Post #211906 by mbonga on Tue, Jan 31, 2006 11:04 PM

Somewhere around 1959-1962, some friends of our family took a trip to Hawaii, and as a present brought back a gift for my mother. This was a small, red, plastic container of a fragrant, ivory-colored cream that could be used as a deodorant or as a scented skin cream. This was the best smelling scent I've ever smelled and after many years my mother finally used it all up and unceremoniously discarded it. Therefore the name, origin, scent and other information were seemingly discarded permanently. Does anybody have a clue to what this might have been, or where it might have come from?

I know it's awfully hard to describe scents with words. My mother later suggested it was frangiapani. It was a very rich scent, so my guess is it was a mixture of scents, possibly even with some orchid scent, if that's possible, or maybe ginger and/or coconut. Probably some vanilla, come to think of it. I'd say it was definitely floral, but it wasn't a sharp feminine type of floral perfume, but more like some vanilla food, smelling good enough to eat. The container was a red disk about 2 inches across with a screw-off lid with gold writing on it. If Hawaiian gift shops still carry something like that, I'd be interested in knowing what it is. I know it's a long shot, but this forum might just have some vintage Hawaiiana experts who remember something similar in gift stores around that time.