Perhaps you like Byredo or Le Labo or some
even more obscure fragrance made by a
mysterious perfumery at a disused monastery
up high in the Alps. Me, I like the scents of my
teenage years. I can’t wear them now, for fear
of offending the olfactory sensibilities of the
more sophisticated among us, but I keep
some of them on a shelf at the back of my
bathroom cabinet and spray them on
occasionally. They conjure up ghosts.
Versace the Dreamer, because a boy I long
adored covered himself in it. I found it in his
bathroom one night and bought myself a
bottle. Its strong, almost sweat-like notes
transport me back to his bedroom, where we
sat and talked late into the night, almost but
not quite kissing. L’Eau d’Issey, which came
in a tall, elegant bottle and was worn by my
teenage best mate. I still turn around in public
if I smell it, expecting him to be right there.
Acqua di Gio, which a friend gave me on
my 13th birthday and made me feel more
grown-up in that moment than I can explain.
The one smell I can’t quit is Jean Paul
Gaultier Classique. A bottle shaped like a
bombshell, amber water swelling right up to
the cleavage. My sister and I wore it for years,
making our parents bring it back from duty
free when they went on work trips. It made
me feel confident and bold, things I never
actually was as a teenager. When I spray it
now, I am 15 at a house party, in a scrum of
bodies and overwhelmed with the newness
of late nights. I am 18 at a nightclub, dancing
with girlfriends on a table. As an adult I
rotate perfume based on my mood, but
nothing comes close to the ceremony and
thrill that the scents of old conjure up. They
will stay in my cabinet until they evaporate.What I wear really depends on my mood.
I prefer a different fragrance in the daytime
to the night-time, and my current favourite
to spritz on in the morning is Love, Don’t Be
Shy by Kilian. Someone once told me that
Rihanna wears it, so I had to try it and I
completely fell in love with it. It’s really fresh
but at the same time it makes me feel sexy.
At night, it’s A la Rose by Maison Francis
Kurkdjian. My husband, Idris, bought it for me
as a random gift early on in our relationship,
so I knew he liked it and I thought, OK, this is
how he wants me to smell. It combines floral
and musk really well. So every night,
especially a date night, I douse myself in it.
I wore it on the day I married him too, and
also spritzed some Charlotte Tilbury Scent of
a Dream over the top — Charlotte did my
wedding make-up, so it was like an extra layer.
Sometimes Idris and I share his fragrance
Etat Libre d’Orange Roland Mouret Une
Amourette. I don’t mind wearing a masculine
scent, I just have to be in the mood for it.
My fragrance taste has definitely changed
over the years. As a teenager I used to cover
myself in Versace Red Jeans and Victoria’s
Secret fragrances — I had one with glitter in
it that I loved. I used to wear my mum’s
fragrances a lot too — I would spray them all
over myself, even though I’d get into trouble
because they were expensive. She loved Jean
Paul Gaultier Classique and Alien by Mugler.
Those two scents remind me so much of her,
and I can still recognise them on people.Having grown up in the Seventies and
Eighties, my first recollections of fragrance
are of Aramis, worn by my dad, and my uncle’s
Old Spice. To this day, if I smell either of those
they take me back to that time in my life.
In my adult life, my most potent fragrance
memory is the Versace L’Homme my
husband, Elton, was wearing when I met him.
It has a really distinctive smell that brings
back all the heady, exciting emotions of when
you meet someone for the first time and start
to fall in love with them. I remember going
back to my flat in Clapham after being with
him in Windsor and doing my laundry — I’d
pick up my coat and there would be the smell
of that Versace cologne. If I have even a little
whiff of that today, it takes me right back.
Now my all-time favourite fragrance is
Escentric Molecules Molecule 01. I love it
because it’s masculine, understated and
unique to everyone who wears it. When you
first put it on it has a peppery-lime kind of
smell. I’ve never had a fragrance in my life
where more people have stopped me to ask
what I’m wearing and said how good it smells.
I knew I was onto the right fragrance when
Tom Ford was sitting behind me on a flight
and he told me I smelt amazing. I told him
what I was wearing and he wrote it down.
I mean, if Tom Ford thinks you smell amazing,
that’s fragrance utopia. I wore it on my
wedding day because it never lets me down.
Elton tries every new fragrance that comes
out — he collects them, so our bathroom
cupboards are full of them. I remember
first smelling Diptyque Oud Palao eau de
parfum on him and it being really provocative
and sexy, dusky and heavy. He changes
his fragrance the same way he changes his
glasses — it’s just part and parcel of who he
is. He’s like a walking fragrance-testing
counter and that makes it very fun buying
fragrance for him.‘I thought, this
is how my husband
wants me to smell’
SABRINA ELBA
PRODUCER, MODEL AND HOST
OF THE COUPLEDOM PODCAST
WITH HER HUSBAND, IDRIS‘I still love the smells
of my teenage years’
BELLA MACKIE
WRITER AND AUTHOR OF
HOW TO KILL YOUR FAMILY‘Versace L’Homme
reminds me of
when I first fell in
love with Elton’
DAVID FURNISH
PRODUCER AND HUSBAND
OF SIR ELTON JOHNGetty Images , Shutterstock, Paul Stuart
The Sunday Times Style • 35