Instagram/snapperfume
You can tell a lot about how old someone is and where they grew up based on what perfume/cologne automatically triggers memories of junior high. For me, it’s Polo Sport by Ralph Lauren—although I’ve been told my suburban Pennsylvania hometown was behind the trend, and for my age, it should be Drakkar Noir. I don’t know if they were pumping it through the vents or if every single boy was wearing obscene amounts of it (most likely the latter), but one sniff brings me back to Friday night school dances, gym classes and hanging out at my locker.
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Not that those are necessarily bad memories (although if you have only positive memories of junior high dances, you many want to question both your sincerity and sanity), but nowadays, I tend to take the long way around any department store fragrance area or duty-free shop in the airport, because they always seem to smell like clouds of these trying-too-hard teenage years. And, call me a bit of a fragrance snob, but these often over-cluttered seas of bottles also seem to scream, “I have no individuality and want to smell like everyone else!” A lot of personality for a perfume or cologne to put out there, but you get the idea.
That’s why these modern-looking sprays from Snap Perfume ($15) left me totally shocked. They’re designed in a way that was definitely made to appeal to the teenage audience—they almost look like tiny iPhones and have multicolor designs, labeled by number, three women’s and three men’s—but they offer up a decidedly grown-up fragrance.
My favorite: Snap/1 for Her (even the name is hip). The official notes are apple, peach, orange, plum, rose, gardenia, jasmine and orchid, over a base of white musk. The combo creates a really fresh floral-fruity fragrance with a bit of kick that lasts for a long time without being overpowering. It’s appropriate for the office, and we’re far enough away from (and so much older than) the junior high crowd, that even when they catch on to how good all the scents are, it still can be a bit of a signature.
