<p>I really admire people who are loyal to a fragrance all their life. It&#39;s pretty incredible when you think about it: They&#39;ve found their one and only, and forsaking all others, choose to wear the same fragrance every day for the rest of their lives. It&#39;s like they&#39;ve found their soul mate - and that&#39;s always an admirable accomplishment.</p>

<p>I don&#39;t have a signature scent myself.</p>

<p><img alt="Benetton_colors_2" border="0" class="at-xid-6a00d8341db04e53ef01310fa39f2b970c" src="http://everydaytreats.frogandsnail.com/wp-content/uploads/6a00d8341db04e53ef01310fa39f2b970c-pi.jpg" style="margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px; float: right;" title="Benetton_colors_2" />
I wonder if I should. After all, I know the power of scent: There are a few scents that remind me of people I love, and since some of those people aren&#39;t in my life anymore a trip to a department store brings back memories as reliably as rereading old letters or diary entries. <a href="http://www.perfumespedia.com/files/image/pics%20from%20description/benetton_colors.jpg">Colors by Benetton</a>, for instance, reminds me of my best friend in elementary school - of sleepovers and Seventeen magazine and slambooks and making papier-mache volcanoes. <a href="http://www.dutyfreeperfume.co.uk/dfp/images/product/large/Must%20large.jpg">Must de Cartier</a> reminds me of my mom getting ready for a night out. I still think it&#39;s an unbelievably sophisticated scent, and I don&#39;t dare wear it myself. Another childhood scent is <a href="http://images.glow.com/catalog/500547/300x300/11175.jpg"><em>L&#39;Air du Temps</em></a> – that one is all innocence – and it was the only one I was allowed to spritz on on special occasions. I can&#39;t help but laugh when I smell <a href="http://www.4-fragrances.com/men/drakkar-m.jpg">Drakkar Noir</a> on someone because it reminds me of every single boy in Jr. High. </p>

<p><a href="http://diary.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/02/25/11175.jpg"><img alt="11175" border="0" class="at-xid-6a00d8341db04e53ef01310fa39f38970c" height="200" src="http://everydaytreats.frogandsnail.com/wp-content/uploads/6a00d8341db04e53ef01310fa39f38970c-pi.jpg" style="margin: 0px 5px 5px 0px; float: left;" title="11175" width="200" /></a>
My first perfume was <a href="http://img.kelkoo.com/pdb/34001/large/10/35/35/10353564.jpg">Fidji</a> – my father brought it for me as a gift from a business trip to Haiti. From there it&#39;s been a steady stream of fragrances, each of them reminding me of a discreet period in my life. Because even while I change fragrances frequently, I tend to wear the same one for months or even years at a time before moving on to something new.</p>



<p>Exhibit A: <a href="http://www.bigdiscount.com/images/products/720/7813.jpg">Bulgary Eau de Te Extreme</a> I bought it in Paris and wore when I was an exchange student in Spain. It&#39;s subtly exotic and reminds me of adventure and spontaneity.</p>

<p>I was wearing <a href="http://assets.macys.com/img/campaign/ff/angel-bottom.jpg">Angel</a> the night I met my husband. Coincidentally, chocolate is one of the basenotes of this perfume. Hmm.
<br /> </p>

<p>I bought my bottle <a href="http://www.aisledash.com/2008/02/11/the-importance-of-a-wedding-fragrance/">EnJoy</a> during the trip where my husband asked me to marry him and every time I wear it I feel like a newlywed. I always wear it on our anniversary, of course.</p>

<p><a href="http://diary.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/02/25/thierry_mugler_angel_2.jpg"><img alt="Thierry_mugler_angel_2" border="0" class="at-xid-6a00d8341db04e53ef01310fa39f41970c" height="149" src="http://everydaytreats.frogandsnail.com/wp-content/uploads/6a00d8341db04e53ef01310fa39f41970c-pi.jpg" style="margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px; float: right;" title="Thierry_mugler_angel_2" width="100" /></a>
I stopped wearing perfume once I started having kids. It was just one more thing to do in the mornings, not to mention another expense, so for the past three years I&#39;ve mostly smelled like cheerios and Play-Doh. </p>

<p>A few weeks ago, I decided it was time I found a new scent.</p>

<p>It wasn&#39;t an easy quest. I&#39;d steal off for a few minutes whenever I was near a Sephora or a perfume counter and sprayed my wrists with fragrances old and new. Many were plain irritating, and a few of them literally made me ill to my stomach. As determined as I was to fall in love with a scent, it is not something that you can do at will - it has to happen on its own. </p>

<p>The other day I was looking for shoes (nothing glamorous, I just needed something to keep my ankles warm while running errands. I thought maybe I could pull off Uggs, but I couldn&#39;t bear to buy shoes that ugly ON PURPOSE) and on the way out of the store, pushing my double stroller and angry because I had dragged the kids around all morning and I was still empty-handed, my eye was distracted by a something shiny and sparkly on the perfume counter. There were all sorts of pretty bottles filled with promising liquids, and I don&#39;t know why, but I went straight to the cluster of identical Annick Goutal bottles and picked one out at random. I spritzed it on my wrist, gave it a minute, and with pulse racing, I took a sniff.</p>

<p>Lovely.</p>

<p> It was powdery and mangoish - smelling like what a tropical spring might smell like if there was such a thing as spring in the tropics.</p>

<p>When the saleslady came to see if I needed help, I told her I wanted a bottle of whatever it was I had just sprayed. It was only then that I learned the name of the fragrance I had fallen in love with -&#0160; <a href="http://www.annickgoutal.nl/en/fragrances/folavril.html">Folavril</a> - Annick Goutal&#39;s first creation, the beginning of her fragrance empire.</p>

<p>I wonder if it heralds a new beginning for me as well.</p>

<p><img alt="21drbgfynl_aa160_" border="0" class="at-xid-6a00d8341db04e53ef01310fa39f67970c" src="http://everydaytreats.frogandsnail.com/wp-content/uploads/6a00d8341db04e53ef01310fa39f67970c-pi.jpg" title="21drbgfynl_aa160_" />


<br /> </p>
