Blast from the Past: Sunflowers Perfume, or Why Scarlett O'Hara was a Terrible Role Model

I was clipping coupons from the CVS circular in the Sunday paper when I stumbled upon an advertisement for Elizabeth Arden Sunflowers perfume. Do you remember it? The cheery yellow and white logo, the sweetly pleasant scent.

I didn't even know it still existed. 

My first memories of perfume involve my mom's Liz Claiborne fragrance in the 1980s. The bottle was a yellow plastic triangle with a little section of the liquid showing through a clear window in the center. There was also a red version and a blue one. Very eighties. 

My first bottle of perfume was a tiny vial of Elizabeth Arden Red Door, a Christmas gift when I was about 10. I felt so fancy and I tried to ration it out so it would last a long time. Then Elizabeth Arden Sunflowers hit the market and I became a fan overnight (along with nearly every other girl my age who lived in my small hometown).

Once, during high school, my bff and I were driving around town in her car, smoking Marlboro Lights and pretending to be much cooler than we actually were. All of a sudden I realized I was supposed to meet up with my family soon and I DID NOT want them to know I had been smoking. My friend happened to have a bottle of Sunflowers perfume in her console so we sprayed it all over ourselves in an attempt to mask the lingering smoke smell.  

Then I started to worry that someone might smell cigarettes on my breath. In a moment of sheer genius, I remembered the scene from Gone with the Wind when Scarlett, in mourning over Frank Kennedy, has been imbibing Brandy a bit too much and Rhett shows up at her house unannounced. If you've seen the film, you know where this is going. She gargles cologne to mask the brandy smell. 

If it worked to mask alcohol, I thought, why couldn't the same thing work to cover cigarette smoke? Before any sort of common sense I might have had kicked in, I opened my mouth and pumped a couple of squirts of Elizabeth Arden Sunflowers into it. 

Sweet lord Jesus it was the nastiest tasting thing ever. As good as Sunflowers smells, it tastes equally as bad...maybe worse. Not one of my finest moments. 

But seeing that ad in the paper yesterday reminded me of that memory and gave me a chuckle. I was never much of a smoker, but I guess we all do things as teenagers trying to be cool or appear grown up. 

Did you have a signature fragrance during your coming of age years? 

New Traditions for an Old Favorite

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday. It’s the one I want to really celebrate and enjoy…and yet it somehow always gets swept up in the madness of Christmas. I want to add some extra little traditions to Thanksgiving this year, things that we can enjoy and look forward to again and again. What about giving your special somebodies a little Thanksgiving gift?

The artwork above is available from Bluebird Goods for $15 (Facebook fans get a discount too!). I’m thinking of ordering it as a possible hostess gift. Another fun way to enjoy the spirit of Thanksgiving is by sending out “I’m thankful for you” cards. They could be bought or some that you make yourself. Even an email if it was personalized…just to say thanks to someone who makes your life better.

 

If you are a fan of SBS on Facebook, you might have heard me raving about these darling little votive candles that came in the mail the other day. I bought them with the intent to give them away, but I think I’ll have to place another order. The hand-poured soy votives are from Not Too Shabby, a lovely gift shop in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. My favorite fragrance is “marine” and Lisa (the shop’s owner) sold me on it when she likened the scent to “the best smelling man you’ve ever smelled.” Coincidence that the southern beau was, in fact, a U.S. Marine? I think not.

I know this stuff might seem trivial, but how special does it feel when somebody shows up out of the blue with a little happy present for you? If nobody has ever done that for you, send me your address! Life is short and it doesn’t take much to brighten someone’s day. I’m trying to get as much out of this season as possible…and looking forward to celebrating with you along the way!

My smelling salts!

  

Coco Chanel once said that "fragrance is the unseen, but unforgettable aspect of fashion." I might not have heard that quote as a child, but I definitely believed the sentiment behind it. For as long as I can remember, I've always loved perfume. When I was really little, I would spend lots of time admiring the beautiful bottles that sat on a mirror on my grandmother's dresser. Lining them up by height, smelling each one and carefully replacing the lid gave me much amusement. Before I knew anything about design, I understood that bottle looked different according to what was inside. At one point my mom wore Liz Claiborne and the bottle was a bright yellow triangle with the perfume in the center. 

My fragrance of choice, which  I pined over for months, was Elizabeth Arden Red Door. All my asking paid off at Christmas that year when I was given a tiny (seriously the size of an acorn) bottle of the golden liquid inside a ball of green tissue paper. My life was complete. I was eight. At the time it seemed perfectly normal to me to desire such a gift. Twenty years later, I think Elizabeth Arden perfume is sort of a bizarre present for a little kid to want, but I was an old soul. My loyalty to Elizabeth Arden stayed true. When she released a new fragrance, I had to have it too. I was a devoted wearer of Sunflowers, then True Love. This was around the same time as the unisex perfume movement (Calvin Klein’s CK1) and I never got on that bandwagon. Why wear something ‘youthful’ when I could be classic?

Since then, my perfume collection has grown. I don’t have a signature scent, just lots of fragrances that I like and wear depending on my mood. There’s Gucci Rush (a spicy scent that reminds of a trip to Chicago), Marc Jacobs (the bottle design won me over, but it smells good), Chanel’s Coco Mademoiselle (a treasured gift from a beloved friend), and on and on. But the other day I was scouring the clearance bins in the Cosmetics department at Target and ran across this cute little box. Elizabeth Arden Mediterranean. I’d never even heard of it. It made me smile because my 8 year-old self would have wanted it too. So I bought it, scent un-smelled. It was on clearance after all.  I couldn’t wait to add that blue bottle to my collection. It’s nice to have Elizabeth back in the mix…I mean, we have been friends for 20 years. 

Do you have a signature scent or a new favorite fragrance? Maybe it is yummy-smelling soap that you prefer. Or even a great lotion. Please share! 

Something is familiar...candle deja vu

I just love unique little local shops that offer a certain special experience for the shopper. When you walk in, somebody stops what he/she is doing and greets you. There might be a little plate of cookies and a coffee pot or a tea carafe for you to help yourself to. And always a wonderful smell that floats in the air and makes for a much pleasanter experience. If you couldn't tell, smells are big with me. I can't help it. So anyway, in one particular shop that I visited recently, as soon as I walked in the door, this delicious warm vanilla scent overtook us and I had to find its source. It was a big-ish jar candle with a cute green label claiming it was created locally (Maryville, TN). I think it was around $20 and I seriously was considering buying it so I could take this smell home with me (you know this is big because I'm cheap), but upon closer inspection of the label, I thought to myself: "I've seen this before...I have this candle!" Sure enough, when I got home I found a brand new version of the exact same scented candle that I had loved so much in the store. Of course mine had a $1 price tag, as in yard sale price tag. Why would somebody sell a great (great smelling too) candle such as this at a yard sale? Maybe only so I could buy it and save $19 to spend at another yard sale. I don't know. But now my house smells like warm vanilla (Creme Brulee to be exact) and I can get that same invited feeling everytime I go home at the end the day. Apparently these candles can be sold as some type of fundraising thing and would seem to have a pretty good appeal. www.laurelmountaincandles.com is the website and there are tons of other scents in case warm vanilla heaven isn't your thing.

Southern hospitality never smelled so good!

Lately, I have been discovering some really neat hidden gems in the way of thrift stores. The reason these gems are such an untapped resource? I think some people may be afraid to step foot inside, but I say never judge a book or a store by its appearance. And what does it hurt to have a look?...nothing is lost anyway. Two of the treasures I found recently were at a little shop aptly named "Thrift Store." I found these great candles (brand new) for $5! They are from the Harry Slatkin collection for Bath & Body Works. I love the pineapple shapes and they are big enough (almost a foot tall) to make an impact. They are so bright and clean and both smell really yummy. One retails for $40 and the other for $20 so needless to say, I probably would have passed them up at b&bw. but $5 is just up my alley. Yay candles and yay for being adventurous!

More Candles for a steal

Among the weekend's yard sale treasures were some great boutique candles (one of my current obsessions) for cheapity-cheap. First, a still-in-the-box Capri Blue candle by Aspen Bay. The one I got smells of Peeled Navel Orange and it is heavenly. It is the perfect bedroom candle because it is fresh and light, just the right scent to mingle with the heat of summertime. These retail at Anthropologie for around $18 and I got mine for .50 cents! yay! Next, this Yankee Candle in the largest size (retail $24.99, yard sale $1). double yay! These might not be considered 'boutique' because they are so mainstream, but I say costing twenty-five dollars bumps it into that category. This one smells just like fresh tulips. I'm so glad the recession hasn't impaired my need to surround myself with good smells...even if some people think a candle is a generic gift. From me to me, I'm always happy to get one!