This Travel Spray Helped Cure My Homesickness on Vacation

Every time I go on vacation, I feel homesick. I miss my bed, my worn-in couch, and the water pressure in the shower. I miss knowing where everything is, whether it’s a Band-Aid or that one cardigan I like to wear when I watch Netflix and eat Joe-Joes in bed. Mostly, I miss how home smells, even though my house smells like 70 percent dog hair, 29 percent the dinner I made the night before, and 1 percent candle-of-the-week.

So, I decided to bring a familiar scent with me on my last vacation. I’ve been spritzing Diptyque Do Son travel spray in my own bedroom for a couple of months, in the hopes that when I went on vacation, I could do the same and it would make me feel less achy for home. I’ve basically been training my brain to feel nostalgic about this scent—and it worked.

TIP

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Diptyque Do Son Refillable Travel Spray — $115.00

There have been multiple studies that prove memory and scent have a strong link. We even previously spoke with an in-house perfumer at Skylar, Sarah Horowitz, who told us that we consciously and unconsciously gravitate toward specific scents because they remind us of events, places, and people in our past. “Scent preference can be influenced by so many exterior factors, both consciously and unconsciously. There are cultural preferences that we grow up with, and then more specific experiences that can affect how we react to a scent. Remember that scent is the strongest memory trigger, so this plays a huge part in influence,” Horowitz says.

I chose Diptyque travel spray over my perfumes because, well, my perfumes already have their own associations, and those don’t necessarily align with feeling “at home.” I needed a long-lasting, gorgeous fragrance that would psychologically bring me back home, and after initially testing out Do Son (and really loving how it made the room smell), I decided this would be my anchor scent. It’s floral (but not too floral), citrus-y (but not too citrus-y), and has a touch of musk, which balances out the femininity and gives it a little roughness, which I love in a perfume. The top note is tuberose, middle is orange, and base is jasmine.

The cool thing about the Do Son travel spray is that it comes in a compact tube (the design took inspiration from vintage notice boards that used to exist in airports and train stations) and it’s travel friendly (so you can store it in your carry-on if you’re flying). A few spritzes go a long way (and last for hours), so while the price tag is hefty, just know that it’ll be many months before you run out. Also, it’s Diptyque—home scents don’t get more lovely.

The travel spray made me feel less homesick (and, as a bonus, it masked dog smell that would have likely lingered—of course, I brought my dogs).

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