If you read the previous blog (read here), I briefly discussed how scent is stored in the memory system.
In 2000, I traveled to London, England. My first time away from home and out of my home country. My first stop was in a place called Chelmsford to attend my very first weekend-long music festival in the middle of a field. During this trip, I took a bottle of Curve perfume: something quick and within reach. This would begin a tradition in my life to take a perfume with me on trips to capture the essence of the country. If I smelled that bottle of perfume now, I’d imagine I would be back in the fields of Chelmsford with echos of Beth Orton and Coldplay playing from the depths of my hippocampus.
>> Actually, strike that! There are 2 more scents that will remind me of England. Without going too deep into it: most of my luggage had been lost (aka left behind at the Pittsburgh Airport). To make-up for the airline’s issues, the airline gave me a complimentary toiletry bag filled with essentials, such as a deodorant; toothbrush and toothpaste; a razor; and a small travel-sized DKNY cologne. As an American in the middle of a field unbathed, I used A LOT of that DKNY cologne! Further, after the weekend-long concert, my lost bags and I were reunited at the Rasool Court Hotel where I had taken my first shower, after an exhaustingly long weekend in a blazing hot field, using some sort of watermelon-scented bath wash, which was a new scent for me, and leaving me feel fresh and inspired in a foreign land. Those 3 scents can catapult me back to the euphoria I felt during August of 2000 immediately. <<
My family tries to visit the shores of Giulianova once a year and always during the summer.
Italy: The land of heat and humidity where air conditioners are an insulting thought, and the spicy scent of the oleanders linger heavily.
For me, I can recall these blissful moments with one perfume and one perfume only: Giorgio Armani Si. Each night (after a day of basking in the warmth of the sun, digging my toes into the depths of the sand from its blistering top crust trying to find the coolness from below; making my way to the clear waters to swoosh and chase fish where life made every bit of sense of ease), I would finish my last preparation to leave for a long walk on the Lungomare by touching my skin with a spritz of Armani Si. Its heavenly and sharp notes of cassis, rose and freesia would hit my toasted skin and bring-about an air of something foreign and intoxicating (Explore the actual fragrance notes here).
Giorgio Armani Si is not for any other day. Giorgio Armani is for Italy only. If I want to get back to that piece of heaven on earth, I can spray the room and suddenly I’m there: mid-July, sweating profusely, and immersed in the Italian pace and sweetness of life.
And that, my friends, is how you make a memory with scent. Being intentional; being consistent; marking the moment distinctive among any other.
If a person can do this with a trip, imagine what a person can do with an event meant to instill a memory all in of itself: a personal gathering; a wedding; a ceremony.