Rant about patchouli

This rank oil is commonly used by people in my local area.  I think something horrid must have happened to me associated with the oil, and I can’t stand it, as a result of that deep latent memory. 

It smells like rank armpits, and I often think it is used to hide body odour, but it actually works to enhance it. 

At times I have lied and said I am allergic to it, for people in my close proximity who I need to spend time with.  Yes, I was lying.  Better to lie than say “you stink, I can’t stand that oil you are wearing”.  Understandingly, last week I was at an opening and someone I knew fairly well was drowning in the stuff, so I just came right out and told him nicely, which embarassed him wholeheartedly and made him paranoid about being near me.

The nose just won’t switch off, and it astounds me that our senses of smell can vary so much that for some this is a desirable odour.

I have always had a sensitive nose, although I smoke.  I adore many smells, and make a point of aligning myself with certain fragrances, as I want to be associated with them.  I  have always  liked certain perfumes, and I love recognising scents, familiar and beautiful.  Occasionally I am passed by someone on the street who is wearing something divine, and I have felt like stopping them and asking them what it is.

In contrast, the other day I was rushing up the road, in the wake of a lady doused in patchouli.  I was gagging, as the wind caught her scent and nothing would stop it from cloying into me.  I honestly think that smelling a bad smell does you no good and  I had to overtake her, to gain my own righteous air! 

I really noticed the scents people wore last time I was in Paris.  Women seemed to wear the most delicious fragrances, and I was in heaven, it wasn’t overpowering, just lovely and pleasing.  I wondered if it had to do with the industry that engages with this, Paris being such a fashion center, but it seemed so prevalent.  Contrast that with chemist shop perfume counters in Australia, where not one perfume on offer is worth wearing.  I have checked!  Not a single one!  The perfumes that were available to the French were far superior and this was recoognised.  Albeit more expensive than chemist’s, the money is always well spent, when you consider how much joy you can get from a bottle, used sparingly it will last for years.

That said, I also love the smell of the human body without perfumes.  There are people I know who categorically don’t wear scents, but who emanate the most sensational odour.  Naturally it has to do with their body’s mechanisms and what they eat…it can be very sexy.  I think I have a little truffle sniffing pig in me, when I go to the Blue Mountains I hang my head out the window, sniffing voraciously as there is something growing there that I love so much, I want to live in it.