why spoiling yourself with perfume is the ultimate birthday indulgence

to: you, love: you<3

happy sunday, lovely readers.

with august being my birth month, i’ve had little but birthday on the brain lately (my last newsletter covered the concept of “birthday dressing” and iconic party dresses). when the day came this weekend, my one and only gift to myself was a glossy bottle of perfume.

yves saint laurent’s almost always sold-out babycat fragrance opens up with notes of pink and black pepper essences, trailed by cedarwood and a spicy saffron accord. in the dry-down, sophisticated vanilla and sensual suede accord notes linger for hours after spritzing.

inspired by the “regal elegance” and “simmering seduction” of leopard print (yves himself loved this feline pattern), babycat is the fragrance i promised to treat myself to after coveting it for ages. it’s boozy. it’s intoxicating. it’s vanilla as i’ve never smelled it before. it’s the kind of fragrance you cannot stop yourself from repeatedly snorting. in fact, i’ve still got the original fragrance blotter strip i first used to sample the scent tucked into a purse—and it smells delicious to this day.

with the purchase of this new perfume (which was serendipitously on sale, might i add), i think i’ve started something of a new birthday tradition.

to buy someone a fragrance they’ll love, you have to really know them. and who knows you better than yourself? it’s taken me years to move past my fixation with having a singular, signature scent—which is a journey i may revisit in further detail at a later date here on leonine. nowadays, i embrace the power of alternating perfumes as an act of self-expression.

proof of the intrinsic link between fragrance and memory is evident in the profoundly evocative feelings that arise when a familiar scent strikes your nose. the honey-scented trail of your mother’s perfume, as she headed off to work, and you to school. the rich, worn-in smell of your first boyfriend’s leather jacket. the salty summers of yesteryear spent by the seaside.

look to maison margiela’s collection of replica fragrances, for instance, each labeled with dates and times that correspond with a nostalgic smell. bubble bath’s soap bubble note and coconut milk accord transports wearers to beverly hills, circa 2005. by the fireplace’s smoky clove oil and chestnut accord, to 1971 in chamonix. though you may not have been to california in the early aughts, or france in the seventies, the replica range takes you there via scent.

while a fragrance bought for one’s birthday can be a bottled-up reminder of memories attached to the new year ahead, it also holds the power to set an intention. to manifest, even. consider how a scent makes you feel. does it align with how you’d like to feel for the next year? what this age feels like? who you’d like to be?

if you don’t subscribe to the idea of self-gifting on your birthday, perhaps one exception should be made for a fragrant bottle of perfumed juice, all in the name of manifestation, of memories as yet experienced made liquid.

tell me, which scent would be on your birthday wishlist? here’s to finding a fresh, new fragrance and making more memories.

x L