Scents of the Coolsisters

More powerful than a photograph, song or madeleine, scents are what triggers the memories of the Coolsisters. Take this bottle of Lactopine Afterbath, miraculously found on ebay. Smelling it now transports us to shopping at Pogues where we first bought it in the early 1970's when we were most definitely a lot more carefree than we are now. We've been devoted to Jean Nate (we still keep a bottle in fridge for a summer splash, and Canoe (our first taste of wearing a man's scent). We digress, but our husbro (that's husband/brother-in-law) once created a lovely lavender-colored wax egg dipped in Canoe as a courting gift. Our father's mother, much like us, had several scents on her mirrored tray: Cabochard, Ma Griffe, Jessica McClintock - she feels close by if we happen to catch the scent of one of those. One of C-sisters wears Chanel 5 during Christmas week so that every time we come across it, we remember wonderful holiday memories. Then there is the long-gone orange and cedar Bigarde, the one-and-only bottle of Shalimar (that came with 2 George Jensen champagne flutes, and a bottle of Pierre Jouet...probably another story), the Je Reviens worn working at the Florida shore, the heady Bal a Versailles during a magical California summer, the transporting Fracas, Tresor, worn during that time when our dad was so sick and can never be worn again, the Chanel Cristelle worn on that first trip to Paris, the Eau de Rochas we picked up there, the Chanel 19 that we'd prefer to drink, the Issey Miakye, the Guerlain Imperiale, and more recently the incredible Jo Malones. And so many more. We cannot wander by a perfume counter at any store - highbrow or low - without being intensely connected to our past. How cool.