Inspired by the Scents of Attraction feature in the latest issue of healthy, four team members have rounded up the perfumes they’ve loved throughout their lifetime:
Ellie Hughes, editorial director
Opium – Yves Saint Laurent
This was probably the first perfume I was aware of, coveting the exotic dark-red bottle on my mum’s dressing room table. This was before the Sophie-Dahl-in-the-nude ad campaign modernised the scent, so at the time, stealing a spritz, it felt very grown-up to me and slightly scarily sexy.
Body Shop White Musk
My signature scent for my teenage years – the heyday of Body Shop. Looking back I realize that even then I wasn’t really one for overly-sweet floral or fruity perfumes. I liked pairing it with their Vitamin E body cream and a fake Katherine Hamnett-style slogan tee before hitting the library.
Issy Miyake L’Eau D’Issey
‘I see I’m not the only one on the Healthy team who was drawn to this sleek pyramid bottle back in the 1990s. Apparently Issey Miyake wanted to create a ‘perfume as clear as spring water’ – it felt very cool and modern to me, in those minimalist 1990s, with that slightly quirky Japanese feel, and I always liked to think of it as slightly more edgy than Calvin Klein One, the other perfume megabrand of the day.’
Jo Malone Wild Fig and Cassis
‘I worked my way through several bottles of this as a ‘proper’ adult. I love that the green fig is very grassy and fresh, yet there’s a more complex musky, cedary dry down. I never get bored of it. Fig is still one of my absolute favourite scents and a take on fig is still the scented candle variety you’ll most often find in my home.’
Escentric Molecules Molecule 01
‘This has been my signature scent for a good few years now and remains the one I regularly get the most compliments about, bar none. My other half even likes it so much he got his own bottle (after nicking mine a few times – it’s unisex). I’m not actually that mad on the bottle, but I do love the scent, and the fact that it is just so hard to describe. It often gets called a popular cult classic, which feels like a bit of a contradiction in terms, but I have asked for a new bottle this Christmas in the hope that it doesn’t get too popular.’
One Direction Our Moment
‘Not mine, I hasten to add, but my teenage daughter’s. This sweet floral smell is what hits me as I pass outside her bedroom door first thing in the morning (winningly combined with her Zoella room fragrance). It is incredibly sickly sweet (it comes in a candy-pink bottle with a little crown thing), but of course I love it because it reminds me of her.’
Cheryl, senior sub-editor
The Body Shop Fuzzy Peach
‘My first venture into the heady world of perfume (I have a feeling I’m not alone). The smell of pick and mix and Saturday afternoons hanging round the shopping centre.’
Anais Anais – Cacharel
‘The one I and everyone I know had as a teenager. Floral, feminine and, um, cheap (in price, that is).’
Issy Miyake L’Eau d’Issey
‘I think I liked the fresh scent, which didn’t feel too girlie, and the tall, sophisticated bottle.’
Obsession by Calvin Klein
‘Heady and dark, I went through a phase of loving this, after getting it as a gift. Not sure about those ripe-for-parody ads though…’
Chanel No 5
‘The classic every woman should have, supposedly.’
Vintage Gardenia – Jo Malone
‘Easy to wear, with a vintage-style bottle. Though sadly didn’t seem to last very long on my skin.’
Francesca Specter, editorial assistant
Cool – Ralph Lauren
‘The first perfume I ever bought: a fruit cocktail of kiwi, watermelon and cucumber worn by just about everyone at my high school, often sprayed on the collar of a requisite Ralph Lauren polo shirt.’
Fantasy – Britney Spears
‘An insipidly sweet perfume that was, once again, a popular choice among my school friends and I. Celebrity fragrances were all the rage at the time, and everyone was so excited to smell like Britney.’
Dolly Girl – Anna Sui
‘An 18th birthday gift from a sophisticated friend of my mother’s, Dolly Girl had pride of place on my dressing table. A little less sweet than my former perfume purchases, this was a perfume I associated with growing up.’
Coco Mademoiselle – Chanel
‘This is a classic eau de parfum with citrus, wake-me-up notes. A glamorous, sophisticated scent I wore throughout university, probably to compensate for the fact I spent most of the three years dressing like Kurt Cobain.’
Venetian Bergamot – Tom Ford
‘Musky and mysterious with exotic influences like ylang-ylang. I started wearing this unisex perfume during my first year of work. Smells like a garden at night.’
Scent of a Dream – Charlotte Tilbury
‘Inspired by research for a perfume feature I wrote for healthy (find it in the latest issue), I was sold by this forward-thinking fragrance, which blends musky notes with light florals. I’m addicted to the smell!’