Animalic
April 10th, 2007
Quiet on the set! Dim the house lights, ready the “applause” sign, cue the guest-blogging-husband theme music… and, action!
“Hello and welcome, folks, to another edition of Ina’s Husband Knows Nothing About Perfume! Yes, your regularly-scheduled dose of perfume reviews and insights has been moved to tomorrow, when perfume aficionado Donna Hathaway will steer this ship back on course. In the meantime, an olfactory-challenged novice has the helm! Watch out!”
Okay, enough of that shtick. It was going from cheesy television show to something nautical, and that transition is too much for my tired mind to make right now. As long-time readers of this fairly young blog may know, when my wife gives me the task of writing here, my first instinct is to run away. Perfume is not a subject in which I am knowledgeable or even very interested. (I can hear your shocked gasps from here — an American man not interested in perfume?!) But over time, I must admit that I have grown to enjoy them. Part of being home with my wife is smelling perfumes, whether just floating in the air, on her, or when she asks me to smell something. Some women will wear a perfume for years (not to mention men who wear Old Spice or Polo for decades), making it part of their identity, but I don’t associate an individual fragrance with Ina. She is always trying something new and will often be covered in pleasant smells that she has dabbed on here or there to test. Ina will always be Ina, but she smells different all the time… and it’s always enjoyable to find out what she’s going to smell like today.
Before Ina became the perfume nut connoisseur that she is, perfumes were in two categories for me: “Smells good” and “Yuck”. That hasn’t changed much, but the other day Ina had me smell Stoned, and after it died down a bit I found myself saying, “There’s something animalic about this that I don’t like.” Ina was just as shocked as I was at the utterance, and with wide eyes she said, “There is an animalic note in it!” I think she may have even been proud of me in that moment. Yes, even Neanderthal husbands like hers can learn a thing or two about perfume, given enough time, exposure, and patience.
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10 Comments
1. Elle | April 10th, 2007 at 6:00 am
Applause! Standing ovation! Am extremely impressed. When my DH wakes up this morning he will immediately have a Stoned scented wrist put under his nose for comment. My guess is that he will revert to speaking his own perfume language – one I have yet to decipher – and use one of his favorite words from that language, such as “Huh” or “Mmgh”. I sadly suspect that even if I could translate them, these words are not expressing the complexity and depth of understanding of the English “animalic”….deep sigh. Ina chose well.
2. Marina | April 10th, 2007 at 7:19 am
Aww! Loved your post. very envious about the animalic thing. We have yet to progress that far.
More Mr Aromascope posts, please.
3. Mr. Aromascope | April 10th, 2007 at 7:37 am
Thanks, Elle & Marina! I was hoping the two of you would comment.
4. newproducts | April 10th, 2007 at 8:04 am
Aww, you are just too cute, Mr. Aromascope! And you have a better nose than I since I didn’t notice anything animalic about Stoned. Now, if only I could get Mr. Newproducts to be a little more discerning… Although, having learned the word “resin”, he uses it now for every scent he finds too pungent.
5. Victoria | April 10th, 2007 at 11:27 am
Congratulations! That is a sign of a great nose in the making.
Mr. Boisdejasmin said the same thing to me once, that it is enjoyable to know what I might be wearing on any given day. He does throw me in for a loop with comments that are similar to yours: “animalic note,” “it smells like it has sandalwood,” “interesting rose perfume.” Whenever he gets it right, the smug look on his face (constrasted with the shocked look of mine) is something!
Victoria
6. Tigs | April 10th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Mr. Aromascope, this is a great and touching tribute to Ina, and a very accurate description of the unwanted perfume education we foist on our spouses. Like me with my growing knowledge of cars, stocks and basketball, you sometimes just get dragged along for the ride, and eventually you start to kind of enjoy yourself. My husband – I shall call him Mr. EB – has a very good nose for notes, actually, and can be quite eloquent if he likes something. Liking something, however, is a rare occurence for him, and mostly he comments: “It’s too sharp.” I’m not entirely sure what he means by this, because sometimes the scent is quite smooth and blended, but I do know he does not mean it to be a compliment. Are there notes you know you don’t like?
7. Judith | April 10th, 2007 at 10:25 pm
Wonderful! My DH just guesses “cinnamon” on practically everything. Occasionally he gets it right:)
8. Mr. Aromascope | April 10th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
newproducts: Resin? Hmm, I’ll have to ask Ina about that.
Victoria: Good to hear form you.
Sounds like Mr. Boisdejasmin has been doing his homework! Or at least he’s being a good perfume-knowledge sponge. He, Mr. Columbina and I, and some of these other guys we’re hearing about should form some kind of “band of brothers.” I haven’t researched it, but I’m guessing there aren’t too many fraternal orders where men can talk freely about their thoughts and — dare I say it? — feelings on perfume, especially when the above are entirely due to our closeness to women who can’t get enough of the stuff. Pardon the run-on sentence!
Tigs: Your first sentence made me smile… and then laugh.
I’m not at your husband’s level yet. I can’t really identify notes I don’t like (or name them, anyway), but I know I like woody smells.
Judith: Oh, I’m always smelling food in her perfumes. It’s a guy thing.
And thanks to all of you for the kind words.
9. MonkeyPosh | April 14th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Hurrah for Mr. Aromascope! Awesome post!
Ina should be so proud!
Loved this!
10. Ina | April 14th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
Dude, you just earned some major points with this post.