After all these years of writing, talking, and breathing perfume, it’s completely taken over my life. So it’s no surprise that my daughter knows and loves fragrance just as much as I do.

I got it from my dad. Even though my mom always had a bottle on her nightstand, it’s my father who never left the house without a few solid spritzes of cologne. So, yeah. Perfume love runs deep, and apparently, it runs generational.

My daughter Maya has opinions on every single bottle I own (and there are a lot), so when she asked for her own perfume for her birthday this year, I was ready. At Rome’s Fiumicino Airport, I spotted Cheirosa 71 Perfume Mist by Sol de Janeiro, and let’s just say: game over. We bought it. She was ecstatic. She still is. To say she was over the moon is an understatement. She was somewhere near Jupiter.

Now. If you haven’t smelled Cheirosa 71 Sol de Janeiro perfume and you’re into salted caramel, let me break it to you gently: You’ve been missing out on the scent of your life. This is one of those perfumes you want to bite. Or drink. Or bathe in. Or all three of them all at once. 

It smells like a warm macadamia cookie straight out of the oven, dipped in thick swirls of caramel, maybe rolled in popcorn just for chaos. It’s rich, cozy, sweet, and honestly a little wild in the best way. I’m drooling just thinking about it.

But that’s my take. Maya’s version?

“It reminds me of something really sweet, but there’s a fruity note I can’t place. Apples maybe? I loved it the second I smelled it. The name’s easy to remember, and it smells like vanilla ice cream with caramel drizzle. It makes me happy. People say I smell like a cookie.”

She says that last part proudly, by the way.

What you really need to know is that this Janeiro perfume doesn’t tiptoe in. It kicks the door down with a caramel cloud and dares you not to love it. But if you give it a second, let it breathe on your skin, it mellows into something golden, creamy, and just sweet enough to make you feel like a walking dessert (in a very sophisticated, not cheap synthetic way).

So no, she didn’t want a phone or a gadget or a trendy whatever for her birthday. She wanted a perfume that made her feel like her best self. And she found it. In Cheirosa 71 Sol de Janeiro perfume, she found joy in every spritz. And her mother, you may ask? Same.

I don’t know how long this post will live on the internet ether, but it’s written as a sort of tribute. A tribute to my love for her, and her love for perfume.

If I ever leave behind any kind of legacy, I hope it’s this: The beauty of perfume, passed on to the next generation. And honestly, that’s no small feat, if you ask me. And if I make you give Cheirosa 71 Janeiro perfume a chance, then it turns into something unexpectedly big and special.