I Love A Good Scent!

I love wearing perfumes and colognes. I usually buy them after a good endorsement from friends ...  or sometimes I have to go to the extremes of actually sniffing their necks just to get a good close-up whiff.  You will not believe this but there are times I have to run after strangers in malls, and at parties just to ask them a question that either made them smile or look at me like something is wrong with me: "I am sorry sir, but it is imperative I have to ask this question. What cologne are you wearing ... sir?" 

Did they smile because asking these questions is audacious and inappropriate ... but I just can't let the opportunity slip, otherwise my punitive inner voice will punish me no end for missing the chance of the lifetime.  If I will keep my mouth shut, there is no chance to know the answer to the question that will bug me for the rest of the week like crucifixion ... maybe a month. How stupid could I be for getting stuck & not doing anything?

Aside from endorsements, I also monitor quality fragrances in magazine pull-offs (an advertising strategy in the West) Haven't you wondered... how can you smell the fragrance if it is advertised on the radio or on TV? Or worse ... on billboards or on social media? Besides after I pull off a fragrance from a pull-offs in a magazine page ... being free I  can smell it over and over again until my breath smell like the cologne I was sniffing.  

Going home for vacation is another rare chance for me to update my olfaction genius by visiting Fragrance shops and Duty-Free shops in airports.  I always buy colognes as pasalubong and spending $600 worth of perfumes I always make sure to get even with these duty-free brats. You may be surprise how many testers, perfume samples, and freebies I can get just by sweet-talking to them.

And there was this weird habit I developed when I frequented Macy's Bloomingdales, Hollister, and A and F. Before I go to work ... I do a free merry-go-round of free wafts from different fragrances testers on display. My manager couldn't hide his curiosity when he said: "I bet you spare no expense buying these expensive colognes. Embarrassed by that comment, I still manage to say: " I can't help it, Sir! A good scent is an itch .... I always wanted to scratch."

I also love to see the fancy little glasses these perfumes are housed in. Why glass? Glass rarely reacts with whatever is stored in it, that’s the primary reason. Another reason is the glass is transparent so the user can monitor how much perfume is left just by glancing at the container. And last reason, glass can be made elegant by the addition of colored swirls, twirls, etc. making the perfume seem much more mysterious. 

The fragrance industry to date has resorted to gimmicks and the glass containers are getting much-needed attention.  The glass can be blown in very artistic shapes, maybe two spheres topped by a glass stopper with gold trim around each sphere. 

If the perfume is light sensitive then one can use brown glass or place the glass bottle in a fabric bag to protect it from light. All good reasons people put perfume in glass bottles. I’m sure there are other reasons just as valid. 

And being a hoarder and a collector myself, my anal nature pushes me to a great length of consuming only half a bottle of each brand and then proceed to the next scent and not touching the remaining half. For posterity perhaps. My son suggested, he will use the rest of the cologne if I don't want it to and I responded: "Over my dead body. These half-filled containers will be placed on display in my special cabinet in front of a CCTV, and I will throw the keys away ... never to be opened ... again.

Now 25 years in America, I thought of myself as a connoisseur of the sort ... a CognoScenti" (aka a person who loves perfume and a maestro virtuoso who can distinguish between a good fragrance and a bad fragrance. This however has its own drawback, because my sons also love perfumes, but the problem is they still need to fine-tune their noses and their skill in appreciating olfactory masterpieces. 

Knowing my gift though, they trust my choices ... so before going to school they ransack my cabinet, unmindful of the CCTV just to get the whiff of these expensive fragrances. Nay, it is not just a whiff or a puff ... they are practically bathing in a rainbow of fragrances ... then I started reminding them of the saying: " you may have not known it but anything in excess is poison to others."

Because of my propensity for scents and smell, one of my colleagues gifted me a cologne (for Xmas exchange gift) bought from heavy knows where. I appreciated the thought though, but reminding me that I have not used the scent yet in her memory is too overbearing for comfort especially since I don't like the smell of her gift.

Another snag is when people notice you are wearing a nice smelling cologne, they too want you to notice they too are into fragrances. So they start sweeping you off your feet by saying, "Your cologne really smells good." They deposited a generous remark and in return, they  get the much-expected interest  when you replied, "Not as good as yours."

Another drawback is when I go for a Pinas visit, my doctor's circle of friends (just like me) never fails to ask what cologne do I wear. Birds of the same feather, flock together. Half-hearted I said, "That's a personal question. Just enjoy the smell ... you don't need to ask."  

I remember one time I have to twist a finger of a friend just so he will tell me the name of the brand. But my friends in Manila went one step higher when they tied me at the back as they start opening my travel pouch of toiletries. Is this their way of treating somebody they haven't seen for a while? Or Manila has really gone so low after the presidential election with the way these doctors are behaving. The story's ending? When they know I am on the next flight to the Philippines they start buttering me up so I can bring them the branded perfumes as pasalubong.

But before going back to America I gave them a pep talk, and a piece of my mind: "You don't have to tell everybody ... the name of the cologne .... or else everybody in the hospital will smell the same. The economy is sinking. The rice is far from reaching P20 per kilo parameter. Let them wonder a little bit - a cologne that has no name, but smells good anyway - is an intriguing gimmick!