Aldi shopper's surprising $5 nostalgic find sends customers wild: 'Smells like high school'

If you were a teenager in the 90s there might be an aroma that is all too familiar for you. Sickly sweet (although, thankfully, not terribly long-lasting) and often mingled with the faint smell of sweat and hormones, one whiff of this particular olfactory assault could send you straight back to your adolescence.

Of course, I am talking about Impulse - the ubiquitous body spray loved by teen girls that was neither perfume nor deodorant. Available in fragrances such as Romantic Spark, Merely Musk and Vanilla Kisses (real high-end stuff here, folks) these skinny spray cans were a fixture of almost every oversized 1990s school bag.

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Over the years there have been numerous Reddit and Facebook posts reminiscing about Impulse, and even the odd pleas for certain scents to make a comeback, and now one Aldi shopper has stumbled on a stash that would make even the best of us want to pull out a Girlfriend tape, flower-adorned floppy hat and some slap bangles and call it a day.

'So much trauma'

Taking to a Facebook group dedicated to Aussie nostalgia, the shopper shared her discovery with her fellow members writing, "Look what I saw in Aldi today!"

The post included a photo of twin packs of the Impulse "Merely Musk" cans and it immediately sent everyone into reminiscence overdrive.

"The combination of BO and this smell of every high school girls sports change room," one person laughed while another lamented that "it never covered BO" (it really didn't).

"Noooooo, so much trauma from that in the change room at school," echoed someone else.

"This image smells like High School," another added.

"Looks like an impulse shipping container bobbed up from the 90s," someone else wrote.

"Omg!!! I can smell it!!," said yet another.

And, in what had to be my favourite comment of all, was the one from the person who wrote, "These smell like heartbreak, bad decisions and teenage angst."

YES, SIS! YES!

Reddit users remember Impulse

With the refrain of 'Bad Attitude' ringing in my ears (IYKYK), I headed over to Reddit to see what folks over there were saying about the illustrious body spray and it did not disappoint.

"Oh my god, this brings back memories of dousing myself in spray so my mum couldn’t smell the cigarettes on me when I was a teenager hahaha," one Redditor said and, ngl, this is EXACTLY what I used the spray for too.

Another wrote, "I found 'Merely Musk' and was instantly back on year 6 snow trip 😆 it is known as snow trip spray here, my daughter is 14 and thinks it hilarious that it takes me straight back to 1991."

Amongst the nostalgia, there were a fair few comments also sharing the trauma of growing up in a time when teenagers thought that body spray was an appropriate alternative to deodorant (or showering) as well as a couple of people who admit they still buy Impulse on the regular.

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"I still buy this," one fan wrote. "I'm in my 40s. I'm their only customer."

Where to buy Impulse now

So, if you are looking to take a trip back to a simpler time when our only care in the world was making sure we were home in time for The Girl from Tomorrow, you can buy Impulse from Aldi, Coles or, as a few people suggested, The Reject Shop.

Sadly, not all of the fan-favourite fragrances are still available (RIP, Incense) but, hey, with the revival of all things 90s that is currently happening, it could only be a matter of time before we are all walking around smelling like an overcrowded gym locker room once more.

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