Sweet Smell of Spring

                 The pandemic is slowly fading away and many places are opening up so that we can all get back to our lives as we once knew. There will be precautions going on but with spring coming up, we are on our way to mingling and just going out to visit friends, family and loved ones.

                 Don't you just love the sweet smell of spring? It reminds us that summer is coming and we will be able to go out to mingle after hunkering down not only from Covid, but also from the bad weather we've had.

            I don't know about you, but when I go out to visit friends or be amongst strangers, I like to smell good. Granted, there are a lot of people who are allergic to certain smells these days and I'm not talking about bad smells or body odor but from the very smell that we love to put on our persons. That's right, perfumes.

            So what are perfumes? It is a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds, fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agreeable scent. 

           Ancient texts and archaeological excavations show the use of perfumes in some of the earliest human civilizations. Modern perfumery began in the late 19th century with the commercial synthesis of aroma compounds such as vanillin or coumarin, which allowed for the composition of perfumes with smells previously unattainable solely from natural aromatics. (See Webster Dictionary for more details).

           The perfume industry spends thousands of dollars trying to buy our attention through fashion, social media and marketing. According to the latest report by IMARC Group, titled “Perfume Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2021-2026”, the global perfume market reached a value of US$ 32.8 Billion in 2020. Can you imagine what it will be like in 2021?

        That being said, you want the type of perfume that fits your style, personality and attraction. I personally like the sweet, fresh, citrus type smells where as others prefer musk scents or flower-like smells. Before I started really getting into fragrances, I had no idea that the type of fragrance sticks with you depending on your own body chemistry. Your skin type also affects how long the fragrance will stay on you, regardless if you buy a cheap knock off or the real deal. If you buy an imitation or counterfeit, it may only last a minute and you're stuck wondering why. Yes, perhaps because you bought the knock off but then again, it could be you. It's all about the MHC's, but we will discuss that next time. If you can't wait, check out MHC? to get a little bit of what that means.