And So It Begins....

Originally posted on Dreamwidth on 5th Jan 2010

You could argue that writing about perfume is a bit like dancing about architecture. Smell can be fleeting, ephemeral, whilst body chemistry can skew things out of all proportion. MovieMom used to claim that Chanel No. 5 smelt "like cats" on her, whilst for me, Dior's Poison smelt like bubblegum. (This is not necessarily a bad thing, Poison was not made for my 20 yr old self, although it was perfect for my friend Maria, 5 ft 10, Cypriot, flaming auburn hair, goddess made flesh, damn her...)



Yet I've always been intruigued by scent. After a brief dalliance with Lentheric's Tramp in my late teens (yes, bought by a boyfriend...) I moved on, swiftly, to Rive Gauche, then Jazz, LouLou and Ysatis. My first niche fragrance was Cosmetics To Go, Ginger, a bottle I still have, but use sparingly now.

I stopped wearing perfume of any sort when I became pregnant with Faun as I couldn't handle any strong smells, and then in the mire of depression, there seemed no point in smelling pretty.

Climbing out of the wreckage of that, along with my marriage, I sorted out my wardrobe and makeup, but scent was still missing, and it was only a couple of years ago, when wicked wicked LJ friends introduced me to BPAL that I started to think about perfumes again.

I have a hell of a nose, a veritable rudder. Strong scents, brutally applied can knock me for six. I can still smell Matt's BPAL on his skin at the end of the day, long after he's thought it has worn off. Clinique's Aromatics Elixir can stop me short in my tracks when shopping, MovieMom's favourite perfume for the last years of her life.

I have BPALs that I wear to help me sleep, and some that I use like a comfort blanket when I'm feeling shaky. Recently I've been on a total BPAL frenzy that was only halted when Christmas came along and I had to spend my disposable cash on my best beloveds.

Its ironic that I've decided that this year of Operation Knock Up should also be my year of perfume. Using this as a good starting point, and with the help of The Perfumed Court, I plan on smelling and reviewing as many perfumes as I can this year, or at least until I become pregnant. I will review BPALs along with more mainstream perfumes as that's an obsession that won't go away (and also there are no BPAL reviews in the guide, which saddens me). I'm hoping that the precision needed to review scent may help me in other writing, both in terms of discipline and style.

And yes, I recognise this is a mad project, in a long line of mad and obsessive projects. I'm fine with that.

Hope you enjoy what will come next ;)