Do you remember Tweed perfume?
If, by chance, you happen to have an old bottle of Tweed perfume stashed under the bathroom sink, dig it out. Even if it’s used, you can hawk that bottle of old scent on eBay. The same goes for a half-gone bottle of discontinued Crêpe de Chine fragrance. We’re not talking chump change here. Some of these old fragrances fetch prices in the hundreds of dollars. Currently someone’s asking $377.99 for the one ounce remaining in an old two ounce bottle of Tweed perfume. Hmmmmm, perhaps rancid, you wonder? The vendor warrants nothing other than what the bottle looks like. For $152.69, you can be the proud owner of 100 ml of Estée Lauder’s Beautiful body lotion. The vendor here asks you to note that it’s the “older formulation” which I’m guessing is highly coveted. You won’t do so well flogging a flacon of the old dime store standby Evening in Paris online. There’s so much inventory available that it seems a generation of underwhelmed women tucked this into their bottom drawer and forgot about it.
Of all the senses, the sense of smell is the most evocative.
Why are people interested in old perfumes? I guess because it’s the next best thing there is to travel.
Of all the senses, the sense of smell is the most evocative. If you want to conjure the past, the single best way to do it is through our sense of smell. With the exception of smell, our brains receive sensory information via the thalamus, the body’s information relay station. An odour, however, isn’t relayed through the thalamus. It travels straight to the areas of the brain that play a role in memory, creativity and emotion. The volatile organic compounds that define any smell cross the blood-brain barrier swiftly and intact. Thus, our brains react strongly to the presence of an odour. Studies that have found that test results improve when students are exposed to a fragrance that was present while they were studying. According to the study, the memory of the material being studied is heightened by the presence of the identical smell. Scientists call this olfactory bonding. Other studies using EEGs and MRIs have detected emotional and behavioural differences provoked by the presence of fragrance. In fact, a study by the Olfactory Research Fund in New York found a 63% reduction in patient stress when vanilla scent was pumped into the air around the MRI.
Your nose is always on the job, even when you sleep.
Having a good nose has long been associated with health and safety. Your nose may alert you to a house fire blocks away long before you hear the sirens. A simple sniff will tell you if the milk has gone off. Olfaction does this without you having to martial your senses. Your nose is always on the job, even when you sleep.
Although they didn’t invent perfume, the French have long been considered leaders in this area. It only stands to reason, therefore, that it would be a French chemist would expand into the area of therapeutic benefits of fragrance. René-Maurice Gattefossé was a chemical engineer who, in the 1920s, worked in the family business manufacturing raw materials for the perfume industry. He was badly burned one day when a flask exploded. The standard treatment for burns wasn’t helping and he was starting to develop gangrene. Gattefossé recalled that the lavender growers he dealt with said that lavender essential oil was an effective treatment for burns. In short order, Gattefossé’s burns began to heal with this new approach. Convinced of the antiseptic and healing powers of lavender oil, he began to devote his career to his new interest which he dubbed aromatherapy.
So, breathe deeply. It turns out there’s a lot of truth in the old saying “The nose, knows”.
This week’s question for readers:
DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE SCENT? FOR MEN? FOR WOMEN? WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST FRAGRANCE?
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Submissions to last week’s question:
WHAT WOULD YOU STUDY IF YOU WENT BACK TO SCHOOL? WOULD YOU BE A BETTER STUDENT THIS TIME AROUND?
For older adult education classes there are programs that are devoted to this subject. I am on the Program Committee of the Third Age Learning Program at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, which, by the way, is now a designated Age-Friendly University. Other communities offer programs too, such as the ElderColleges in Delta and at the University of the Fraser Valley.
Patricia Warshawski
I went back to school to get my doctorate in my mid 30s after a 12 year hiatus which would make me a quasi-mature student. I couldn’t help noticing that my approach to school was more pragmatic than many of my younger peers. In general, life experience has taught me to be more focussed and goal directed and less idealistic and perfectionistic. As Dag Aabye is quoted in his recently published book, The Outsider, “Time matters most when time is running out”.
Avrum Miller
I dropped out of UBC after my 2nd year in the 70’s for beer, disco and love. In the early 90’s, in order to escape the boredom from a relationship I was involved in, I went back to UBC. I discovered how much I liked high learning. That relationship ended and very soon after, my 2nd stab at UBC ended too. I’m now 67, happily married and retired. I’vee been toying with completing my bachelor degree. I got inspired by your column last week, so I went out to UBC and spoke to an advisor at the Faculty of Arts this morning. I was surprised to find out that I would get an automatic acceptance because I left in good standing. I also found out that if I choose not to focus on obtaining a degree, I can pretty well surf UBC and take any course that interests me as long as I have the requirements.
Now … what to take? Geology? Italian history? History of Modern Art? Calculus? Hmmm….
And the best part of all? Tuition is waived because I am OLD.
Loo Soon Hung
I highly recommend mature studies. Some time ago I decided I had to keep my brain active and so I signed up for Spanish at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford. It was a bit daunting, but the professors and the students were very welcoming and accepted me, the dinosaur, with good grace. We plowed through Covid on Zoom. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride and made many new friends. Fast forward four years to today, when I am about to embark on a solo, one-month homestay in Oaxaca, Mexico. I am 83.
Sara Shadbolt
I think it’s never too late to go back to school.
A long time friend of mine and I met when we were in our mid-thirties. We met while taking tennis lessons at a local Community Centre. Later we took swimming lessons together and soon after we opened a business. In our late forties while working and raising our families we discussed a desire to go back to school. We hoped to earn degrees in Fine Art. So we enrolled in several courses at Langara College. One of our instructors jokingly referred to us as “the housewives”. My friend did eventually earn her Fine Arts degree at The University of British Columbia. Due to family issues and other events I only managed to achieve half the credits needed for a degree. Even so, many years later I convened art classes as a volunteer in a Senior Centre and I still give art classes in my home.
Joan Ellis
At 83, I am wanting to reach my full potential, to become the most that I can be. If I returned to school now, I would study psychology to fully understand the theory of self-actualization and transcendence. I went to UBC at 19. My thoughts and actions were naive and fun. However, I did fulfil my childhood dream of becoming a teacher. I returned to school in my early forties and again in my fifties. I continued to work on my teaching credentials obtaining my Master of Education. I retired after 15 years instructing adult students with disabilities, a most informative and satisfying experience.
Bonnie Hamilton
I highly recommend mature studies. Some time ago I decided I had to keep my brain active and so I signed up for Spanish at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford. It was a bit daunting, but the professors and the students were very welcoming and accepted me, the dinosaur, with good grace. We plowed through Covid on Zoom. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride and made many new friends. Fast forward four years to today, when I am about to embark on a solo, one-month homestay in Oaxaca, Mexico. I am 83.
Sara Shadbolt