Nose Dose - My Fatal Attraction

My love affair with perfumes has been around for many years now.

It all started when I, all of five / six, would sniff like an eager beaver at the exquisitely beautiful sea-green bottle of French perfume that sat prettily on my Mum’s dressing table. Evenings, when she would take her customary shower, she would sometimes spritz some of its divine contents onto her wrists, and since I would invariably be looking wistfully at her, she, the generous soul that she is, would spritz some on my wrists too. I would smile gloriously at her, the rush of the fumes reaching my nose in one long, magical moment.

Cleopatra herself had fallen victim to this addictive, heady rush.

How can you blame me, a mere child?

Now I no longer am one – a child, I mean. And the undeniable charm of stepping into a fragrance boutique is too good to defy - the heady scent enveloping me in that fatal embrace – I stall all resistance – hold out my wrists – let the whiff that came out from the glass stopper settle down, and then purse my lips into a defeated smile.

The rest is all a blur - before you can say ‘Jack Robinson’ - out come the currency notes or the plastic, in goes the sleek bottle into the bag. Once home, a grinning me promptly displays it on my already groaning-from-the-weight-of-twenty-bottles-and-still-counting dressing table. Leaving TOOMA in a state of mild despair / exasperation - his hand clapped to his forehead.

The prices are a dampener though, this flamboyant passion is anything but cheap - a good fume setting you back by a few grand, but ensuring you smell like a dream.

You'd think the cost would deter me?

Ha! Fat chance!

Certainly not me, for whom it sure is one ‘Happy’ day, full of ‘Joy,’ call it ‘Euphoria’ or ‘Rapture,’ and ‘Intense Pleasure’ when she gets a ‘Chance’ to espy a ‘Lovely,’ ‘Very Irresistible’ ‘Bright Crystal,’ bottle with maybe a ‘Touch of Pink’ to it. The feeling is akin to being at the receiving end of some very potent ‘Hypnotic Poison,’ while downing some exquisitely wonderful ‘Champagne’ in the deep throes of passionate ‘Romance,’ and it would be a ‘Miracle’ if I were to pass it up like an ‘Addict’ who is off ‘Opium,’ ‘cos frankly fumes have become a bit of an ‘Obsession,’ for me and their ‘Magnetism’ is overpowering.

Of course, that you are the ‘Envy’ when you enter a room, is enough of a headrush too!

Doesn't hurt one wee bit...