metaphortunate son (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
metaphortunate) wrote2015-10-21 08:09 am
metaphortunate) wrote2015-10-21 08:09 am
Entry tags:
binary smells
The other day the temp I didn't like came to my desk to ask me a question. But first she stopped, sniffed the air, and asked, "Is that your perfume or someone else's?"
"I don't know," I said. It could have been me, or the person next to me, or the woman who had just walked by. "What does it smell like?"
"Huh? It smells like perfume," she said.
We stared at each other. "Then I don't know," I said.
I understand that lots of perfumes are complex and I personally cannot chirp "It smells like a spiced floriental with an amber drydown" off the top of my head. Nonetheless, perfume strong enough to notice does provide more than one bit of information!
Incidentally, I was wearing Lush's Breath of God. Tautologically, it does in fact smell like perfume, since it is a perfume and it smells like itself. However, if you sniff someone wearing it (and it is not a sillage monster) you are less likely to describe it as "perfumey" and more as "did you have a cantaloupe soaked in barbecue sauce, Vicks Vaporub, and Ivory soap for lunch?" It is deeply weird and I love it.
"I don't know," I said. It could have been me, or the person next to me, or the woman who had just walked by. "What does it smell like?"
"Huh? It smells like perfume," she said.
We stared at each other. "Then I don't know," I said.
I understand that lots of perfumes are complex and I personally cannot chirp "It smells like a spiced floriental with an amber drydown" off the top of my head. Nonetheless, perfume strong enough to notice does provide more than one bit of information!
Incidentally, I was wearing Lush's Breath of God. Tautologically, it does in fact smell like perfume, since it is a perfume and it smells like itself. However, if you sniff someone wearing it (and it is not a sillage monster) you are less likely to describe it as "perfumey" and more as "did you have a cantaloupe soaked in barbecue sauce, Vicks Vaporub, and Ivory soap for lunch?" It is deeply weird and I love it.
no subject
And the same with beer. Where I am intellectually aware that they all have different flavours, but they all have this overwhelming "I AM BEER" flavour that so completely overwhelms every other flavour that I can't discern anything more subtle.
no subject
I'm not quite the same way with perfume, but in general I would describe perfume as flowers (&c.) and That Sharp Smell. Which I don't think is Iso E Super, as I get the same reaction out of Axe Body Spray (former boss, no flowers, just "What is that horrible smell??"), and I doubt Axe Body Spray is going that extra chemical mile. But it's fair to say that most perfumes and scented products smell to me like diluted Axe Body Spray plus flowers, or plus chocolate, or whatever. (For some reason scented soaps do the opposite, and smell like hot iron + flowers, or chocolate, or whatever.)