Kristen mentioned some perfumes of the 80’s during the podcast and it really stuck with me. I wish I had a huge collection of those pages from magazines that allow you to sniff the scent (and rub some yummy smelling glue on your wrist as well if you are so inclined - and I was!). I wish I also had smell-o-vision to share them with you. We all know that smells can take you back more than other memories and oh how I would like to share with you the sweet delight of 80’s scents.
Instead, in the absence of the long awaited smell-o-vision (which was a real thing someone tried to create in the ‘60’s), I will just wax poetic about the joy that is perfumes and colognes of the 80’s.
As the incredibly cool kid that I was, I owned Exclamation. Truth be told, I was not a huge fan of the smell, I just really liked the bottle. I mean, who wouldn’t want to spritz themselves from something as fun as the mark of exclamation! I mean, that’s good mood in a bottle!
I do remember that what I really wanted, however, was the extremely luxurious, classic perfume peddled by one Debbie Gibson. It was called Electric Youth. Clearly, a name that captures everything I was at 16. The bottle was snazzy and so amazing that it had a giant, hot pink spring in the bottle. I mean, what screams the height of all things coolness more than a pink perfume spring, I ask?
I also remember my friend, Emily, who owned what I am pretty sure was the complete set of the perfume Imposters. These did not appeal to me all that much as they were knock-offs of perfumes I was not familiar with. Clearly, I was not spending enough time at the Elder-Beerman perfume counter in the 80’s, to know that nothing screamed classy like Giorgio. Of course, my lack of knowledge didn’t stop me from trying them out. Obviously if my friend liked them, I should too! Plus, these were a little easier on my incredibly thin wallet yet still left me smelling like the budding elegant woman I was. The best part was that their ad kinda worked like a how to! Apparently the classiest of women apply their perfume across the shoulders and up the back of their leg. I had to work out on my own if I should do both legs (the ad couldn’t show you ALL the necessary steps of course!)
The 80’s didn’t only produce some of the most amazing perfumes they also made for some of the most delicious smelling men of all time! In the podcast, Kristen mentioned one of my personal favorite smells for a man, Drakkar Noir. I will admit that I still love that smell. In purchasing a new cologne for my husband, it often starts with a Google search for “scents that smell like Drakkar Noir”. It often ends with failure. I did, however, find a candle with the same scent. I bought 2 and they were amazing!
Drakkar was not the only cologne of choice for high school boys of that era. Some would opt for Obsession by Calvin Klein or even Stetson. While clearly a very masculine choice often desired by the almost 18 crowd I associated with at the time, neither was a scent that would make me step up a little closer to you and inhale. In other words, I was not searching out the wearer in the crowded halls of the high school during class change.
But there was another scent that would absolutely turn me into the creepy stand too close and inhale too long person from your nightmares. The one that when I caught a whiff, I would follow that smell like a bloodhound because I was jonesing for more. Much like Drakkar, I find it still continues to smell just as amazing to me today as it did to riddled with hormones Carrie, but it seems to have a legacy that makes me appear to be much less of a nerd for loving it. It is the crisp clean deliciousness that is Davidoff Cool Water.
If you are looking to boost the power of some nostalgic memories or maybe have just forgotten the delights that were the scents of the 80’s, maybe today is the day they make a comeback in your life. Who knows, you might be bringing a smile to someone else’s face as they get a whiff of the memories you wear!