The flight staff checking in the night passengers at Singapore Changi do look a bit weary and uninvolved. Which is probably why the buxom maquillaged woman weighing our suitcases didn’t seem to mind (in fact big-laughed delightedly, when I asked her my second question (the first being ‘it definitely IS an aisle seat, isn’t it?’)
YOU SMELL GORGEOUS.
—— Do you mind if I ask what perfume you are wearing ? It’s AMAZING.)
( It felt like being trapped, forever, in a perfect mandarine paradise – so orangey and fruity and floral and clean it immediately revealed my own scuzzed-out shame : it’s been a hot and sweaty day; I have eaten the most onioned and garlicked meal of my life and it keeps leaking out from me in various ways; at the Peranakan Museum this morning I suddenly realized that my citronella/ lemongrass/ eucalyptus citriodora concoction I had created for India as a mozz prophylactic – but then dengue is here too – had ‘opened itself up’ in the bag I have been carrying around for a week, creating a peculiar amalgamated odour that has diminished my Smell Security even further ).
Her Cloud, in contrast, as our luggage was moved along the conveyor belt, was immaculate : fragrantly GLOWING with citrus and tangerine and white flowers in a scent that she said wasn’t available in the airport but which she had bought in Malaysia. Lemon. Jasmine. A heart of ‘Big Strawberry’. Whatever that it is. But who cares about the note origins or what I always thought was something of a tacky US brand *- which it surely is ?— * when the results – in the moment, so instantaneously mood boosting for a nervous passenger as myself — were so indisputably sexy and ravishing ?
I’ve always avoided VS. Scratchy fabric, arse torturing thongs & tit lifters designed for either silicone valleys or hazelnuts on wallpaper.
Now I shall have to get my sniffer on Bombshell.
I suspect some sort of alarm will go off at a short, buxom, untweaked, late middle aged woman enters the pink striped doors.
Oh my. So much to catch up on with you!
Isn’t India a beeyatch to get into nowadays? My husband is Indian and I still get the 3rd degree every time I enter AND exit.
Isn’t Ahsan’s jasmine attar fabulous? So affordable too. Their musk is wonderful too, very true to authentic deer musk and great for layering.
I have the Zara version of VS Bombshell which goes by the much more apt moniker of Juicy Fruits – less fake strawberry than the original but equally delicious and tropical. Completely fresh even in South Asian heat and humidity- never cloying.
I was amazed by how good it smells.
And strangely assuaged by the fact that it isn’t just us that are India rejects : if I had known this a few months ago I would have been much more careful with the application process.
It was all really stressful!!
I had to use the military grade DEET to deal with my time in “Malariaville” and OFF when I was in Malariaville PT2. I wish I had packed something different that didn’t stink but I took the “w”. (Irony is that I had a beloved coworker, in Malariapt2, with us that always smelled heavenly but was sickened by the assorted smells of the area).
Never heard of OFF but DEET is truly gag worthy – we stopped using it after a while, naively relying on my probably totally ineffective lemongrass preparation
Both have a nose punching effect. I am not throwing rocks. I am often left unprepared when it rains enough where I live and I don’t spray oil in collected water puddles.
Guilty secret: when I need a mood boost on a drab day I have been known to hit the local drugstore and pick up a $19.99 mainstream fragrance from their sale shelf, tearing off the cellophane while I’m in the parking lot and spraying myself with gay abandon the second I’m back in the car. Works every time. I was reminded of this when I was Googling Bombshell just now and saw on Fragrantica that it reminds members of Ferragamo Incanto Shine, coincidentally a recent cheap thrill.
So true. Sometimes context is everything.
I don’t know if the Bombshell Woman was wearing other mandarin scented products simultaneously, but Lordy she smelled divine.
Shocked by the carpark shenanigans knowing that Ric will be waiting
( someone gave me the Incanto Shine body milk last year at our anniversary do and I have been known to dabble).
Fruity is definitely sometimes good.