SUNDAY CHAT #5 - What's That Smell?

SUNDAY CHAT
FIVE

WHAT'S THAT SMELL?

Hello, lovely library lions and beautiful book dragons! I had been ill since Thanksgiving. I won't go into details here, I'll wait until my bi-monthly wrap-up next week, but a little bit over a week ago I finally started feeling normal again! I managed to keep the blog semi-active with two posts a week, most of the time (there were two or three one post weeks), but... everything else bloggish suffered. Anyway, my main focus has been trying to get our apartment back in order and exercising to get my energy back. Baz was really good at keeping things basically clean, but I am a perfectionist and rooms being untidy and unorganized is the bane of my existence. Ha! I want to get back to both of my Instagram accounts, and I will, soon! I have missed you all over there. You will also be seeing a lot of easy posts like this one while I get back on my feet. Muwha!

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OLFACTORY MEMORIES

I start getting winter weary in January, but with February being so dreadfully dreary in my part of the world that's when it starts dragging on my soul. Ha ha. Besides looking at seed catalogs (a trick I learned from my mother), and adding summery foods and drink (like lemonade and potato salad) to the menu, I put on sunscreen even if I'm not leaving the house. I buy the kind with the old-fashioned scent that reminds me of beach vacations and lake side picnics in summer. So simple, but it helps lift my spirits a lot!

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Recently I read Marie Kondo's tidying book and a self-help "living in the moment" book, and both of them kept saying memories are bad because they keep you from living in the moment, but that's ridiculous because the whole being present mindset is so you are cementing experiences in your mind and making more vivid memories, instead of having a rushed existence with blurry recollections. There are so many smells that make childhood memories rush in, like Play-Doh and crayons, or maybe a favorite childhood candy. These always give me contented feelings. It's wonderful when you are stressed out.

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So I was thinking... what scents would make me feel like a teenager again?

VINTAGE SHAMPOOS

I love real lemon aromas, and this is the only shampoo I have ever found which doesn't smell fake. It can still be purchased on the Vermont County Store website, BUT IT'S $15 A BOTTLE! Yikes! Maybe I'll ask for it for Mother's Day.

This was my signature scent! It smelled of violets. I asked for the perfume and talc gift set every Christmas and birthday, and then would be very frugal with them the rest of the year. There is a copy cat for sale on the web, but a fair amount of customers say it doesn't smell like the original, although many say it does. Another common complaint is the bottles arrive leaking, so at its current price I'm not willing to take that chance, but maybe someday I will.

I was super excited back in the '90s when they announced they were going to be bringing back Herbal Essence shampoo, but none of them were this scent, and I was very sad.

I could never figure out why this was called a lotion because it was a toner. Ha ha. It had a unique herbal perfume scent to it. I wish they still made it.

When I was very young my cousin, who is ten years older than me, used to by a six pack of Dove soap which came in a decorative box like French soaps. She kept it on top of her wardrobe and when I walked into her bedroom, it smelled fresh like the soap. To me washing with Dove soap became what teenage girls were all about! Ha ha. And as soon as I became a teenager I started buying myself Dove, too. I know they still make the original scent, but the soap dries my skin out now. Maybe I should buy a bar to put in my sock drawer..

What scents would make you feel like a teenager again?

Can you still buy those products?