2010's nostalgia: the scents that take us back to school From Fierce by Abercrombie & Fitch to the body mists of Victoria's Secrets

There are perfumes that are not just perfumes: they’re real time machines. You only need to smell them once and, without even realizing it, you’re suddenly back at your school desk. These are the fragrances you desperately wanted when you were younger: the ones bought with your allowance or repeatedly asked for as a birthday or Christmas gift. The ones you started craving after smelling them on a classmate or spotting them in the videos of the American YouTubers you watched obsessively. They were usually sweet, fruity, sometimes even a bit too much, but that’s exactly why they stayed imprinted in our memory.

Perfumes that smell like teenage years and 2010s nostalgia

Fierce by Abercrombie & Fitch

All it took was stepping into an Abercrombie & Fitch store, or even just walking past one, to be hit by that intense, fresh and slightly musky scent. I’m talking about the iconic Fierce, sprayed absolutely everywhere, to the point where you started wondering whether you were breathing perfume or actual air. Even people who didn’t own it could recognize it from meters away. Every hoodie and every t-shirt inside those dimly lit stores, where telling colors apart was almost optional, was completely soaked in this fragrance. Technically it was a men’s perfume, but by then it had become a real status symbol, and teenage girls wore it without thinking twice. The top notes include petitgrain, cardamom, lemon, orange and fir. The heart features jasmine, rosemary, rose and lily of the valley, while the base blends vetiver, musk, oakmoss and Brazilian rosewood.

Pink Sugar by Aquolina

Aquolina perfumes were the sugary dream of every teenage girl. Quite literally the first perfume you received at Christmas, usually paired with the shower gel and maybe one of those Pupa makeup palettes shaped like an angel or a doll. And that’s exactly the moment when a small beauty addict was born. Among the most iconic was Pink Sugar, with notes of raspberry, cotton candy, licorice, strawberry, caramel, vanilla and many other gourmand touches.

BonBons by Malizia

BonBons by Malizia unite practically an entire generation: from those who grew up in the ’90s to those who were born practically yesterday. They were the first little perfumes, cheap and colorful, the ones everyone owned at least once in their life, immediately recognizable for their over-the-top sweetness. One of the most iconic versions was Milk Shake, a fragrance that couldn’t be more lactonic: its only two notes are milk and sugar.

Loverdose by Diesel

Then there was Loverdose by Diesel, the perfume for anyone going through their slightly dark phase in middle school: secretly watching Skins on some streaming platform and spending evenings scrolling through blogs on Tumblr. Probably more fascinated by the purple heart-shaped bottle than the fragrance itself, it was still a much less childish and sugary choice compared to the usual sweet scents. The composition followed that same direction: it opens with star anise and mandarin, becomes richer with licorice, jasmine and gardenia, and finishes with a warm base of vanilla, amber and woody notes.

Victoria’s Secret body mists

Then there were Victoria’s Secret body mists, the ones that appeared in every Get Ready With Me by American YouTubers and quickly became everyone’s obsession. More than real perfumes, they were light body mists to spray generously before leaving the house, also because, let’s be honest, the longevity was basically zero. The scents were almost always fruity, floral or extremely sweet, and among the most iconic were Bare Vanilla and Coconut Passion.