Smells like teen spirit

Yesterday morning I found myself with a few spare hours so where else to go for some alone time? Big W of course! I know, it’s a sad state of affairs around here. I wanted to go over to the shopping centre where Big dubs is because I also needed to get to office works and a few other places that all happen to be together. So Mags and I hit the shops and I got to get all of the annoying jobs done that have been lurking around. A #onething super cell if you will.

I had the pram and one of those wheely basket things (which are really hard to handle together just quietly) and I was adding to basket IRL for a change with gay abandon. Bonds 40% off? GET IN THERE! Shopping when you you are hungry, tired and suffering from PMT is quite the dangerous (and expensive) business. Anyway, I was interested to see that all the things I usually get in Woolies (baby stuff like wipes and nappies and food and stuff all seemed cheaper in there? Why?) Aren’t they owned by the same company? And then I found the mecca: an entire Method Cleaning section. PRAISE. I threw a few things in the basket along with hair ties, school  sports pants & undies for girls and a gazillion other bits and pieces and forgot about it.

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That night post dinner when I was on my hands and knees cleaning up with floor under Maggie’s high chair (that is, after Frank has been through as well) I sprayed some of the new spray and whoosh! I was INSTANTLY transported back to 1991/92 Body Shop to a much loved product. Except I can’t remember what it actually was. And the closest I can find to it, is this cucumber milk which I think was it!

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Oh the first beauty products of a teenager. The Body Shop was THE place to be for me and my mates in the early 90’s, specifically the store in the QVB where we would go and test out over and over again. This cucumber milk was one of my favourites, as were the lip balms. EVERYONE in our class had a Kiwi Fruit or Cherry lip balm in their pencil case. It was just what you did.

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Remember some of the other signature pieces from the time? Did someone say Dewberry? Or Moon flower perfumes? TAKE ME BACK LIFE WAS SO LESS COMPLICATED THEN. Or was it? Actually, I’m fine with 38 year old Beth, no one liked 13 year old Beth so much. I was very moody. What’s changed?!

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Good times friends, good times. And how about perfumes of the time? Ones that if you were to smell them right now it would instantly be back in your bedroom listening to mix tapes or songs recorded from Barry Bissell’s Top 40 on a  Sunday arvo.

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Or just the smell of my Mum for most of the 80’s. So comforting.

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So tell me friends, what were your signature teen products or scents?
Did you embrace the Body Shop like my friends and I?
Anyone still wear any of these old school fragrances?

Comments

  1. Funnily enough at 45 I have revisited Body shop, and really like their body butters. There is still that sweet smelling stuff for the teens. My teen girls are into Body Shop, Lush and Victorias Secret , mostly sickly sweet scents.

  2. I totally had that lip balm!! I ended up being a Body Shop Christmas casual through uni. It was heaps of fun!
    High school was all about Impulse. There was water berry or something which everyone used.
    For my 18th, friends bought me baby doll by YSL. And my boyfriend wore Aqua di gio by Giorgio Armani. So classy.

    • Totally classy. I remember buying my boyfriend Cool Water Man and I thought I was so grown up and chic.

      • Beth- STOP…… I swear we are related…. I still LOVE Cool Water… oh it does things for me… I loved it even before I met Mr Chardy and he had it when i met him – it was meant to be!!! Cool Water and Safari by RL. Oh yes. God this post is cracking me up Beth – all these memories – we are all exactly the same!!!

  3. Waterberry deodorant by Australis! I loved this so much. I am sad to say I found a half empty can when cleaning out some very old boxes and I still have it! Every now and then I stumble across it and spray a bit and am instantly taken back to grade 9, backstreet boys, Hanson and Leonardo Di Caprio.

  4. Dewberry was my signature scent of the 90’s! Along with the cherry tub of lip gloss and I was also a fan of Ten-0-Six, a near chemical peel!

  5. I was part of the lip smackers crew (late 90’s/ early 00’s). I never realised how many memories were linked to those smells until this week when my baby turned 7 and she shared her new lip smackers with me! OMG – I was suddenly reminded of questionable fashion choices, terrible makeovers and the best (and worst) time of my life.

  6. My brother every year for Mothers Day would buy Mum Red Door – oh lordy!!!

    And Anais Anais can only be worn by Mrs Sutherland – the teacher aid – and now as I am a adult she still smell like Anais Anais

    Oh the memories – thanks for that BLAST from the PAST!

  7. Musk Impulse still takes me back to the school sports change rooms. It was a new product then.
    My perfume of choice was Maja. Unfortunately everyone knew this so it was the gift of choice for several years. I still have gift boxes of it buried deep in my cupboards thirty years later!

  8. Oh dear. Showing my young age here!! At 23 my tween scent was Ralph Lauren cool – reminds me of blue illusion cruisers in the park

  9. Si love Body Shop Body Butter, they are the ants pants. I used to sell Body Shop a few years back and utilitiesed the discount I received often

  10. Somehow as a 15 year old on work experience I managed to be given a bottle of YSL Rive Gauche. My mother wore it at the time and could not believe someone would spoil a child so. I still have a bottle of it on my dressing table and occasionally take the trip down memory lane.
    I loved that cucumber cleanser. Last time I was in the Body Shop I was disappointed by the phasing out of my fave hand cream. OAP moment really!
    I have a small bottle of Red Door on my dressing table too (quite the perfume counter really) as my sis-in-law used to gift me perfumes. It came in a box of many miniatures – you know the ones! God, and there is White Linen there too – another gift. So, my perfumes are a Trip Through the Ages it seems!

  11. White musk all the way and then Red Door, Eternity and then I got my 16yo boyfriend the male Eternity! Thanks for the trip down memory lane x

  12. Calvin Klein Obsession and Chloe Narcisse were my first 2 perfumes from memory…also had a lot of Body Shop lip balms, Dewberry and White Musk. In the UK, you could go and choose a few little items for a friend’s Birthday with a basket and get the cling film (glad wrap) melted over it with a hair-dryer it to make it all cling to the goodies. All for about a fiver ($10). Then there’s the real leather biker jacket I bought when I was about 16yo for ~GBP80 which I wish I still had because as usual, those fashions are coming back in!

  13. Impulse and Australis body sprays…. year 9 PE circa 1995.

  14. Impulse! Remember Impulse? I thought I was the height of sophistication when I covered myself in that stuff (which when I smell it now reminds me of toilet spray!). eek…and no-one was stopping to give me flowers either – more false advertising.

  15. My mum loved white linen (she’s not here anymore) and my MIL wears red door which I think stinks like old ladies. For her 80th lots of people, who obviously agree with me, gave her some lovely new perfumes but she insists on the red door. I’m a bit older than being a teen in the 90s, more like 70s, but I wore tabu and youth dew. Now I prefer pure grace (philosophy), elie saab (thanks to Beth) and nina ricci.

  16. Obviously we are quite close in age Beth, as this post is like through the looking glass! High school changing room, impulse, sprayed half a can at a time, the Sportsgirl tote and/or Sportsgirl tee and the first pair of name brand sneakers. Was it Nike or Reebok? Can’t remember but so cool after the old aerosports. The girls round the corner trying to peirce each others ears with a needle. Oh the memories! Christmas morning and a gift pack of Exclamation was very well received. Living 5 hours from Melbourne and limited stores in the area, if you had been to the city, the Body Shop was an essential part of the plan. The Vanilla oil was a much coveted item in 9B. Then somewhere later on, graduating to stealing the older brothers YSL Jazz aftershave to be that little bit different, or the fact I had no money might have had more to do with it. And finally moving on to having spending money to burn a hole in one’s pocket, obtained from the after school job at the local supermarket. Grabbing my copy of Dolly/Cleo and smelling the perfume samples to search for my next signature scent. Casmir by Chopard fit the bill. It makes me want to go and buy it. I wonder if they still make it?

  17. Adele Wain says

    For me, Gingham, by Innoxa and Body Shop Vanilla. Ooh, and Coty Wild Musk. Mum wore Arpege, so comforting.

  18. I had all of those, but I remember Charlie from my HS years.

  19. mrs_woodette says

    Oh my goodness now I want to hunt down a can of waterberry or vanilla auatralis body spray! I wonder if it’s still in production.

  20. For you Melbournites, The Tunnel nightclub had a distinct scent about it – vomit and beer infused carpet. An unforgettable aroma. Elizabeth Arden’s Sunflowers was a popular
    choice for the ladies who chose to frequent the place, thus dubbed Tunnel Perfume by my friends and I. YSL Rive Gauche is also a blast from the past. I recall getting more than one bottle for my 21st.

  21. ME circa 1994
    – Body shop vanilla body oil. Came in a small round bottle with a little stick applicator (which i was recently excited to see they still had and then disappointed that it doesn’t smell the same any more)
    – Body Shop Strawberry lip balm
    And when i was feeling grown up of for the special occasion
    – a spritz of mums white musk body spray.

  22. I’m 46, and I can’t tell you how much I loved Body Shop back in the day! Lip balm, bubble bath, and perfume on high rotation. I flirted briefly with beauty products – I remember cucumber toner. I loved their tea rose perfume and I still have a bottle of Oceanus perfume in my bathroom!

  23. Lou Lou, Lou Lou, Is that you?

  24. thelittleredhen says

    The Body Shop Fuzzy Peach perfume oil.
    Of course. Who *wouldn’t* want to smell like a fuzzy peach?! I liked some weird stuff as a teen. Also moved on to Elizabeth Arden Sunflowers for my year 10 formal.
    My friend had Joop! And I was so jealous.
    Shudder. Nauseating to even think of those smells.

  25. Yes- I used to go to the body shop after school- we all smelled like dewberry in 1989 and Ananya in 1991 : ) I also loved Anais Anais and Paris in the 80’s. I remember Fendi perfume was huge in the early 1990’s as well as Poison by Dior! Estée Lauder Knowing and White Linen- Youth Dew reminds me of my mum in the 70’s- apparently it was very popular then. It is truly amazing how fragrance can transport you back in time ( as well as music of course! : )

  26. Oh wow, Beth, this truly is a blast from the past!!! Yes to just about everything!!! Kiwi lip balm was my first Body Shop purchase ever, and it was A. Big. Deal because living in rural SA (I still do!!) meant TBS was a long way away and I had to wait a loooong time to get to one! My all time fave product was the Chypre essential oil perfume, if there is one thing I could ever get my hands on again that would be it, as it was my boyfriend’s (now ex-husband-who-is-my-partner-again (it’s a long story….!!!!)) favourite scent and holds so many memories. And the Ginger shampoo, White Musk anything, Birch lip liner (which you used as all over as a lipstick!), sooooo many memories! Not quite the same today 🙁 And scents? My first ‘proper’ perfume was ‘Amarige’ (Givenchy), then ‘Safari’ (Ralph Lauren), before I found ‘Allure’ by Chanel. And then started having children (at 21!!!), which put an end to perfume purchases!!!
    Oh, the mention of Barry Bissel takes me back to my bedroom floor with my double tape-deck and finger on the stop button to make sure I fit all the songs on the tape, then writing out the lyrics (that weren’t in Smash Hits!!) by stopping and starting the song and writing it all down. While doing whatever fitness routine Alison Brahe was demonstrating in that month’s Dolly.
    And Leila? Simply yes to everything 🙂 ‘Captivation’ Impulse, Reeboks first brand name shoes, and the Sportsgirl tee, Dolly AND Girlfriend AND Cleo AND Cosmo, *sigh* I really loved that time of life, I wonder if my daughter (14) will have the same nostalgia as her mother in 25+ years, lol??

    • We were doing the exact same things Alison!

      • And forgot to add – watching Rage on a Saturday morning with my tape deck help up to the speaker to record the songs, because I couldn’t wait for Take 40 on Sunday afternoon, lol!! And the pain of having to wait a whole week in between episodes of your favourite TV show – the suspense of Twin Peaks nearly killed me!!!

  27. Rowena / Vintagenobility says

    Oh White Linen – Yes!!! I spent a paycheque – remember when we got paid by cheque – to purchase a bottle from Myer ahead of my wedding day: I was young, but I wanted to be sophisticated – and all the magazines assured me this was THE elegant and sophisticated scent for brides!
    I also loved my Body Shop perfumed oil – which I scented with coconut: I realized quite some years later just how sickly that scent was! Also, Tabu was always a favorite – reminded me of my Aunty!

    Did you girls ever have Strawberry Shortcake figurines? The delicious scents of those dolls – I had the doll ‘Apricot’ and two little figurines- ButterCookie and Lime Chiffon ***inhales***; I was sooo jelicous of my next door neighbor friend who owned the entire collection!
    xxx Row

  28. This made me snort-laugh Beth!
    I grew up in the UK and Dewberry was THE Body Shop spritz of choice there too! Really if all the teens in Australia and the UK were into the Dewberry…who was buying the other shit? I may even have a round Dewberry soap that a high school boyfriend bought me for Xmas one year in my box of must-have crap I HAD to bring to Australia with me. Probably smells worse than those things they put in men’s urinals to ‘freshen them up’ now!

  29. Although I am a little younger – I still remember all these things. The Body Shop was the place to be and the gift to give. My family was staying at a beach house last year and they had the ‘Oceania’ body wash in the bathroom – my sister and I tried tracking it down after the holiday as we loved it so much back in the day. Sadly, we couldn’t find it. I decided when I turned 30 last month that I needed a new scent. In my teens, I wore Calvin Klein ‘Girl’ and the very limited edition ‘Girl – Jeans’. My sister wore Eternity.

  30. I have ten years on you Beth so I was a working girl in my twenties when I used to frequent The Body Shop in the QVB – I had money to burn and I seem to recall burning quite a bit of it there! For me it was the lush henna hair dye. It smelt and felt like wet grass mixed with mud to put on but gosh my hair and I felt beautiful afterwards! As a teen growing up in the northern rivers late seventies early eighties the more coconut in the scent the better – reef oil, flex conditioner, impulse, it all still takes me straight back to train trips home from byron to lismore after spending the day at the beach with my schoolfriends. ah.

  31. shazziebazzie says

    Oh yes Cucumber Milk!!! And Red Door! Beth, have you seen the movie Sisters? So many hilarious 80s references. Cant believe I ever wore Impulse deodorant, sickly! And Norsca! I remember my mum bring home the original orange Nutrimetics stuff. Exotic! Lol

    Hope the sickness leaves your house asap x

  32. I work for Priceline , we still sell the fragrances you pictured !!! Some sell very well !

  33. thankyou beth! … interesting! yes fragrances are soo evocative!
    I forgot what I wore as a teenager! then this morning it came flooding into my senses
    so I had to share for some spurious reason!
    my first perfume was TABU I can still smell it now!
    that is amazing! … hope people are better in your neck of the woods hun! love m:)X

  34. Yes, Dewberry! I loved that stuff! Anais Anais was another one! Such memories. xxx

  35. Gruzinkerbell says

    Loved reading everyone’s comments, they transported me back to the 90’s!! I loved the Body Shops vanilla perfume, kiwi fruit lip balm and I had forgotten about the fuzzy peach, it’s like I can smell it now! I was definitely more of a fan of The Body Shop than Red Earth. But loved their browny coloured lipstick 🙂

  36. Ha ha ha ha – are you some kind of mind reader??? Beth – THIS IS SOOOOO TRUE. We all had the Kiwi Fruit Lip Balm too in our pencil cases… and we lived in Mudgee – so no Body Shop there, but boy when we did get to go to Sydney the QVB Body Shop was like heaven to us…. we thought we were so cool, I think I also had some sort of Musk fragrance from there – and what about that lolly shop where you could help yourself… those little tiny hard fruits… I loved the bananas. And shut up will you – I was drenched in Red Door for quite a few years there, think I would throw up if I had to smell it again… I had such an over supply of the stuff. My Mum’s smell was Jardins De Bagatelle by Guerlain – god I loved that perfume. My cousin was all about Samsara. Such fond memories, thanks for the trip down memory lane… oh another thing we all had to have circa 1989 when we would go to Sydney for a school excursion: the Sportsgirl Tote Bag – the who’s who had one. We then moved onto Country Road – bit more sophisticated, ha ha ha ha.

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