My mom never wore any scent, not even scented detergent, but still had the most distinctive scent. Some beautifully soft skin smell. About 3 years after she died, I passed someone in a store who somehow smelled just like her. As soon as that scent hit my nose, before I even comprehended what was happening, I started crying.
Now that was sublime. Painful, but an incredible moment of being connected through time and planes of being by a scent I can’t even describe. And the best part is is that there’s no crap for me to buy to get that experience again. It was just serendipity and all the more beautiful for the brief, intense moment.
Thanks for the sublime connection to scent. I will be thinking about this for a long time.
You know what I smell? Desperation. Desperation literally smells like these packaged synthetic fragrances to capture yet more attention and money and our withering imaginations under the spiritual disease of capitalism, where words get to mean anything you want if you’re selling something. One day we will smell lilacs blooming on the branch and appreciate it specifically because they are so beautifully fleeting. We will continue waking up, one by one, as we tire of the soulless existence of everything and every experience being sold to us. Because I know more and more of us are sick of this garbage. Anyway, en point take, as usual.
God knows i've tried but - I will never ever ever be a fan of artificial fragrance. I hate it on me, it is distracting on others. I don't like being hit by a wall of created scent in a home, a store, a hotel, or on a random passing stranger. even when the doses are smaller, like when you have to snuggle up to realize someone is wearing fragrance, it's not appealing to me. am I the only one?
I'm with you. Artificial fragrances on humans (even if technically pleasant smelling) often triggers feelings of suspicious. Love a scented room, but scented people... Hmmm i dunno.
I'm allergic to synthetic scents and in addition have a highly sensitive sense of smell, it's like a superpower but it's awful unless I'm in the woods. It's not just perfume, laundry and cleaning products, etc. pretty much everything. Most of the population doesn't even consider this, and it's far more common than even those who are aware think. Every public space should be scent free, I've had to move tables in restaurants because someone was doused, I haven't been able to enter stores because of it, sometimes I can't get on elevators with people waiting who I can already smell, once I had to give my dog a bath because a women wearing far too much perfume pet him and it was all I could smell. I had to sit through Hamilton at the theater with cut tampons up my nose mouth breathing because the woman in front of me smelled like the entire perfume factory and I still had a cluster migraine at the end of it. Once I had to ask a good friend of mine to leave because she came over wearing too much knowing I'm allergic, the problem was she wore it everyday so she got so used to it she couldn't smell it on herself unless she used an outrageous amount. It's just more toxic chemicals infecting and polluting the air we breathe and the planet. Get rid of them all.
Now...don't freak out, organic oils I can tolerate in reasonable amounts, I even have a diffuser in my home and can use lightly organic scented candles. But even with those I have to be careful because I'm still allergic to florals.
These chemicals are harmful, when you spray yourself with perfume you are inhaling toxic chemicals.
When I learned about the concept of the sublime in my architectural history classes I learned it to be distinctly different from beauty, a subversion that inspires the same degree of awe. Kendall Jenner doesn’t represent the Sublime to me
Thanks for sharing your reflections on perfume. As others have posted, I can’t stand artificial fragrances. And *everything* these days seems to be highly scented, from dish soap to deodorant. If I wear a perfume, it’s from Black Phoenix Alchemy or it’s an essential oil. I wish the girls’ locker room smelled like vanilla when I was in school. It might have allayed some of the extreme discomfort i had being naked around girls who were more developed and beautiful than I was. Our locker rooms smelled of stale sweat and gym shoes, with an undertone of disinfectant.
My mom never wore any scent, not even scented detergent, but still had the most distinctive scent. Some beautifully soft skin smell. About 3 years after she died, I passed someone in a store who somehow smelled just like her. As soon as that scent hit my nose, before I even comprehended what was happening, I started crying.
Now that was sublime. Painful, but an incredible moment of being connected through time and planes of being by a scent I can’t even describe. And the best part is is that there’s no crap for me to buy to get that experience again. It was just serendipity and all the more beautiful for the brief, intense moment.
Thanks for the sublime connection to scent. I will be thinking about this for a long time.
What a beautiful memory, thanks for sharing it.
You know what I smell? Desperation. Desperation literally smells like these packaged synthetic fragrances to capture yet more attention and money and our withering imaginations under the spiritual disease of capitalism, where words get to mean anything you want if you’re selling something. One day we will smell lilacs blooming on the branch and appreciate it specifically because they are so beautifully fleeting. We will continue waking up, one by one, as we tire of the soulless existence of everything and every experience being sold to us. Because I know more and more of us are sick of this garbage. Anyway, en point take, as usual.
God knows i've tried but - I will never ever ever be a fan of artificial fragrance. I hate it on me, it is distracting on others. I don't like being hit by a wall of created scent in a home, a store, a hotel, or on a random passing stranger. even when the doses are smaller, like when you have to snuggle up to realize someone is wearing fragrance, it's not appealing to me. am I the only one?
I'm with you. Artificial fragrances on humans (even if technically pleasant smelling) often triggers feelings of suspicious. Love a scented room, but scented people... Hmmm i dunno.
I'm allergic to synthetic scents and in addition have a highly sensitive sense of smell, it's like a superpower but it's awful unless I'm in the woods. It's not just perfume, laundry and cleaning products, etc. pretty much everything. Most of the population doesn't even consider this, and it's far more common than even those who are aware think. Every public space should be scent free, I've had to move tables in restaurants because someone was doused, I haven't been able to enter stores because of it, sometimes I can't get on elevators with people waiting who I can already smell, once I had to give my dog a bath because a women wearing far too much perfume pet him and it was all I could smell. I had to sit through Hamilton at the theater with cut tampons up my nose mouth breathing because the woman in front of me smelled like the entire perfume factory and I still had a cluster migraine at the end of it. Once I had to ask a good friend of mine to leave because she came over wearing too much knowing I'm allergic, the problem was she wore it everyday so she got so used to it she couldn't smell it on herself unless she used an outrageous amount. It's just more toxic chemicals infecting and polluting the air we breathe and the planet. Get rid of them all.
Now...don't freak out, organic oils I can tolerate in reasonable amounts, I even have a diffuser in my home and can use lightly organic scented candles. But even with those I have to be careful because I'm still allergic to florals.
These chemicals are harmful, when you spray yourself with perfume you are inhaling toxic chemicals.
I am with you. I can’t handle artificial fragrances. Makes me want to run and hide.
truly no one is doing it like you
I'll tell you what was sublime. This reflection! Which was in itself transactional because I'm a paid subscriber.
When I learned about the concept of the sublime in my architectural history classes I learned it to be distinctly different from beauty, a subversion that inspires the same degree of awe. Kendall Jenner doesn’t represent the Sublime to me
I don’t believe sublime is compatible with injections and plastic surgery.
Thanks for sharing your reflections on perfume. As others have posted, I can’t stand artificial fragrances. And *everything* these days seems to be highly scented, from dish soap to deodorant. If I wear a perfume, it’s from Black Phoenix Alchemy or it’s an essential oil. I wish the girls’ locker room smelled like vanilla when I was in school. It might have allayed some of the extreme discomfort i had being naked around girls who were more developed and beautiful than I was. Our locker rooms smelled of stale sweat and gym shoes, with an undertone of disinfectant.