Scent, Memory, and the Perfumes That Made Me

Millennials will recognize these scents with a single sniff.

One of my favorite beauty facts is that scent and memory are directly linked.

It’s why a whiff of Abercrombie & Fitch Fierce can mentally transport you to a mall date with your best friend circa 2004, and why certain fragrances instantly make you think of your favorite people (to this day, I use Dove Cucumber Melon Body Wash because it reminds me of my mom). Your brain is wired to connect scent and memory in a way that no other sense can, which means your very own emotional time machine is just a quick sniff away.

When you breathe in a scent, it travels directly to the olfactory bulb, which processes smells. That bulb has a direct link to the amygdala (which controls emotions) and the hippocampus (which stores memories). Unlike sound or touch, which go through multiple processing centers before evoking a reaction, scent takes a shortcut straight to the part of your brain that makes you feel something.

Which is why certain perfumes hold a very special place in my heart—and the hearts of many other Millennial women, too.

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Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue

It feels completely appropriate that I was gifted my first-ever bottle of grown-up perfume on the day I officially became a woman: my Bat Mitzvah.

I vividly remember ripping open the package on the floor of my temple’s meeting room—whoever had given it to me (I wish I remembered!) wanted me to have it early in the day, so I could wear it to my Moulin Rouge-themed party that night.

As a newly minted 13-year-old, I was accustomed to fruity and gourmand body sprays from Bath & Body Works and Victoria’s Secret, but this was something entirely different. It was fresh, vibrant, and citrusy—adult, but fun.

I had always thought that real women wore powdery, floral fragrances like my grandmother’s Chanel No. 5, which smelled, frankly, a little old lady (sorry, Grammy!). But Light Blue embodied the kind of woman I wanted to be: someone who could be taken seriously, but didn’t take herself too seriously (and who also smelled amazing).

That night, when I came down to my candle lighting on a swing, singing Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend, drenched in D&G, I truly felt like a new version of myself.

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Narcisco Rodriguez For Her

When it was time for me to go to high school, I decided I needed a new signature scent to match my new era.

I fell in love with Narcisco Rodriguez For Her the summer before ninth grade, during a dress fitting ahead of my sister’s wedding. The musky scent was warm, commanding and just a little bit sexy, but not so much that it was weird for me to be wearing it at 14).

Sniffing it made me feel like I had elevated beyond girl I had been in middle school—the one who was still figuring out what it meant to be confident, noticed, and desired. Now, I was ready to be all three.

I wore the fragrance all through high school, and to this day, it brings back memories of a whole lot of firsts: my first real crush, my first heartbreak, my first slow dance, my first taste of independence.

Even now, when I catch a whiff of that signature velvety musk wrapped in a soft floral haze, I’m instantly sixteen again, getting ready for a school dance in my best friend’s parents’ bathroom. It smelled like possibility and excitement. And honestly? It still does.

Daisy by Marc Jacobs

Thinking back to my freshman year dorm room, what I remember most—aside from the very, very small closet overflowing with bandage skirts and platform heels—is the cloud of Daisy by Marc Jacobs that constantly filled the air.

It wasn’t just my scent; it was the scent.