Stink again

[mrissa]

I spent another chunk of time standing in Target smelling the shampoos. The kind I bought last time didn't smell bad but makes my hair feel gucky when I wash it. (Gucky is a highly technical term, of course.) I have very low requirements of shampoo. It's not as though I'm asking anything complicated of my hair more than once every few years, and that's always been with a great deal of help from a trained professional so that I can be in someone's wedding. And it may be that no one ever wants me to be a bridesmaid again. I would be neither happy nor sad about that, I don't think. Anyway, "gucky" is over the line, so this shampoo is not for me. After that I wanted to go home, but we needed groceries, so more smelling. Ah well. Dinner will be good smells, I think, and consistent and well-layered ones.

Incidentally, I would like to thank all of you who are squeeing over long lists of BPAL scents and putting them behind cut tags. I'm glad you're enjoying them. I'm glad if you smell nice (mostly I have not sampled the smells of the friendslist interested in BPAL since they received their orders, so I can't say I'm glad that you smell nice). But for someone with my scent focus, the lists of twenty or so perfumes and their component scents gets to be rather...um, frightening, actually.

You know how some people will visualize the color pink if they hear or read the word "pink"? I do that with scent. And my brain is firmly aware that scents don't disappear instantaneously the way sounds or colors can. So when you're giving me a list of "sandalwood and freesia and grapefruit and oleander and roses and musk and brimstone and garlic and chives and clean baby and chocolate chip cookies and cat pee," somewhere in the long list of scents, my brain goes into overload mode and I want to hide under the desk until it goes away. (Do you want to know why I want to hide under the desk? Because I know what the desk smells like. Cherrywood and three or four kinds of paper and ink and toner and the carpet and a little bit the people who live here. I can process those things as a layered familiar scent rather than having them all try to grab my scent imagination.) So: glad you're all getting in touch with your scent-sensitive side, but I'm firmly in touch of mine, and I thank you for the cut-tags, from the bottom of my heart.

Also I have very firm notions of what Niddhogg smells like, and trust me, you don't want to.

One last "stupid brain tricks" note that has nothing to do with scent: my brain decided that the spare corner that wasn't doing anything should come up with clothes yhlee could wear and enjoy. Why yhlee? I don't know. Why clothes? I don't know. Why today? I don't know. It's a bad habit I don't consciously control, mentally composing clothing. I don't claim that it makes sense.

Comments

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

What I want is something like the Star Trek materializer doohickey (another technical term, and I know it has a real name but I'm blocking) so I can physically compose clothing.

"Twin set, pinkish-red, cotton sweater-knit. Sleeveless shell, armholes deeper than standard, slim-fitting, jewel neck. Cardigan, pearl buttons, crew neck. High-hip length. 1-inch ribbing at bottom of both pieces." Or "Dress, calf-length, midnight blue woven wool. Princess-fitted. Flared sleeves." Or whatever it was you wanted, preferably with a viewscreen so you could make adjustments before materializing it out. Wouldn't that be nice?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes. I want a replicator, too.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

These were loose and partially blue (the top was blue).

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

The whole BPAL thing confuses me. I mean, in theory I understand it and apparently all these people are enjoying it, and that's great. But...buying smelly things? That you've never smelled? Online? Without a scratch 'n' sniff monitor?

I don't get it.

[timprov.livejournal.com]

You don't have a scratch 'n' sniff monitor yet?

Jeez, get with the times.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

It gets worse. I don't even have a wireless mouse.

[markgritter.livejournal.com]

Bah! Wireless?!? Bah, I say!

Mice are supposed to have tails. Otherwise they're... I dunno. Gophers.

Bits are supposed to move through pipes. How can you have a fat pipe when there's no pipe?!

Bah!

[copperwise.livejournal.com]

You mean my monitor isn't scratch 'n' sniff? But the sales guy SAID.

Hmph.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

That makes sense, and part of my confusion is probably a lack of familiarity with perfume in general. I admit that I'm kind of intrigued by the thing, in the way that one is intrigued by something that one knows nothing of.

Mmm, books. There's a nice-smelling thing that I'll happily buy unsniffed.

[laurel]

If you ever do want to sniff some BPAL, I have an embarassingly large collection by now. And no, I wouldn't throw it all at you (or anyone), just drag out a scent at a time or something.

I sympathize re shampoo. Whenever I find something that seems to work, it gets changed or discontinued or simply isn't stocked very many places. Drives me crazy.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Well, tell you what: if you're wearing BPAL stuff next time I see you, tell me what it is. That's almost entirely low-pressure on both of us, right?

[greatestofnates.livejournal.com]

Does anybody make unscented shampoos? Then you could go to a massage oil or sauna store and get a dropper with an appropriate scent to add to the plain soap smell. I would totally hack my shampoo like that if I cared.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Many people do not claim a scent for their shampoo. I think this is rather different from being unscented. I haven't yet found a shampoo I consider scent-neutral.

[greatestofnates.livejournal.com]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=no+scent+shampoo

This is what I'm talkin' about:
http://www.healthy-house.co.uk/products/products.php?product_id=282&prod_gp_id=14

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The second link gave me an SQL error.

See, here's the thing: when people say something isn't scented, it doesn't mean that it doesn't smell. It doesn't even mean that it doesn't smell quite strongly. And I refuse to keep ordering things on the internet scent unsmelled until I find one that's genuinely neutral. I'd rather go through the products I can actually check first.