| Jul. 5th, 2009 @ 11:05 pm The Whims of the Self on Scent and Memories |
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Current Mood:  thoughtful
Goodness, what is it about the sense of smell, and how everyone's got memories brought back to them by passing whiffs of the scents of the garden, man made scent and our own personal reactions?
I'm just musing, as I got given a sample pot of the vanilla body stuff by lush, and would dearly like to like it, but I fear it's too sweet for me. I love vanilla, but not Lush's over sweet version. :( Perhaps the scent is too knockout for me with the extra combination of cocoa butter (which I hate on its own) and the very sweet tonka bean, which again makes some of lush's products too sweet for me. I suppose it's all about a person being a person. I love the smell of wet gardens and the rain, and the slightest whiff of Joop's Homme, still after all this time, has me turning to sniff the air and appreciate the scent and partly without thinking, to see if it's the bloke, I went out with, who used to wear it, all those years ago.
And of course the smell of certain places can take me straight back to moments at Sidmouth Festival, or being with someone or somewhere - whoosh!, I'm straight back there, as Pop Larkin says to Mademoiselle Dupont, in A Breath of French Air, by H.E.Bates, about his memories and associations with certain flowers.
It's also interesting, how I like a scent from lush or the body shop in one format, but can't abide it in another form. Obviously some ingredients may alter according to which form it's made for, and in certain forms a scent may be much stronger - I have the lush vanilla dusting powder but cannot feel at home with the bath ballistic or the above.
Personally I'd recommend the brazil nut butter from the body shop or lush's sympathy for the skin ( I love benzoin and labdanum -comes from working in Treadwell's! If you don't know, Benzoin smells of vanilla and nutmeg, and labdanum is deep deep earthy sweet, rich scent, if you remember impulse's Flamenco body spray!), if you're having a seriously self-loathing day. Thaere's good reasons why I make sure I don't run out of the former.
Just on a whimsical note, what do you all like and/or not like? And/or what brings up interesting and/or good memories for you? Least, I know, if I should need to buy cheer up or birthday presents!! |
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