Because grandma' scents deserve a second chance.
I love powdery scents, they are my absolutely favourite. When thinking of a powdery scent, it instantly evokes the comforting memory of my grandma's perfume. Scents often prompt memories and feelings this way, a common human experience. Powdery scents offer to me a sense of comfort and familiarity, a sweet cuddle just for myself. It also is reminiscent of talcum powder and my mother's fragrance from the '80s and I feel as if I'm instantly thrown back in time, that of my happy childhood. I love scents with a classic allure, even if it is often unpopular nowadays because people tend to gravitate towards more popular scents like fruity, sexy, or musky. However, it hasn't always been like that. There were times when I used to wear Tommy Girl as a signature ... but this was many many years ago!
Vintage scents are everything to me. Especially after IFRA intervention - with their specific regulation on ingredients for allergy issues - I admit I literally stopped buying new perfumes in 2018. The entire perfume industry changed after 2014, the year those new rules on ingredients came into effect. That's why I collect vintage and discontinued jams. They are the real deal if you love perfumes like I do.
Youth Dew by Estée Lauder was my grandma' signature perfume. Oh God, I still remember the mesmerising and alluring powdery trail she left behind when she walked around.
At that time, neither my granny nor Estée Lauder knew that the creation of this scent changed the course of fragrance history. In fact, until the 50s, women mostly reserved fragrance for high days, holidays and birthdays. Buying perfume online hasn’t always been the way of the world. Quite the opposite. A gift of perfume, rather, was not something women even bought for themselves in the 1950s.
Perfume was gifted from a lover or husband, but Estée Lauder had a brainwave by creating a bath oil that doubled as a perfume. Women loved the groundbreaking opulence of the rich floral, deep senses and dark wood notes. What they loved more, however, was the opportunity it gave them. Disguised as a bath oil, women were finally able to buy a perfume for themselves, a task not previously in reach of women within that era. While you may consider Estée Lauder’s Youth Dew an older scent, there is no denying that is changed the world of perfume like never before.
‘Back then, a woman waited for her husband to give her perfume on her birthday or anniversary. No woman purchased fragrance for herself. So I decided I wouldn’t call my new launch “perfume”. I’d call it Youth Dew.’
- Estée Lauder, 1953
It took the industry by storm, as did the advertisement, which depicted the risqué, though tastefully blurred, profile of a nude woman. Estée would later sell Youth-Dew by the gallon to fans like Gloria Swanson, Dolores Del Rio, and Joan Crawford, who claimed the intoxicating aroma helped her snare her fourth husband.
"No one ever became a success without taking chances… One must be able to recognizse the moment and seize it without delay."
- Estée Lauder
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