Nothing winds back the clock for me like Clinique Happy, a 16th birthday present from my best friend that always transports me to the best summer of my life.
I had a job glass-lifting in a super cool bar (more fun than it sounds), had just started clubbing and played Garbage's Version 2.0 loudly before going out every night. It was the sunniest summer in memory and despite having a boyfriend, I was kissing a lot of boys and wearing a lot of make-up. For the first time, I was without curfew and making all my own choices, buying my own clothes, learning how heady independence really is.
And Clinique Happy fitted me perfectly - my first grown-up perfume after all those nasty scents you get in your teens (my poison was a £5 bottle of Exclaimation). This was exactly what I wanted to smell like. It felt like a luxury at the time, but within moments of the first spray I simply couldn't be without it. This was the first perfume that showed me how wonderful perfume can be.
In short, it was - and still is - gloriously light and fun and smells nothing like body spray, which at 16 was a bit of a revelation to me. I wore it until I was 21 (at which point I switched to Stella McCartney) but even now nothing says youth and freedom to me quite like the scent of Clinique Happy.
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