ABOUT.
Welcome to EXTRAIT ARCHIVE - a personal perfume blog, passion project and my small contribution to the fragrance community.
My fragrance obsession really took off in 2020, but I’ve been fascinated by scent for as long as I can remember and eventually discovered perfume as a way of exploring it in my spare time.
I'd spent hours creating lists, cataloguing, sampling and writing reviews, organising everything into one big OneNote 'library'. After a corrupted file led to the loss of years of writing, I decided to start again and this time put it somewhere other people could read and, hopefully, enjoy.
As a little girl, I had scent obsessions. Freshly washed laundry was one of them. Whenever Mum asked me to help with the washing, I’d spend a moment with my face buried in a pile of clean, damp clothes, taking in as much of the detergent smell as possible. Then there was tea. Specifically, Mum’s tea: the strongest imaginable, with just a splash of milk and the teabag left in to continue its work indefinitely. The smell of freshly brewed tea is still one of the most comforting smells I know. Even the burst of steam from the kettle as you pour it has its own smell.
Milk was less exciting, although checking it is an essential part of the tea-making process. Use-by dates are useful, but the smell test has always had the final say. A suspicious carton would usually be followed by collaring the nearest available family member and asking, “Does this smell right to you?" I’m fairly sure this is a universal experience.
Anyway. Memorable smells, and why I’m here.
There was Dad’s hair wax, classic Layrite, which had a vanilla scent so good that I’d open the lid whenever I walked past the bathroom cabinet just to smell it. Then there are the usual ones we all share: freshly cut grass, Bonfire Night, old books. I too instinctively smell the pages when nobody is looking.
There was my little sister’s baby blanket, so tangled and loved that it resembled some fuzzy pet at the foot of her bed. I still remember its warm, woolly smell and how completely I associated it with bedtime.
The point is, I love how scent can bring back a person, a room, a season or just a tiny moment and allows us to feel it again. So, after spending years following the perfume community from the side lines, and in the aftermath of one small corrupted file, I'm here to offer my two cents.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you and enjoy!