I had no choice but to get a job for the summer between high school and university. That’s where the story of my relationship with scents begins, however improbably. I applied to only one job, an open call for sales associates at The Bay which required nothing more of candidates than a pulse – no proof of skill, experience or competence was needed. (A good thing, too, since at seventeen, I had exactly none of those things.) I went to one interview, enough to convince the company that I would show up for the minimal wage they were willing to pay. And then I got the chicken pox.
To make a long and silly story short, I missed out on a job at the CHANEL counter because my illness delayed my start date. By the time I was non-contagious and could work, there was an available position at the perfume counter. And so I, who owned nothing in the way of scents beyond a bottle of Calgon body spray, became a fragrance girl over night.
As jobs go, it wasn’t the worst – we were rarely busy, so I spent most of my time at work getting really good at cleaning glass display cases. Once that was done, I could discreetly read behind the counter. But it was dull when I worked alone, which I mostly did. The total absence of customers most days didn’t justify more than one staff member at work at a time. But on weekends, and at holidays, we were genuinely busy. My co-workers were mostly elderly ladies, all of them sassy and salty in their own way. (Truly, we had enough characters for our own TV show in the fragrance department.) Beyond making me laugh, sometimes at but mostly with them, they taught me a lot.
Mostly, they taught me that to sell scents, you need to actually wear them. And there are two ways to go about that. You can wear strong scents, choosing from a variety depending on your mood, effectively allowing your fragrance to tell the world who you are on a given day. (That is, in a sense, letting your perfume wear you.) Or, if you have a strong sense of who you are, you can choose scents to compliment that.
Like any seventeen-year-old, I gravitated towards sweet, fruity scents. I wore Hot Couture by Givenchy, Baby Doll Paris by Yves Saint-Laurent and basically anything that Moschino put in pink packaging. It was regrettable, but not unexpected given my age. I only really came to understand what it means to have a signature scent later in life, when I stumbled upon Gris Clair… by Serge Lutens. For years, when people thought of me, that fragrance came to mind.
But the world of perfumes is fickle, a lesson I learned well working at The Bay. Scents come and go as trends change. Gris Clair… was discontinued. And then reissued in new, less lovely packaging, the notes somehow more muted and less elegant. And so, in 2017, I found myself hunting for a new signature scent.
I can honestly say that I never imagined that I’d write that my signature scents are both florals. But life is full of surprises. These days, I prefer scents that are subtle but distinct, scents that last the day without lingering in my nostrils. In that way, my two current signatures are perfect.
Rose 31 from Le Labo is the perfume I wanted not to love. Rose-based scents are just not my thing – too basic, too cliche. But enough stays at the Fairmont, where Rose 31 is the signature scent, convinced me that this was, in fact, a scent I could wear and love. After using the shampoos and soaps repeatedly, surrepitously collecting extra bottles to bring home from my work trips, I knew this was a fragrance to invest in.
In case the name still makes you hesitate, I will say that Rose 31 isn’t a traditional rose perfume – the addition of notes of cumin, cedar and amber make it decidedly unisex, fresh but lightly spicy.
Gabrielle from CHANEL, on the other hand, I ordered on a whim because I loved the bottle. (I’m not too proud to admit it.) I wasn’t convinced I would love a scent based on an imaginary flower. But life is full of surprises. The jasmine and ylang-ylang make this scent fresh but still distinctive. It’s easy to wear for a day at work but beautiful for a night out, too. And really, the bottle is stunning. I never tire of seeing it on my dresser.
Scents are, in many ways, memories. That makes our relationships with them intense, and deeply personal. I can’t think of my time at The Bay without remembering the smell of Guerlain’s Shalimar. Sometimes, we love a fragrance for a while, and others, we love it forever. Gris Clair…, as it once was, is a scent I’ll love for a lifetime. Gabrielle and Rose 31, I love for now, and hope I’ll still love in the years to come. For now, they are my signatures, the scents that people recall when they think of me. And that, when you stop to consider it, is an incredibly powerful thing.
Tell me – do you have a signature scent?
I have always been very picky about my scents, and have a collection of very few. In middle school (and probably most of high school as well) it was Gap Dream, then Kate Spade twirl, now Ylang 49, and perhaps foolishly (because of emotional ties) Joe Malone Woodsage and Sea Salt. I doubt I could ever work at a fragrance counter, I’d probably spend all day with a headache, but I agree that just the right scent, the one that feels like it could be a part of me, is the kind of smell I could just drink in all day.