Perfumes & Smells

[SANDRO43]

Perfumes and smells play a subtle role in human relationships, much less evident than in animals since we lost most of our olfactory capacities during our evolution from hunters-gatherers, when it was something much more essential for survival, but still there nonetheless.

Smell is the oldest of our senses, the least rational, and the most relativistic.

A smell is a chemical message, analogous to what simple, monocellular organisms use to exchange information and sense their environment. IIRC, olfactory messages are sent to the oldest part of our brain, the Reptilian Complex (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reptilian_brain).

This would also account for its irrationality: while we can recreate mentally a visual image or a sound, we cannot really recreate a smell at will.

By relativistic I actually mean time travel : you sense a long-forgotten smell, say of freshly-mown hay, and you are instantly catapulted back to when you were visiting your country relatives as a city boy, for instance. 

Places have their own distinct smells, too: whenever I catch a whiff of rose-based air sweeteners, I'm suddenly back in a London department store or cinema. A certain type of sandalwood-scented Indian soap carries me to the Maldive Islands, where it was a staple bathroom fixture, etc.

And my favourite ladies' perfume is still Eau de Rochas, fresh but with a subtle hint of lily-of-the-valley.

What's yours ?

[jb]

Just for the record, I bathe every day and am pretty much "smell" neutral,,, my dog, otoh, can't say the same.  A lifetime of cigars has left me unimpressed with perfumes,,, I prefer women to smell,,, well, not to smell.

[I/O]

And my favourite ladies' perfume is still Eau de Rochas, fresh but with a subtle hint of lily-of-the-valley.

What's yours ?

Think I'd be killed if I told.

I/O

[Serebro]

And my favourite ladies' perfume is still Eau de Rochas, fresh but with a subtle hint of lily-of-the-valley.

What's yours ?

I like wood-flowers perfume's group on the whole.
Especially now when  it's cold and I miss spring and summer... And I also like something fresh.
they remind me of something good and pleasant...
I like Rose(Paul Smith)
Oxygen(Lanvin)
Hot Couture(Givenchy)
I like Kenzo perfume but there are too many people who use it so it's a little boring now...