Cabotine de Grès. Perfumes of My Life #3

A fresh memory of youth, college graduation and looking for work.

A fresh memory of youth, college graduation and looking for work.

Illustration by Lorraine Sawicki.

I remember the few weeks leading up to the end of college graduation and the long summer days that followed. I had just earned a degree in Computer Science, but at the time in 2001 the main options I had in the New York City area were finance, business or media. It was hard to find a job. I had a fascination with databases and my boyfriend (now husband) and I had already started a small internet service provider business, but it was not making enough for us to live on and I wanted to make my own money.

I didn’t really have a sense of style at 21; my clothes were a mishmash of thrift shop shirts and dresses, band t-shirts, jeans and either doc martens or hiking boots. I was going for a mood, or some kind of blend of music scenes I appreciated like pop punk, electronic music, jazz and ska. I had a few wildly colorful pairs of pants and t-shirts in bright yellow, orange and red that my mother bought me to counter the black and grey I wore most of the time. I especially remember a dark grey cardigan that was the layer on top of almost all my outfits for years that she disliked the most.

This era—my mid-20s—was when I got perfume gifted to me quite frequently. I’m not sure of the reasoning for this, but there you go! Maybe someone (a marketer, perhaps?) has some insight into that.

I can’t remember whether my Babcia (grandma) got Cabotine de Grès for me as a birthday present or graduation gift, but one of my favorite things about the perfume is the bottle and cap. The green plastic topper is a deep medium green and unusually textured into flowers, but all the ridges and movement between the blossoms is pleasant. The glass shape is smooth and oval, and fit perfectly in my hand. For the length of time this perfume has been on the market, its marketing is still so fresh and optimistic.

The Maison Parfums Grès website claims Cabotine’s profile as ginger as the top note, a heart of water lily, hyacinth and tuberose and a heart/base note of patchouli, sandalwood, musk and black currant.

After about a month of applying to jobs fruitlessly from my parent’s backyard while sitting on a woven folding lawn chair while listening to Weezer’s Green album on repeat, I landed a job at a fintech startup in Manhattan via a recruiting agency. I put on a few spritzes that first year of working but continued to use it when I felt like wearing something fresh and fun over the next few years in my early 20s. Usually in the spring with cherry blossoms popping out everywhere or on one of my many very, very long walks with my new friend that turned into one of my best friends of almost 25 years.

It’s a perfume of youth, positivity and is very, very green.