Part 20 - Research on perfumes

A challenge

There was this advertisement on television that I found amusing - you had a couple of women who were really fair appear on screen. One applied the cream on one arm and leg and got an instantaneous light brownish skin color - from being fully fair to partially fair! She showed both her hands, one hand on which she applied the cream and the other which was her natural color - the contrast was unbelievable; the cream had produced a uniform color that made the skin appear flawless; at least that’s how it seemed on TV; I wonder how it looked closeup - a lot of times makeup is great when viewed from a distance but up-close you can see the difference. The other lady applied it on her face and had a similar effect.

A friend of mine, who was online chatting with me, messaged that people back home want to get as fair as possible. The concept of ‘fair’ is relative. Even people who are fair want to become even more fair back home because they feel that they aren’t fair enough. And over here it seemed to be the reverse - they wanted to reduce a bit of the fairness and get some tan along with a smooth texture. She also challenged me that guys aren’t good when it comes to buying cosmetic items for women. And since guys love challenges, I decided to give it a shot. I began researching about the world of cosmetics whenever I found some time - first item on my research list was perfumes; something I hardly ever used.

Perfume mania

Perfumes are classified based on their strength - I had heard of the toilet water (the eau de toilette); ok, it’s not really toilet water - it’s just what I call it; toilette in French also means clothing and not toilet. On looking online I found that Eau de Toilette had a medium amount of perfume concentration. The stronger one was Eau de Parfum and the milder one was Eau de Cologne. I thought each perfume would have just one fragrance but no - there are three - the top note (the one you smell initially when you apply the perfume), the middle note (the smell you get after the top note dies - this is what you would smell majority of the time) and the base note (just at the end).

My Baltimore friend, who is good at this told me when I was in his home, “The essence is that the perfume fragrance spreads because of body heat. So you shouldn’t spray perfumes on dress.”

“Oh, but many do.”

“That’s the wrong way to apply it - you should apply it in parts like above the wrists and back of the neck or just behind the ears.”

“Interesting.”
"And perfume can even stain your dress."

He had a range of bottles stacked near his bed on the window sill.

“And branded ones are good?”

“No, needn’t be. Just that they are standard. Try the Calvin Klein on one hand and the other one on your other hand.”

The other one was light and didn’t sting your senses. Perfumes were quite expensive - a small bottle could cost anywhere from $20 onwards; on an average the branded ones were about $40 or so.

“Small bottles will last for a long time since each time you will only use a few sprays. So you don't need to buy a big bottle. And it might be a good idea to buy two small bottles of different fragrances rather than one big bottle.”

There were different fragrances - like the fruity ones, floral ones, mix of fruity and floral etc. You pick a fragrance depending on the type of person. And there were plenty of brands from which to select as well; other than Calvin Klein and Dior I had never heard of any other brand. Now I heard about Elizabeth Arden, Chanel, Burberry, Gucci etc. Phew - what a competition!