Lola Nicholson and her Mom Snoqualmie Falls 1980  (Lola’s Fragrant Awakening was 4160Tuesdays Truth Beauty Freedom Love)

As a child the scents of home as I remember them were a potpourri of fir trees, seaweed and cigarettes. We moved a lot. Always a new school, new “friends” and sometimes new family. Each place had a distinct smell but the wafts of smoke from the cigarettes my mother smoked always followed. Winston Red Box and sometimes the aroma of Chanel No. 5. Her only perfume, the lone gold and black lacquer bottle sat on her dresser. Over the years the bottle would change and so would my mother when she put it on. I suppose I was around 10 when I began to think perfume was magic, a vehicle for transcendence. The instant mom sprayed on Chanel No. 5 she was no longer my mother as I knew her. She was sophisticated and confident. She walked with her head held a little higher and she possessed an elegance and regalness. I can only imagine whose energy she was channeling. Perhaps the faces in the Chanel No. 5 ads she had grown up with. Suzy Parker, Ali McGraw or even Marilyn Monroe.

Needless to say I wanted some of the magic too. I asked for perfume for Christmas. It was a long shot. I already knew the answer but naively asked anyway. As I grew into an awkward and rebellious teenager there were more moves and new schools. I was on my own a lot and one of my favorite past times when not getting into trouble was testing perfumes. I would go to the drug store or sometimes even the department store counter, close my eyes and spray my neck with whatever perfume happened to be within reach. I perfected this to a quick 15 second routine before the lady behind the counter had time to see me. Counting down 3, 2, 1, I was transported somewhere, anywhere but here. I could be someone, anyone but me.

Lolita Lempicka by Lola

I was 17 when I left my parents’ house, started a new job and began my first year of college. It was 1998, a year after the release of Lolita Lempicka. I remember sniffing it on a scent strip of a magazine print ad. It was insanely intoxicating. The perfect quirkiness of violet, ivy and licorice was so unlike anything I had encountered before. This was the perfume that started my love affair with fragrance. With only a few sprays Lolita Lempicka turned me into a fairy in an enchanted forest. I now possessed my own magic in what was my first bottle of perfume. It was made for me or maybe it was what I wanted to be. Either way it became my signature scent. As with most first loves it did not last long.

Over the years I had acquired a collection of perfumes and literally stumbled across niche. On my way to work a wide open parking spot led me to a niche perfumery called Tigerlily located a couple blocks from my job in San Francisco’s Mission District. It planted the seed for an obsession with not only perfume but the science behind the sense of smell and the psychophysiological response humans have to scent. After smelling things like Andy Tauer’s L’Air du Desert Marocain and Serge Lutens’ Chergui I further understood that the emotional reactions I had to perfume were very real and not “magic” the way I grew up thinking.

4160Tuesdays Truth, Beauty, Freedom Love 

I had often heard fragrance lovers describing how a scent could trigger past memories. I had never wanted to think about, much less smell the past. Even though I had smelled Chanel No 5. throughout my whole childhood it is still nothing more than a reminder, it provokes no memories. I had certainly felt connections to perfume but I had never actually experienced a true scent memory triggered until I smelled 4160Tuesdays Truth Beauty Freedom Love. 

4160Tuesdays Sarah McCartney with Lola at the studio

I was visiting London and had planned many perfumed excursions. The one I was especially excited for was a visit to the 4160Tuesdays studio. Sarah McCartney, the perfumer who was lovely and acquainted me with her many creations. I noticed something in the corner brewing. It was her latest perfume project still being filtered into a huge glass container. She dipped a blotter in and handed it to me. Something happened the moment I held it to my nose and inhaled. A surge of memories, a burst of emotion and then panic. I did my best to keep a straight face and blurted out “Can I buy this today?” To my relief she filled and labeled a bottle and with much gratitude I packed it carefully in my luggage.

4160Tuesdays Truth, Beauty, Freedom Love  photo by Lola

When I got home I let 4160Tuesdays Truth, Beauty, Freedom Love sit on the shelf. I told myself I needed to let it rest after the jostling around in my suitcase. The truth was I didn’t know if I wanted to smell it again. I mustered the courage and finally sprayed it on one day. A movie of memories began to play. I could feel the warmth of the sun on my face, the breeze swirling pieces of dry hay at my feet. It was so quiet I could hear the horses swatting their tails at the flies. I was in the country, a place I spent some summers with my aunt and uncle. I played below the towering trees and picked purple flowers, the sweet smell of violets and woods surrounding me. Inside the house a pastry bubbling with fruit and honey was being taken out of the oven–my uncle was an excellent baker.  4160Tuesdays Truth Beauty Freedom Love was a scented reminder of a happy time. 

So this is what it was like. All the stories I had heard of people describing the way certain scents could take them back to their childhood and now it had finally happened to me. This visceral response not only made me feel very human but gave me a deeper connection and relationship to perfume. These days I’m no longer seeking a perfumed escape. Although some fragrances still manage to take me on a journey, I enjoy sniffing in the moment and don’t mind when they make me remember the past.

—Lola  Nicholson of Lola-bella.com and video fragrance reviewer

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