Nostalgia in a Bottle For Sale!

Middle school snack runs 

Before you and your middle school friend group could drive, you always walked to the local gas station or convenience store to stock up on snacks. Of course, they’d be gone that very same day. 

Arizona green tea, airheads, Hot Cheetos, the list goes on. Before the concept of splitting the bill became prominent in anyone’s head, you were glad to spend your pocket money on something just for you.

Posting on your Snapchat private story with a name you now cringe to think about while gossiping with your friends. You’re not in contact with them anymore, separate high schools, separate colleges, separate ways of life. 

But you’ll always look fondly on these times, when the sky was exceptionally blue with little to no clouds. Walking under the sun that was hot, but not unbearable, and you wonder why now the sky reflects gray more often than any other color. Going to work or going to the classes for this semester now seems gloom and doom when once you looked forward to the ring of the bell, signifying that the time to frolick was so close. Now, when the sky shines a certain way, you’ll think, “Today feels like a day in middle school.” 

Sometimes you’ll even look at your uniform that hangs in the closet, too small to fit into, but too sentimental to throw out. Maybe one day your kid will attend the same school, and you want to show them the shirt you wore every day when your only problem was being 25 cents too short on a snack you wanted. But you don’t want that for them because high school and college taught you that you needed to aim higher, take future generations to better places. Ambition was something slowly injected into your veins as you grew older, the previous years of fun and laziness spilling out of you like a nosebleed that stained your favorite sweater. 

And now, when you see that snack you ate almost every day when you were 12, sometimes sharing with your parents and sister, you’ll remember those times. But it won’t be the same because those youth-tinted glasses broke over time, and all it left you with was the pieces. It’s not necessarily a bad thing; things break and corrode over time, and there’s no use in crying over broken glasses. 

So maybe you’ll reach out to your old friends, see who is getting married and who is going to get a master's. Maybe you’re still young enough to reach out to them and have them remember you and all those spontaneous snack runs around school before you could drive.

Included in this scent: top notes of soda and whispers, heart notes of blue skies with shoes on pavement, base notes of regret 

That one song on the radio 

Before Spotify and headphones became your routine in your car, there was listening to the radio with your parents driving and you in the backseat. There were ads and words that you didn’t quite understand yet, but you’ve always had a passion for glancing out the window while lyrics blasted in the background. But now, you can’t remember the last time you weren’t in control of the aux in a vehicle.

Music has always been a universal, continuous language across the entirety of your life. Back when Charlie Puth ran the stations, and you really only knew songs from Musically and the radio, those moments were forever ingrained. 

And when you grew older and shared a car with someone who mattered to you, a late-night drive. The windows were down, and cold air rushed in, not because it was winter but because of how fast the car was moving. Maybe the sunroof was down, and you stood up to really feel it on your face (because in that moment, you are infinite). That was the first time you learned that a song can’t ever just remain a song. Because it captures every moment, every molecule in the air of the time you blasted it on repeat, bound to repeat in your head each time that familiar tune came on. 

And because of that, you learned to skip a song the second it started. The older you grew, the more you found out that music, the tunes, the treble cleft and bass cleft, were all a symbolic piece of who you were. 

But for now, sometimes, maybe you can enjoy the melody like you once did. When songs were just notes in combination. When you couldn’t drive yet, maybe even in a booster because you were an especially short kid. And groove along to them or stare out the window, because some things still never change. And you’ll soon find a song to play at your wedding, requests for your funeral. But before all that happens, you’re allowed to enjoy songs from before, just like you did at that one point in your life. 

Included in this scent: top notes of euphony and bar lines, heart notes of windows turned down, base notes of that feeling in your stomach when you remember who showed you this song 

Your older sister’s middle school body mist

The older kids were always so cool, tall legs that ran for miles with makeup and products that you could never name properly. Of course, that same feeling was never reciprocated when it was your time to be the oldest in the hallways; but for a moment when you were younger, you thought that fruity Hollister body mist was the key to success. 

Sports games and holding hands in the lockers, all things that were myths at one point but you had murmurs of from the halls. Because your sister was just so cool, and you couldn’t wait for the movie montages to proceed when it was your time to come. 

The older kids ran in packs, and sometimes you would find one that piqued your interest. You’d gossip with your friend about it later after seeing them in the halls. When you were that age, would there be guys like that, too? Certainly not now. 

Even the music your older sister listened to was beyond cool, with words your mom would scold you for saying and lyrics that you didn’t quite understand yet. Growing up was a concept that had been instilled physically (are you tall enough? Are you gaining weight? Okay, that’s good; you can be a woman now, but don’t gain too much weight.) but not as much mentally. Some concepts you learned too fast as a result of your choices, the mental growth progressing much faster than your body was.

But even now, as you are now the cool older sister, you realize just how young and naive you were. And when you get a whiff of that old body spray, you’re transported back to a time when that was your reality. You’re not actually there, though, and all you have are the lessons that you’ve carried with you since, the remnants of that version of you always there.  

Included in this scent: top notes of floral nights, heart notes of gossiping cellphones, base notes of admiration and fear 

Your first lip gloss

Shiny, colorful, clear, as long as it’s not matte. Your hair might get stuck in it, but it’s more fun! Maybe your older sister gave it to you, or you bought it at a drugstore with your pocket money. It’s your first introduction to makeup, and it makes you feel so grown and mature. 

It smells nice too, an upgrade from Lip Smackers and chapstick. Now, you can finally be one of those girl’s with their own scent.

Makeup has always been a topic that consumed much of your mind; the curious balance between too much and just enough. Everyone has a different style and seems to have their features all perfectly assembled already; how are you supposed to do the same without drowning in a sea of insecurity? How is that possible when the model of your new lip gloss’s brand has features that have never graced your face, and she looks like nothing you’ve ever seen before? 

And so now, maybe years later when you’ve figured out what contour placement best suits you, or what blush shade brings out your complexion the most, you’ll have forgotten about where your journey started. It has always been a combination of getting ready categorized as a therapeutic and fun activity along with the worry that you’ll lag behind everyone else if you don’t learn how to complement your features like a textbook. You were excited at first, experimenting in the bathroom mirror you shared with your family, puckering up your lips at the unfamiliar feeling. 

Years from now, you’ll have a faint memory of the first time makeup touched your skin. And the feeling of that first swab will stay with you forever, regardless of whether you remember the specific events that accompanied it. 

Included in this scent: top notes of kiss marks, heart notes of doubt and vanilla, base notes of ritual 

Reading your favorite book for the first time ever 

You picked it up on a limb, enamored by the cover and the concept written on the back. Maybe someone even recommended it to you, a stranger raving about it or a friend obsessed. And so you’ll curl up next to your window or on your bed, opening it with no idea of what to truly expect. 

And you’ll never expect the way the words drew you in, drew you in so close you forgot for a moment where you truly were and who you truly are. The lines between yourself and the character who grew to become so beloved to you blurred like ink in water, and you felt their sadness like it was your own. It was the first time you truly believed there were multiple realities, and a version of you belonged in this one. 

The world-building and sentences hit you in the heart, and it left you with a feeling like a part of you had been sucked into that universe. It was the first time a book had ever made you feel like this, an irreversible part of your soul sucked into the pages, never to be returned to you. And then you would chase that feeling in book after book, something with the same premise or promise. You’ll recreate it sometimes, falling in love with another fictional universe, but it won’t be the same. 

And the only time you’ll come close to the first time you read that book and who you were at the time is when you return to the same pages. Of course, the effect has dwindled because you know what comes next, but it feels like coming home after a long time away, the furniture remaining exactly as you left it. 

You’ll remember these characters forever, even thinking of naming your future children after one. You might even borrow courage from these characters whenever you find yourself lacking some. And the best part is that they’ll always be there for you when you decide to come back. 

This scent includes: top notes of parchment and iced coffee, heart notes of empathy, base notes of never being able to truly go home