When it comes to fragrance keepsakes, I know of many a perfume lover that continues to cling onto a dusty bottle (or two) of their saccharine, coming-of-age scent—purely for nostalgia’s sake. After all, is there anything more comforting than a vanilla-infused spritz of the fragrance that saw you through your teenage years? To this very day, I I still reminisce about my first ever fragrance: Avril Lavigne’s Black Star Eau De Parfum. Combining two of the ’00s most vital perfume ingredients (a celebrity endorsement and a syrupy aroma) even just a glance at the star-shaped bottle takes me back to 2009. Yes, the scent itself was sickly-sweet, but the more subtle notes of pink hibiscus, black plum and dark chocolate spoke to me—and have been inspiring my fragrance choices ever since.
