Taylor Swift doesn’t look at old photo albums to reminisce about past romances—she dabs on a bit of perfume. “Different smells bring different relationships to mind for me,” the singer-actress tells Allure in its December issue, where she poses for a spread inspired by a ’70s Cacharel fragrance ad. Swift, who will launch her first scent next fall, says she used to keep a big tray of fragrances at her parents’ house, and when she wanted to conjure up the image of a particular guy, she’d wear the scent that reminded her of that time. “I’d put on Abercrombie 8 to remember when I was in ninth grade and had my first boyfriend, because he gave me that,” Swift explains. Then there was the scent that helped boost her popularity. “The coolest girl in school wore Britney Spears Fantasy, and I had to copy her.” On the downside, fragrances can bring back bad memories, as in the case of a certain unnamed ex who wore a particular cologne. “Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue is still a difficult one for me to smell,” reveals Swift. And while she doesn’t reveal her former boyfriends’ signature scents, we can’t help but wonder which colognes some of her famous exes, including Taylor Lautner and John Mayer, wore. To go behind the scenes of Swift’s photo shoot, visit allure.com or pick up the December issue of Allure, on newsstands Nov. 23.