The Emperors New Perfumes

Remember that story of "The Emperors New Clothes" by Hans Christian Anderson? The two tailors said about their work, "we are two very good tailors and after many years of research we have invented an extraordinary method to weave a cloth so light and fine that it looks invisible. As a matter of fact it is invisible to anyone who is too stupid and incompetent to appreciate its quality."

When they were finished their work they said, "we're almost finished, but we need a lot more gold thread. Here, Excellency! Admire the colors, feel the softness!"

The Prime Minister was afraid to look stupid so he agreed that the cloth was everything the tailors said. But to himself he thought "I can't see anything, if I see nothing, that means I'm stupid! Or, worse, incompetent!" If the prime minister admitted that he didn't see anything, he would be discharged from his office.

As a novice natural perfumer I fell into that same trap that the Prime Minister fell into.

To cut a long story short, I have a nose, I smell a perfume, I either like it or I don't, but I know if it's a good perfume. Take Mandy Aftel's Perfumes for instance, most of them I adore, they are good perfumes. She is a brilliant perfumer and she is successful because she makes amazing perfumes.

But there is a "certain perfumers" natural blends which made me recoil the first time I smelled them. I let my friends and neighbors smell them, they too recoiled. I let my husband smell them and he warned me never to wear them. One of the perfumes got a unanimous "it smells like the toilet cleaner they use in our school" from a group of teenagers (interestingly they were each of them alone when they smelled it and each one said exactly the same thing- and they all attended the same school! ) They are familiar with what natural perfumes smell like and love most of the ones I have from the Aftelier range (I have over 12 of Mandy's perfumes in samples) and the gorgeous perfumes I have from Strange Invisible Perfumes. One woman I was creating a solid perfume for smelled a bunch of the samples I had. She adored Pink Lotus by Aftelier and Lyric Rain by SIP but she recoiled when she smelled this "certain perfumers" blends, all 4 of of them. She said "they smell as if something is gone off."

I had similar thoughts, but like the Prime Minister in the story I felt that I would look ignorant of real artisan natural perfumes if I said, "hey, these ARE pure shite" so I waffled on about them, ad nauseum. I said how they were SO this and SO that.

I could go back now and write something different about them, taking back what I had originally said (the waffle, the praise, the testimonials). But I think it is far more fitting to call a spade a spade and say, at least I only said they were good, I think I even said I found one of them healing because that's what the 'certain perfumer' told me it was supposed to be, but I never actually wore any out in public, God forbid. Somebody might think I worked as a janitor for a living or that I had been staying with crusty hippies for a few months helping to milk the goats.

So what's the point? Let's smell what we are actually smelling, the bottom line is perfumes are supposed to make you smell good. If they don't then they aren't perfumes.
As an old wizard once said "if in doubt follow your nose".