‘Perfumes hold memories,’ Lily said, spraying the newly launched Fame in Love on the blotter. ‘I love this saying.’
‘Like Vera Wang Princess,’ Emily picked up. ‘It reminds me of my teenage years. My mum would gift it to me for Christmas.’
I just returned from my weekend in Aviemore and felt relaxed and happy, eager to try all the new launches. Aviemore was my first home in Scotland, and I loved to go back from time to time to be closer to nature and the mountains.
That evening, I was scrolling through Instagram reels before bed, and saw one about perfumes that smelled ‘ethereal and magical’. Guerlain Mitsouko was one of them. A golden bottle with an inverted heart lid. The name meant ‘mystery’. I went on to check the notes, and it had so many listed: citruses in the top notes, florals and fruits in the middle, and woods, spices, and even oakmoss in the base. ‘What does the oakmoss even smell like?’ I wondered.
As it usually went, I got obsessed with that perfume, wishing to get a sample of it. But it was not easy. The perfume was an old one, first launched in 1919, so I could not find a tester in any standard shop. At last, I gave up and ordered the bottle. The box was minimalistic, with a black circle and golden ‘Mitsouko’ printing in the middle of it. Someone wrote in the review section that this perfume smelled like sorrow. It was launched just after the Great War, and was inspired by a story of an impossible love between Mitsouko, the wife of Japanese Admiral Togo, and a British officer.
The bottle was cold. I traced the decorative flourishes around the shoulders of the bottle, admiring the design. The inverted heart stopper sat there at the top, like a carved rooftop of a Japanese castle or a temple. I took off the lid, which fit comfortably in my hand, and sprayed the perfume on my left wrist. The powerful florals took off immediately. I closed my eyes, imagining myself standing in a spring garden. And then, within a few minutes, the scent changed. I was no longer in a spring garden, surrounded by flowers and a gentle breeze, but near a small loch, Puladdern, just across the road from the Macdonal Resort complex in Aviemore, at the start of the Craigellachie walk, surrounded by woods and rocks, roots and stones under my feet, and breathing in a fresh, wet scent of the oakmoss. The scent of mystery and magic, and a newfound home.
Craigellachie is a nature reserve in Aviemore, with two small lochs, birchwood, and a great view of the Cairngorms. The walk can be completed in a couple of hours. It’s a beautiful place at any time of the year.
– Mariia
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