Scientists are just starting to unravel the mystery of how human beings perceive smells. It's a complicated process we understand only incompletely. However, one thing is clear. Smells can evoke distant, even nearly forgotten memories. All of us know what it is like to catch a whiff of a certain smell and be instantly transported back in time to another place and situation. Smells can be emotional, too. The great French writer Marcel Proust wrote a multi-volume novel called Remembrance of Things Past about the vast panorama of a long life, all brought on by the unexpected smell of a French pastry emerging fresh and hot from an oven. Older women, in particular, have probably had the opportunity to experience a lot of different fragrances. The world of perfume mirrors the world of fashion at times, in that certain things seem to come into and go out of fashion rather rapidly while a few, a very few, items become timeless classics. Despite the faddishness of the perfume world, there are still some scents that seem almost timeless. I like to put Chanel No. 5 in that category. First introduced in 1923, this venerable perfume is still well liked even by modern celebrities. The newest celebrity spokesperson for the line is Nicole Kidman. Youth Dew, which came out in the 1950s, is still a classic but it tends to be regarded as more "dated." It's a rich, powerful, Oriental scent that is-as an overall style-a bit heavy for today's tastes which favor light, fruity, on-the-go kind of fragrances. In the world of perfume, even surviving a decade can put you in the near-classic category like Tresor by Lancome (1990), Obsession and Eternity by Calvin Klein, and Happy by Clinique. If you want to give your mother perfume this Mother's Day you have two main strategies. You can select one of many new fragrances on the market (which is a good idea if your mom likes to try new things or if you happen to know she likes a particular new perfume) or you can go with the classics. Sometimes a favorite is off the market. That happened with an outstanding scent known as Evening in Paris. Created by Ernst Breaux (the "nose" behind Chanel No. 5), this was a wildly popular fragrance in a zippy blue bottle available in the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s. Its fragrance resembles Chanel No. 5: it's a sparkling adelhyde type floral. But anyone shopping the perfume counters in the U.S. after 1990 could not have found a trace of Evening in Paris. Even if you asked for it, most sales people would not have even heard of it. Then it came back. It's available in the most unusual of locations: The Vermont Country Store (http://www.vermontcountrystore.com). This catalog typically features country and New England items, not fine fragrance. But this particular retro-scent had a large and vocal fan base and enough requests came in that the company started to track it down. It turns out Evening in Paris is still manufactured, but in France. They imported it and it's back. The Vermont Country Store also offers other nostalgic fragrances including Tigress and Tweed and some Yardley products. It gets more difficult when a retro-scent is no longer manufactured. In those cases, you can't even turn to hoarders because perfume (unlike wine) tends to decay with age. So how do you find a retro-scent that your mom liked way-back-when? The best search method is the most obvious: Google the perfume name (and possibly some variations) to see if anyone has it. There are many large warehouse type perfume sites that have a little bit of everything. More obscure fragrances may be available on their own site. However, be aware that some retro-scents are just flat out no longer available. If that's the case, you can go to a perfume website or blog (check out the links at www.theperfume-reporter.com) and ask other perfume lovers. If a scent is no longer available but people know about it, you can get a description. From that description, a knowledgeable sales clerk or perfume friend (go to the websites) can recommend similar type scents. For instance, if you know your mom's favorite scent was what they call a woody floral, you can get an updated version (Safari by Ralph Lauren comes to mind). Remember, perfume is much more than perfume today. Fragrance is now included in body creams, lotions, and shower gels as well as soaps and bath products. If your mom has always worn spray-on fragrance, stick to an eau-de-parfum or cologne (the eau-de-parfum is stronger and will cost more). If your mom is getting more streamlined these days, a shower gel and fragrant lotion may fit the bill better. Dry skin does better with rich creams and lotions. In fact, spray-on fragrance doesn't last long at all on dry skin so a cream plus a spray-on is a good deal. Copyright (c) 2007 Joanna McLaughlin
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