Perfume

Do I like perfume? I would have to answer, not really, no. But there in lies the contradiction, because I do in fact wear a scent every day. So, I guess, I would more acurately have to say that I am very selective about the scent I wear. Generally, most perfumes give me a headache and make me slightly queasy. I can't stand heavy cloying scents or soapy flowery concoctions. What I think smells nice at the department store counter, in fact, becomes odious and odoriferous and I can't wait to scrub it off by the time I get home. But, after persistent trial and error, through the years I have found a few scents that are very nice and seem to compliment me. Always a nice thing to find something or someone that compliments you!

Last August, when I found out that THE one perfume that I truly liked, had been discontinued, I was a bit put out. How could the perfume manufacturers have the nerve to stop producing THE one scent that I like. Quickly getting over myself and the notion that the perfume industry had insulted me personally, I decided that it was time to embark on a quest to find a new scent, one that I could live with in harmony.

I am well aware of the power of scent. A particular scent can bring back a flood of memories and make me recall poignant times in my life, in ways that photographs can not. For instance, every day when I spritz on a certain hair product I use to de-tangle and shine up my hair I am reminded of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. How odd you say! Yes, it is odd and I really can't explain it. Deciphering the label I see that this particular hair tonic is made with something called "tree oil". Perhaps that is the secret scent that triggers my memory. Maybe at the Uffizi they clean their paintings with tree oil for more brilliance or maybe they mop down the gallery floors with tree oil to make them shine for all the foreign tourists. Well, whatever it is, something in this hair tonic always makes me think about the semester I spent in Florence. All I know, is that for a brief moment, after I wash my hair, when I breath in the aroma of this hair product, I am transported to ambiently lit galleries filled with renaissance paintings, and I can hear the muffled sounds of Florentine traffic and motor scooters in the distance.

I am happy to report, that after test driving many perfumes last summer and making a couple of flawed purchases (that by the way ended up in the trash) I finally found something light, fresh and well suited to my personal chemistry and delicate sensibilities. I found something that would always make me recall the purple shadows falling on the Piazza del Popolo at sunset, during my trip to Rome, in the fall of 2004.