Personal Experiences or Stories Involving Your Fragrances

[Varanis Ridari]

Inspired by a reply I made on a different thread, I've decided that maybe we need a new place to do something fun and less debate-y.

On that note, what are some personal experiences you've had wearing fragrances (or smelling someone else wearing fragrances) from your collection?

I'm not strictly referring to feeback/compliments from wearing something, although those are okay to talk about too. I mean literally any worthwhile memories associated with fragrances you own, be they from your time spent wearing them, or knowing someone else who wears them too.

As is customary with threads I start, I won't go first after initiating the topic; but I will drop some of my stories in after a few replies have been tacked on.

 

[cheapimitation]

I think I wrote about this once before a long time ago. But one that always sticks out is from when I was first getting into Frederic Malle and I would go into the city (I lived about an hour bus ride from NYC at the time) to visit the boutique.

I remember the day I tested Carnal Flower, on the ride home it was one of those super cold days with an intense bright sun, and the sun was beating down from the window and I was falling in and out of sleep while the fragrance was just enveloping me in tropical floral smell. It actually sounds so mundane, smelling my fragrance on a bus ride, but it was like a tuberose fueled fever dream.

It's such a vivid memory I think because I had never experienced such a powerful thing from a fragrance before. Needless to say that became my first Frederic Malle purchase!

 

[slpfrsly]

Not wishing to drag the mood right down, but I go out of my way to avoid this sensation tbh. I actively tried to make fragrance a 'background' thing, not something that would be highly reminiscent of a time and place; the best way to do this, I found, was signature scents rather than new/replacing/updating what I owned, which is what I did in my teens and early 20s. It all came about from a series of quite significant life changing events in the space of 18 months or so, some being really quite horrific. I found that some scents had fused themselves to memories, feelings, associations etc of that time and had to get rid. I never dreamt it would take 4 years to find replacements but it has (I suppose I have indulged that search beyond necessary during covid as well tbf, and also the surrounding culture and so on has been far more interesting than I ever thought it could be). Perhaps the end point will be going fragrance free! 😅

I was trying to get this point across in this thread: https://basenotes.com/threads/fragr...e-before-trying-it-for-the-first-time.522574/

Bit of a buzzkill tbf but that's the truth. Carry on with the thread...

 

[LinePlaneVolume]

Dropping my almost full bottle of Fahrenheit on a tile floor (early 90's) and being overwhelmed by the amazing smell blasting from the shattered bottle... then being very sad.

 

[mikeperez23]

I love this thread idea Varanis and I will post many memories as I remember them...

Reading LinePLanVolume's post above reminded me of a very early fragrance memory: I dropped a bottle of Azzaro Pour Homme in my high school hallway floor (it was in my locker) and it stunk up like Azzaro in that part of my HS for months. lol. It was my older brothers bottle (he let me borrow it) so I had to buy him a brand new one from my allowance $. This was probably circa 1981 or 1982. I have never, since, owned a FB of this scent - although I do respect its a classic!

 

[Varanis Ridari]

Not wishing to drag the mood right down, but I go out of my way to avoid this sensation tbh. I actively tried to make fragrance a 'background' thing, not something that would be highly reminiscent of a time and place; the best way to do this, I found, was signature scents rather than new/replacing/updating what I owned, which is what I did in my teens and early 20s. It all came about from a series of quite significant life changing events in the space of 18 months or so, some being really quite horrific. I found that some scents had fused themselves to memories, feelings, associations etc of that time and had to get rid. I never dreamt it would take 4 years to find replacements but it has (I suppose I have indulged that search beyond necessary during covid as well tbf, and also the surrounding culture and so on has been far more interesting than I ever thought it could be). Perhaps the end point will be going fragrance free! 😅

I was trying to get this point across in this thread: https://basenotes.com/threads/fragr...e-before-trying-it-for-the-first-time.522574/

Bit of a buzzkill tbf but that's the truth. Carry on with the thread...

Hey, a story is a story. You're fine.

There are no rules about them having to be happy or sad.

I'll always associate Abercrombie & Fitch Fierce (or it's smell-alikes) as "background" because they were literally pumped into the stores that sold them via the vents.

 

[The Cologne Cabinet]

My wife, then new girlfriend, wearing Marc Jacobs Flower Bomb and thinking - "I hate this fragrance and don't even care, she is amazing." Today, her tastes in fragrance have thankfully moved on from that style so win-win!

 

[Varanis Ridari]

Lot of dropped bottle stories. Me now staring at my hardwood floors in horror.

 

[CookBot]

My wife, then new girlfriend, wearing Marc Jacobs Flower Bomb and thinking - "I hate this fragrance and don't even care, she is amazing." Today, her tastes in fragrance have thankfully moved on from that style so win-win!

Very sweet story. For all the threads we get by people attempting to use scent to make themselves more appealing, we never seem to think about the times people are attracted to us in spite of our perfumes.

 

[Clarissochka]

I randomly picked up a bottle of Bvgari black around ‘98 at TJ Maxx or something like that in NY. I had no idea what the fragrance was and had a very unsophisticated taste in fragrances. I remember being so blown away by it - it was nothing like what I have ever smelled. It literally gave me confidence to leave a dead end relationship and move to West coast. I also remember feeling super frustrated as I would naively go into Macys and explain to salespeople that I am looking for something like Black and be sprayed with some vomit inducing Tommy girl creation. I could not explain the notes and sales ppl had no clue that Bvgari made fragrances!! Many years later and thousands of fragrances tried, nothing has ever hit me like Black!

 

[Clarissochka]

Ha

Very sweet story. For all the threads we get by people attempting to use scent to make themselves more appealing, we never seem to think about the times people are attracted to us in spite of our perfumes.

, in my dating days, if a guy gave me hard time about having my collection of perfumes (I had like 10 bottles), that was a major red flag

 

[Abby2000]

Luckily, my parents did not use "luxury" perfume, so my childhood experience is not haunted by any particular brand. Therefore, my sense of smell is not biased towards any perfume other than organic smells. Even though I tried to recreate a smell when I was in 8th grade, one of celebrity perfume that I remember the silage was a complete gourmet, with so much powdery cedar. I used enough Nivea cream and lavender talcum powder, which I mixed in my palm and started my first perfumery experiment😂🤣

 

[Franco65]

Armani for women is the smell of a beautiful summer holiday I spent in Kent in 1989, it was a present for the girl who hosted me, she wore it all the evenings we spent together out.....
some ten years later...
lost in my thoughts on a bus in Bergamo, in 1998: a girl passed me by triggering memories of that beautiful Kent summer, endorphins flooded my mind. Couldn't understand why..... after several seconds I realized the girl that passed me by was wearing that same scent..
⁝

 

[hednic]

My best experience was meeting my wife in the 60s while wearing Balafre while working in Paris.

 

[hollywoodforever]

I knew this very intriguing guy growing up in Virginia. We'll call him "Dallas." He had a very tragic family life - his dad died while we were in middle school, I think his mother may have had some kind of psychosis after. His sister, who was two years older than us, turned from grief and dedicated herself to her schoolwork; graduated valedictorian > top college > then med school years later I heard.

Dallas turned from grief to drugs - which was fine, ultimately, because we lived in a very safe, suburban environment. We were all experimenting with drugs at the time, but Dallas was REALLY into drugs. Despite having experienced such sadness, he was an incredibly fun, easygoing, empathetic person. Dallas was a true hippie, but stuck in a lanky teenager's body and forced to live through the Bush years.

Anywho, the fragrant part of this story:
Many years later, after college, Dallas and I happened to run into each other at a party in our hometown. He needed a ride home, and was also smashed. Since we lived close to each other, I volunteered to drive him home. Later I discovered a capless bottle of Armani Code Sport Athlete, rolling around in my Jeep. It was a BEAUTIFUL summer freshie - mint, ginger, and pink pepper. And not the sort of thing you could buy in a drugstore. You'd have to go to a Nordstrom or something. Anyway, I wore it all that summer, and felt carefree and escapist - very much like walking in Dallas' shoes.

Epilogue: Last I heard, Dallas was living happily in Seattle, and may have participated in the protests/lived at the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone for a bit. Bottles of Armani Code Sport Athlete currently sell for between $180 - $280 on eBay.

 

[Varanis Ridari]

I knew this very intriguing guy growing up in Virginia. We'll call him "Dallas." He had a very tragic family life - his dad died while we were in middle school, I think his mother may have had some kind of psychosis after. His sister, who was two years older than us, turned from grief and dedicated herself to her schoolwork; graduated valedictorian > top college > then med school years later I heard.

Dallas turned from grief to drugs - which was fine, ultimately, because we lived in a very safe, suburban environment. We were all experimenting with drugs at the time, but Dallas was REALLY into drugs. Despite having experienced such sadness, he was an incredibly fun, easygoing, empathetic person. Dallas was a true hippie, but stuck in a lanky teenager's body and forced to live through the Bush years.

Anywho, the fragrant part of this story:
Many years later, after college, Dallas and I happened to run into each other at a party in our hometown. He needed a ride home, and was also smashed. Since we lived close to each other, I volunteered to drive him home. Later I discovered a capless bottle of Armani Code Sport Athlete, rolling around in my Jeep. It was a BEAUTIFUL summer freshie - mint, ginger, and pink pepper. And not the sort of thing you could buy in a drugstore. You'd have to go to a Nordstrom or something. Anyway, I wore it all that summer, and felt carefree and escapist - very much like walking in Dallas' shoes.

Epilogue: Last I heard, Dallas was living happily in Seattle, and may have participated in the protests/lived at the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone for a bit. Bottles of Armani Code Sport Athlete currently sell for between $180 - $280 on eBay.

That's an amazing story. Love it

 

[MFfan310]

Last year, in order to meet a compressed deadline for my birthday and with the US launch delayed due to the fact the first batch to be sent across the Atlantic was delayed, I was successfully able to convince my uncle to just order Roja Apex EdP from Britain.

He did, and my first spritz happened over a month before Luckyscent and the likes got their first shipment. It immediately became my favorite leather chypre.

 

[LeChypreSexy]

Vintage Molinard de Molinard perfume in the fancy Lalique bottle will always remind me of the Bonwit Teller department store in Oakbrook Illinois and my mother. I was shopping for back-to-school/Fall clothing with my mother, so it would have been about August of 1979. When Bonwit's debuted a fragrance, they had beautiful models wearing evening clothes walk through the store, passing out carded samples from a wicker basket they held. A Halston clad lovely gave a sample of Molinard to my mom, who thanked her and shoved it into her pocketbook. Several hours later, after a nice lunch in the Marshall Field and Co. tearoom, the waitress brought the bill for lunch. Mom took out her charge plate and put it on the table, then dug around her bag and found the sample of Molinard. She opened the vial, sniffed it, rolled her eyes and said "It's Norell." then gave the vial and card to me. I kept it for years. Vintage Molinard is Norell, but Fruity Norell and I like it better. I now own a huge 2 ounce bottle of the vintage perfume in the fancy bottle and it is the Queen of my collection. Well, that and my giant Detchema.

I worked at Bullock's department store in Lakewood California when Lancome debuted Tresor. We had the exclusive with Tresor for a looong time, so the entire first floor reeked of Tresor. That would have been the very early 1990s I imagine. What a powerhouse fragrance that was!

 

[heavy black heart]

Varanis, I'll post something at some point but just wanted to say that this is an amazing idea for a thread & has the potential of becoming my favorite on BN - some awesome stories / feelings already

 

[ChuckW]

Not wishing to drag the mood right down, but I go out of my way to avoid this sensation tbh. I actively tried to make fragrance a 'background' thing, not something that would be highly reminiscent of a time and place; the best way to do this, I found, was signature scents rather than new/replacing/updating what I owned, which is what I did in my teens and early 20s. It all came about from a series of quite significant life changing events in the space of 18 months or so, some being really quite horrific. I found that some scents had fused themselves to memories, feelings, associations etc of that time and had to get rid. I never dreamt it would take 4 years to find replacements but it has (I suppose I have indulged that search beyond necessary during covid as well tbf, and also the surrounding culture and so on has been far more interesting than I ever thought it could be). Perhaps the end point will be going fragrance free! 😅

I was trying to get this point across in this thread: https://basenotes.com/threads/fragr...e-before-trying-it-for-the-first-time.522574/

Bit of a buzzkill tbf but that's the truth. Carry on with the thread...

I totally understand. I feel things (emotions) way too intensely, and I have to minimize (put in perspective) the importance of scents at times to keep from turning against them altogether. I get the fragrance-free consideration. Better that than an emotional assault from a scent.

 

[mikeperez23]

I once walked up to a random woman in a store and complimented her on her fragrance and assured her I wasn't hitting on her. She was way cool about it and told me she was wearing Lolita Lempicka, the original in that purple apple bottle. Every time I smell that I think of that stranger who smelled AMAZING in it.

 

[Varanis Ridari]

When I worked at Walmart, there was a guy who worked as the manager of Toys (when they had a separate toys department), who was absolutely drenched in Joop to the point you could smell him across the store (and Walmarts aren't exactly small).

Well, I had a bottle given to me back in the 90's and to this day, I still have it because for the life of me, I can't avoid seeing Fred from Toys when I smell it. Guess it's a deep vintage now, since it's a Lancaster bottle with the flower above the word "Joop".

 

[foxbins]

I was dating a physicist and one evening he asked what scent I was wearing. It was Rochas Tocade, and I told him. He demanded that I spell the name, and the implication that I wouldn't know how to pronounce the perfume I was wearing, and he would, sent little alarm bells ringing in my brain. We didn't last long after that, and Tocade was always a little bit tainted for me after.

 

[Varanis Ridari]

I was dating a physicist and one evening he asked what scent I was wearing. It was Rochas Tocade, and I told him. He demanded that I spell the name, and the implication that I wouldn't know how to pronounce the perfume I was wearing, and he would, sent little alarm bells ringing in my brain. We didn't last long after that, and Tocade was always a little bit tainted for me after.

That guy sounds like a real Neil deGrassehole Tyson

(the real NdGT is a nice guy btw).

 

[Pheusinger]

My ex-girlfriend (ex-fiance to be exact) who is still a great friend of mine was/is someone who appreciates and "gets" my scenti obsession. We shared cooking as a passion as well. More recently her husband (also a good friend of mine...now 😉) had splurged and bought her a bottle of MFK Oud Satin Mood. I have decants of that and MFK Oud. OSM is now retired from my list. She wears it very well. I told him "he done good". It's a (good) haunting beast of a scent, but it's completely hers now.

 

[Zenwannabee]

When my wife and I married we were young and broke. I started to tell my teenage son a story about our college days the other day and he said, “Dad, I don’t want to hear again about how poor you all were…”. I assured him that wasn’t the point of the story. 😀

But anyway, just before we were married I got a small 50ml splash bottle of Chanel Pour Monsieur Concentree (long before I knew there was a difference between that and the original PM), and it traveled everywhere and around the world with us as nearly my sole toiletry for years. It made me rich when I had nothing and the smell of it even now defines luxury for me. I used it up years ago. Recently I found a fridge magnet that summed up the feeling for me, and I look at it now every morning: “The secret to having everything is believing you already do.” Cheers! 🙂

 

[Schubertian]

Armani for women is the smell of a beautiful summer holiday I spent in Kent in 1989, it was a present for the girl who hosted me, she wore it all the evenings we spent together out.....
some ten years later...
lost in my thoughts on a bus in Bergamo, in 1998: a girl passed me by triggering memories of that beautiful Kent summer, endorphins flooded my mind. Couldn't understand why..... after several seconds I realized the girl that passed me by was wearing that same scent..
⁝

Ah yes, scents can trigger such strong memories and emotions. I had a similar thing happen with Kouros: it was the scent of my high school boyfriend and I loved that scent, even though ultimately I didn't love him. For a while after we broke up, I'd get this "gut punch" whenever I smelled Kouros somewhere and look around to see if it was him. (We're talking about the late 80s so Kouros was pretty much everywhere!)

Acqua di Gió was the smell of a beautiful summer spent on a student exchange in Athens, having a wonderful time. It always took me back to Athens and those memories. Sadly, having smelled it later it was no longer the same, or I was no longer the same. So that perfume stays in the past.

Noix de Tubereuse by Miller Harris was the perfume I wore at my wedding. It was - and is - gorgeous but I can't wear it any more because of the association. Reader, I divorced him.

Poison and Obsession. Ah, I had perfume envy! When I was young people had one perfume, or a few at most. And it absolutely wasn't the thing to wear the same perfume as a close friend; that would be like buying the exact same dress, i.e. a total faux pas... and unfortunately my friends got to those perfumes first. I remember swooning over my best friend's cloud of Poison (yes, I think she wore quite a lot of it), and sneaking a clandestine sniff from my friend's splash bottle of Obsession... man, it wasn't fair. (Now I managed to get me some vintage Poison )

 

[Varanis Ridari]

Ah yes, scents can trigger such strong memories and emotions. I had a similar thing happen with Kouros: it was the scent of my high school boyfriend and I loved that scent, even though ultimately I didn't love him. For a while after we broke up, I'd get this "gut punch" whenever I smelled Kouros somewhere and look around to see if it was him. (We're talking about the late 80s so Kouros was pretty much everywhere!)

Acqua di Gió was the smell of a beautiful summer spent on a student exchange in Athens, having a wonderful time. It always took me back to Athens and those memories. Sadly, having smelled it later it was no longer the same, or I was no longer the same. So that perfume stays in the past.

Noix de Tubereuse by Miller Harris was the perfume I wore at my wedding. It was - and is - gorgeous but I can't wear it any more because of the association. Reader, I divorced him.

Poison and Obsession. Ah, I had perfume envy! When I was young people had one perfume, or a few at most. And it absolutely wasn't the thing to wear the same perfume as a close friend; that would be like buying the exact same dress, i.e. a total faux pas... and unfortunately my friends got to those perfumes first. I remember swooning over my best friend's cloud of Poison (yes, I think she wore quite a lot of it), and sneaking a clandestine sniff from my friend's splash bottle of Obsession... man, it wasn't fair. (Now I managed to get me some vintage Poison )

What did you end up settling for with Poison and Obsession off the table?

 

[ambergeese]

Not wishing to drag the mood right down, but I go out of my way to avoid this sensation tbh. I actively tried to make fragrance a 'background' thing, not something that would be highly reminiscent of a time and place; the best way to do this, I found, was signature scents rather than new/replacing/updating what I owned, which is what I did in my teens and early 20s. It all came about from a series of quite significant life changing events in the space of 18 months or so, some being really quite horrific. I found that some scents had fused themselves to memories, feelings, associations etc of that time and had to get rid. I never dreamt it would take 4 years to find replacements but it has (I suppose I have indulged that search beyond necessary during covid as well tbf, and also the surrounding culture and so on has been far more interesting than I ever thought it could be). Perhaps the end point will be going fragrance free! 😅

I've been quite cautious of this as well, always rotating samples and never settling into a signature, in part because I'm afraid of this. I'm never sure whether there's something inherently a little sad about the feeling of nostalgia because a time is irrevocably gone, or if all the times I look back on in my life were simply kind of sad.

In that way, I've been pleasantly surprised. Maybe it just takes a while for things to go really sad on me, and it's too early to tell, but the fragrances I've tried over the last few years somehow don't bring me back in a way that's miserable. When I smell something I wore a lot a year ago, for instance, it brings me back in a way that makes me smile. I want to wear it again. When I smell the specific essential oils, lip balms, proto-perfumes I wore in middle and high school, it always feels quite melancholic, like hearing radio pop songs from that era.

But now, smelling things I wore intensely for a time a few months or years ago, it's no longer quite so sad. It brings me back to a specific time in a way that's a little jarring and uncomfortable, yes, but it feels... sweet. Not downright unbearably sad.

Here's to no longer being incredibly clinically depressed! 🥳

 

[StylinLA]

In my early Basenotes days, I was looking for something that smelled "just like" Clive Christian X for Men but didn't cost a vital organ. Never found anything close so sucked it up and bought the real deal. Proudly wearing it one night, stopped in a Pinkberrys for a froyo. I knew the young women who worked there since I went there a lot. They asked what scent I was wearing:

"X for Men," I replied beaming with Basenoter pride for money well spent...
"Ohhhh Axe," came the reply, "Those are really good."

 

[grant]

In my early Basenotes days, I was looking for something that smelled "just like" Clive Christian X for Men but didn't cost a vital organ. Never found anything close so sucked it up and bought the real deal. Proudly wearing it one night, stopped in a Pinkberrys for a froyo. I knew the young women who worked there since I went there a lot. They asked what scent I was wearing:

"X for Men," I replied beaming with Basenoter pride for money well spent...
"Ohhhh Axe," came the reply, "Those are really good."

Oh this is golden!

 

[Varanis Ridari]

In my early Basenotes days, I was looking for something that smelled "just like" Clive Christian X for Men but didn't cost a vital organ. Never found anything close so sucked it up and bought the real deal. Proudly wearing it one night, stopped in a Pinkberrys for a froyo. I knew the young women who worked there since I went there a lot. They asked what scent I was wearing:

"X for Men," I replied beaming with Basenoter pride for money well spent...
"Ohhhh Axe," came the reply, "Those are really good."

X-Men: Fragrance Apocalypse

 

[LeChypreSexy]

In my early Basenotes days, I was looking for something that smelled "just like" Clive Christian X for Men but didn't cost a vital organ. Never found anything close so sucked it up and bought the real deal. Proudly wearing it one night, stopped in a Pinkberrys for a froyo. I knew the young women who worked there since I went there a lot. They asked what scent I was wearing:

"X for Men," I replied beaming with Basenoter pride for money well spent...
"Ohhhh Axe," came the reply, "Those are really good."

I love it! There is a lesson here.

 

[Schubertian]

What did you end up settling for with Poison and Obsession off the table?

Oh, I just haven't found a good bottle of Obsession yet! Still looking...

 

[mrcologneguy]

I've mentioned this many times on BN: Vintage Tabarome is my secret weapon for power business.

In my line of work I am frequently required to make presentations, often involving large sums of money. Like many of us, I have a fair streak of "imposter syndrome'" running through me. It's natural to be apprehensive going into situations like that.

A grand trick I discovered years ago: two quick sprays of Vintage Tabarome prior to the presentation, and it's like I have an invisible force field around me.

I'm not even sure if anyone can smell it on me. No one has ever said, "Wow, what a great fragrance" when I'm dressed for success and wearing VT. Nonetheless, I sometimes detect my clients and coworkers leaning in a little. Are they catching a whiff of VT? Hard to tell. But that little extra confidence boost -- "Ha ha, I am wearing one of the world's finest fragrances!" -- really goes a long way.

There are no doubt many other fragrance talismans out there. Vintage Tabarome isn't the only magic fragrance bullet. Sure works for me, though.

 

[Varanis Ridari]

I've mentioned this many times on BN: Vintage Tabarome is my secret weapon for power business.

In my line of work I am frequently required to make presentations, often involving large sums of money. Like many of us, I have a fair streak of "imposter syndrome'" running through me. It's natural to be apprehensive going into situations like that.

A grand trick I discovered years ago: two quick sprays of Vintage Tabarome prior to the presentation, and it's like I have an invisible force field around me.

I'm not even sure if anyone can smell it on me. No one has ever said, "Wow, what a great fragrance" when I'm dressed for success and wearing VT. Nonetheless, I sometimes detect my clients and coworkers leaning in a little. Are they catching a whiff of VT? Hard to tell. But that little extra confidence boost -- "Ha ha, I am wearing one of the world's finest fragrances!" -- really goes a long way.

There are no doubt many other fragrance talismans out there. Vintage Tabarome isn't the only magic fragrance bullet. Sure works for me, though.

I like the terms "fragrance talisman" and may borrow that. Really cool story.

 

[Brooks Otterlake]

I rarely get compliments regarding the fragrances I wear (or even acknowledgment that I'm wearing fragrance).

But a few years ago, there was one day when I wore a generous application of the original formulation of Michael for Men by Michael Kors (just to extend longevity - it's not really a loud fragrance beyond that initial hour), and as I was checking out at the grocery store, the clerk exclaimed loudly, "You smell so good!"

That moment is now what comes to mind whenever I reach for that bottle.

 

[StylinLA]

I've mentioned this many times on BN: Vintage Tabarome is my secret weapon for power business.

There are no doubt many other fragrance talismans out there. Vintage Tabarome isn't the only magic fragrance bullet. Sure works for me, though.

Love it. I've never figured out when to wear Vintage Tabarome. That's a good use of it.

 

[Varanis Ridari]

I'm seeing a few stories of compliments, which is fine because there's no wrong answer; but I don't want folks thinking this is specifically a compliments thread either, so here is another story:

So my brother used to keep a bottle of Preferred Stock in his downstairs medicine chest, which is where I learned of the stuff. It was a splash, and I used to sneak bits of it when I was a kid because it was so different (and to me as a kid) more interesting than all the Mennen my dad had and Avon my mom had.

He took notice eventually and gave me an old bottle of Wild Country in the shape of a Baltimore Bullets (old basketball team) trophy, as he had been given several, and told me to use that. This of course became my first bottle of fragrance, then I was gifted more later.

 

[Brooks Otterlake]

When I was a young child, my grandfather would visit and stay with us for weeks at a time.

He wore Brut in the plastic splash bottles. I was fascinated by them and he'd let me wear some. I thought it was fun to splash it on and feel sophisticated.

When he left to return home, he gave me his bottle. This was the first fragrance I ever owned.