Intrigue and Indifference

Before I forget- because I'm still running around and likely won't stop for hours- I went to Macy's to look for a comforter and remembered to smell Chanel No. 5. I read this article about the perfect scent and there were some really neat things about this "gold standard of perfumes."

"[Coco] Chanel wanted a perfume that was clean but sexy, that blended the sultry notes of jasmine and May rose with the smell of soap and fresh-scrubbed skin." Ernest Beaux, the perfumer, "had fallen in love with the scent of fresh snow melting into Russia's famous 'black soil,' chernozem." And that was the goal for this scent.

Chanel No. 5 was made using aldehydes- new synthetic compounds that allowed Beaux to create a new scent rather that the standard practice of replicating existing scents. Out of the variations he presented, she liked numbers 5 and 22, and eventually chose No. 5. Other numbers- including 22- are still sold, but No. 5 is still the favorite. A bottle is sold somewhere in the world every 30 seconds. And it's $400 an ounce.

I figured I could find it at Macy's and had envisioned having to endure snotty looks from the perfume lady, but nobody was there and the Chanel testers were sitting out on a special stage on the counter. I sniffed the bottle, but couldn't smell anything, so I sprayed it on my left wrist. Cough. I am overwhelmed by the smell of old lady.

I picked up another bottle that looked different, but still said No. 5. I sprayed that on my right wrist. WAY too much. Old lady.

Now all I need is a fur coat and lipstick running out the wrinkles in my lip outline. Dismayed, I left the women's Macy's store and headed over to the men's/housewares Macy's and found a killer deal on a comforter, so that me feel better.

Now it's several hours later and I am less offended by the scent. I still don't think this one's mine, but I am kind of intrigued by it. I can't tell if I like it or not. I don't think I do- not enough to wear it- and I wish this had been it, because I was sold when I read that it's supposed to smell like dirt. Have you smelled really good dirt? Crayola made a crayon that smelled like dirt and they got it really close. I don't know what black soil smells like, but I bet it's awesome. I can smell the jasmine and I can also smell the soap. It does smell clean, but also with something sultry.  Weird. Different. I don't know.

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