Friday, May 02, 2008

Odds & Ends & Skin Chemistry

I've been spending afternoons babysitting my niece and evenings editing a patent my dad is working on for a large Japanese camera company. It turns out it doesn't matter much that I don't have a science background - the English is so terrible that it's enough that I simply correct grammar and language (e.g. replacing "quantized" with "quantified" and "time slices" with "time periods").

One interest I can pursue during all this is my obsession with perfume. While I watch Tori or correct text I am always bringing up my wrist to my nose for a sniff, checking the development of some scent on my skin. What I've discovered today is that a perfume that appears gorgeous on a scent strip can be disastrous combined with my skin chemistry.

Remember Fracas? Sparkling tuberose and loveliness? While the tuberose came on strong in the first few minutes after spraying, I began to detect another note . . . drying saliva. Now, three hours later, the thing has evolved into full-on restaurant bathroom freshener. I have scrubbed with soap, and yet I am still enveloped in a cloud of Glade. And this is just with one tiny spritz from a sample tube! The sillage (radius of sniffability) is ridiculously strong. Please, someone, just put me out of my misery.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I confess that I have a strong gag reflex when it comes to perfume (or any strong scent, for that matter). So, this post made me laugh. Glade air freshener...blech :-)

peace,
jenn

Mamadou said...

I prefer Eau de Febreze, personally.

myevilterran said...

Is sillage pronounced like barrage?

janjan said...

Yes, with the double-l pronounced as a "y".