Number Sixty-six

The scent of woman - subtle and powerful with a hint of melancholy.  Perfume.  As Nina points out, some women choose to have a scent for every season or several different colognes to choose from because they can't pick just one.  She also points out that some women have one perfume they've been wearing since they were teenagers - a signature scent.

When I was a teenager, I wore Lauren, by Ralph Lauren.  I loved it and boy did I wear it!  I remember working in an attorney's office and he had to call me in one day to say the reason the paralegal had been out sick for two days was because of my perfume.  Bad...very bad.  I learned a lesson and toned down my perfume. I continued to wear Lauren until my mid-twenties but deep in my heart, I longed to wear something else.

When I was in junior high, my sister Charlene would have her husband and I shop together for her Christmas gifts.  I remember she always asked for Aromatics perfume by Clinique and Claire Burke Original scent for her home. To this day, those two scents are so very distinct to me and can arouse many memories. I can remember thinking, "When I grow up, I'm going to wear Aromatics and have Claire Burke potpourri in my house.

My dream finally came true.  I was 23, working at Dillards and lucked out by becoming friends and later roommates with Charlie, the Clinique counter manager.  I told her the story about my sister and how I wish I could afford Aromatics because it was the only perfume I ever wanted to wear.  One day, she came home with bottle for me.  Granted, the spray nozzle was broken, but we were resourceful.  (You would be amazed at what two working girls could do with returned and "damaged" Clinique products.)  I haven't worn any other scent since that day.  Aromatics is a very strong scent and is only available as a perfume so a little goes a long way.  Not only do I  love the scent, I love the memory it gives me.  Often I'll catch a whiff of the perfume and I'm immediately taken back to the Broadway Department store perfume counter telling my brother-in-law Tim, "This is the one she wants."  And, every year, my husband makes sure there's a bottle under the tree for me.

The scent of woman should conjure emotion, for the person wearing it and those smelling it.  Tonight, two very dear little boys, Ethan and Carson, said, "Chell, we knew is was you because we could smell you."  I asked them, "What do I smell like?" and they said, "You."  Mission accomplished.

Number Sixty-six - Perfume. Six down - ninety-four to go.