’m going to get a little nostalgic on you - we’re heading back in time to the U.S. in the 1980’s. I suspect many of you living elsewhere might have had a similar experience.
I say this with some confidence because on my podcast, An Aromatic Life, I often ask my guests what their first perfume was, and invariably they say Anais Anais by Cacharel. My immediate response is a look of amazement and a quick “Me, too!” I think there’ve been at least 6 international guests who’ve said that and it got me wondering… Why was this fragrance so present for so many of us women?
The first thing I did was try to buy the fragrance, so I could smell it and see if it would take me back in time. Luckily, it’s still readily available online, and after a little digging, it appears that the formulation hasn’t changed much. I bought the eau de toilette version because I’m sure that’s what I used back then. I’m confident I bought my perfumes at the drugstore, not the department store, along with my Bonnie Bell lip gloss and Aqua Net hairspray.
My first whiff made me smile. The scent was pretty much as I had remembered it: very powdery, feminine, soft, and white floral. I returned to it for several days more, evaluating the scent in detail: it opens with a surprisingly sharp green note and a wide white floral bouquet. After only a minute a warm, sweet, powdery blanket appears. Sadly, within no time, it lays on the wrist as only a whisper, the powdery notes barely remain. The feeling is one of comfort, safety, innocence, and naivete. It truly is a fragrance reminiscent of a young girl coming of age, figuring out who she is, but doing so quietly, so as not to stand out. But it’s much subtler than I remembered. It presents as innocent, naive, and very girly. Is that who I was back then?
I began digging through old photo albums to get a sense of who I was at the time and came across a few pictures, which I somewhat hesitantly share here.
I suppose like most teenagers in those days, I was simply trying to fit in. I was more of a sporty type than a girly girl, and somewhat shy, with a small circle of friends. I spent my weekends at the mall, went to the cinema a lot (I6 Candles was a favorite), and played on the school basketball team. Pretty typical, I would say.
I decided to do some further research on the perfume, including how it was advertised at the time. Maybe that would give me some clues as to why I might have been drawn to this scent.
It turns out Anais Anais was actually launched in the late 70’s, 1978 to be exact. But it quickly became the reference scent for the early 1980’s for countless young women around the world. To my delight, I discovered that the perfume was created by a team of perfumers from my former employer, Firmenich: Roger Pellegrino, Robert Gonnon, Paul Leger and Raymond Chaillan. What a surprising coincidence!
“Perfume is a story in odor, sometimes poetry in memory.” – Jean-Claude Ellena
Examining the official fragrance description it reveals more story than the scent truly conveys:
Top notes of White Lily, Hyacinth, Honeysuckle, Galbanum, Orange Blossom, Lavender, Bergamot, Black Currant and Lemon.
Middle notes of Lily, Lily-of-the-Valley, Moroccan Jasmine, Carnation, Honeysuckle, Tuberose, Ylang-Ylang, Iris, Rose and Orris Root.
Base notes of Oakmoss, Incense, Musk, Leather, Sandalwood, Vetiver, Cedar, Patchouli and Amber.
But what actually became most revealing was the advertising. Not because the print and television commercial weren’t on point; the scent certainly reflected what was being conveyed.
But rather I felt a disconnect between what image the perfume was trying to project vs. how I remembered myself being back then. The advertising appears very hyper-feminine and romantic, very pastel, soft, and pinkish. As one perfume reviewer cleverly noted, “...its imagery disrupted the context of feminism in perfume; the complete antithesis of Charlie by Revlon (1973), if you will, where Shelley Hack was dressed in pants skipping off to work or grabbing the bum of a cute guy in the street as an outward manifestation of her desire to be divested of her traditional passive role.” Was there perhaps a push to steer us “young and innocent” away from the newly liberated, modern young women of the 70’s? Who knows.
All I can say is that millions of us women were introduced to perfume through this scent. And each of us was shaped by it in their own unique way. I know our scent preferences are founded on olfactory experiences we have throughout our life’s journey. And this perfume may possibly have shaped each of us in some small way.
Did you wear Anais Anais when you were young? I’d love to hear. Leave me a comment below.
This week on my podcast An Aromatic Life:
I sit down with San Francisco perfumer Dannielle Sergent to talk about the creative intersection of Perfumery, Painting, and Architecture.
We begin with a fun word association game to dig deeper into the creative mind. Then Dannielle shares how she got started as a painter, explains the concept of “fat over lean”, and her approach to painting.
She reveals what led you to pursue architecture, explains different ways you can manipulate a design using materials, light and space, and what role scent can play in design.
She also shares how she got into Perfumery, talks about “painting with scent,” and how perfume creation is different from architecture and painting.
Finally, she gives her perspective on what painting, architecture, and perfumery share in common and how she brings the disciplines together.
You can hear this episode and many more on Apple podcast, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Every Sunday, Pukuu', her wise grandmother Ashuuk, and their pet desert tortoise Paa'ar walk to their community garden to spend time with their friends, including the plants, animals, and insects. But one Sunday, as they are walking to the garden, smelling the plants along the way, they arrive there to find some no-good, absolutely terrible news that could change everything.
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Me too! Goodness that is an awful ad...don't recall that at all. I am still a fan of most of those scents to this day! Very rarely wear perfume now. As an Aromatherapist I am more likely to be using a body oil with a blend of essential oils.
I wore Anaïs Anaïs as a teenager, but I wore several other scents as well. I think my first one was Jontue. I also had Bal à Versailles and Emeraude. I really loved the Coty compacts with solid single notes of Ylang Ylang, Jasmine, and Musk.