Beauty / 15.12.2016

Team Healthy: our life in perfumes

By Healthy Magazine
The average woman buys 10 in a lifetime

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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

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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

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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

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‘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

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‘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

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‘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

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‘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

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‘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

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‘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

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‘I think I liked the fresh scent, which didn’t feel too girlie, and the tall, sophisticated bottle.’

Obsession by Calvin Klein

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‘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

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‘The classic every woman should have, supposedly.’

Vintage Gardenia – Jo Malone

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‘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

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‘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

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‘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

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‘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

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‘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

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‘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

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‘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!’

 

Joanna Levitas, art director

Jean Paul Gaultier – Classique

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‘The one everyone had at school, I think it had something to do with the bottle being a bit naughty! Over-spraying has put me off this strong-smelling scent for life.’
 

Alien – Thierry Mugler 

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‘Whilst most of my friends doused in super-sweet ‘Angel’ I went for’Alien’ instead; it took me ages to save for it, but it made me feel grown-up.’

 

Vivienne Westwood – Boudoir 

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‘My boyfriend, now husband, bought me this when we first started dating in our late teens and it just smelled so beautiful and romantic without being sickly sweet.’

Issey Miyake – L’eau D’Issey

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‘Who hasn’t had this at some point? Easy to wear, affordable and light.’

 

Sarah Jessica Parker – Lovely

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‘This was a gift from my Mum and I was a bit against it at first due to i’s celebrity attachment, but it really is lovely! A mix of fruity and lavender notes, very easy to wear.’
 

Calvin Klein – Eternity Moment

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‘I bought this on a whim once as it was on an amazing offer but now I love it for work; always great value and lovely and fresh for the daytime.’
 

Narciso Rodriguez For Her

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‘Another gift from my husband, I got a sense he likes deep, romantic and not sweet smells, there is something very sexy with the rose and patchouli in this.’

 

Tom Ford – Black Orchid

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‘An investment perfume I save for special occasions, its rich fruit and woodiness is yummy!’

 

Stella – Stella McCartney 

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‘I think there’s a theme here – it’s a dark, rich scent – filled with rose and amber. It smells exotic, sensual and lasts so well.’
 

Jo Malone – Mimosa & Cardamom AND Rosewood & Oud

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‘Mimosa I was given as a gift for being a bridesmaid this year and I loved how fresh and zingy it is, it didn’t last long; however, its scent stayed strong all day. I was then given the Rosewood cologne to wear on my wedding day by my lovely colleagues and it brings the most wonderful memories flooding back when I wear it, it’s just so ‘pretty’ and earthy.’
Learn more about the new generation of ‘dirty’ fragrances in the latest healthy magazine, on sale December 17.
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Team Healthy: our life in perfumes
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Team Healthy: our life in perfumes
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What was your favourite perfume growing up? Team Healthy reveals the perfumes that punctuated our lifetimes. Find them out here.
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Healthy
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