However beautiful you may be by now, there’s one thing which is almost more important than having the most perfect skin or the most glorious hair in the world and that’s the way you smell. The most important thing of all, of course, is that you shouldn’t smell nasty and after making quite sure of that, you can go on and make yourself smell really nice.
The first thing to face up to is that everybody is potentially smelly. That may sound horrid, but it’s something you should bear very firmly in mind. That way you won’t try to dodge the issue and you won’t feel bashful about being presented with the facts either.
What then, makes you smell? Most people think it’s perspiration plain and simple, but in fact that’s wrong. There are two types of gland which makes you perspire, the eccrine which are all over the body and which control the body temperature by evaporation of perspiration and the apocrine which are the real villains. They only make their appearance under your arms or other narrow areas of your body. Fresh perspiration has absolutely no smell at all; the nasties start when bacteria, on the skin’s surface, ever ready to do their thing, start to decompose the perspiration. The only way to cope with the problem is to frustrate the bacteria in their work. Obviously you start with washing, thoroughly and every day, paying particular attention to potentially smelly zones like armpits, so that you remove every trace of stale perspiration. However, the most thorough scrubbing in the world won’t solve the problem for more than a few hours. Bacteria don’t wait politely until it’s bath time again to get going, and you need something to help. Help comes in two guises, often confused in people’s mind: deodorants and anti-perspirants. Deodorants contain an active bactericide that reduces the amount of bacteria on the skin’s surface, and therefore, obviously, reduces the smelly decomposition. Anti-perspirants go one further and partially close the sweat glands, so there’s less to start decomposing in the first place, if you perspire heavily, then choose an anti perspirant, if you don’t then a deodorant will probably do. But you do need one or the other. Use a deodorant every single morning, without fail, and then you will be ‘nice to be near’. Having got rid of any possibly nasty smells, then, how about adding some nice ones? Nothing lovelier than to waft round all day in a cloud of fragrance, and to be known for your perfume as much as your looks.
Whatever your preference, scent should become a part of your daily life. Don’t think of it as something to wear only occasionally or as the last thing you add before leaving the house. Learn to layer it splash on cologne or eau de toilette directly after a bath or shower (after drying yourself) and use matching scented soaps, bath oil, powder and deodorant then follow with the most concentrated version and use it sparingly. Your scent should be as personal as your signature.
DO’S AND DON’TS.
Don’t mix scent with the sun. Some ingredients, when exposed to skin and sun, can cause allergies, rashes or brown patches. So if you are spending time outside in hot sun, on the beach or water or skiing in the mountains keep your fragrance for evening allure.
Do store scent in a dark, cool place. Light can cause chemical reaction and change the nature of the fragrance. If it’s well sealed and well stored, it will last about a year and still be true unsealed, exposed to light and heat, it oxidizes and deteriorates quite fast.
Don’t try more than three scents at the same time when you’re contemplating something new. This is about as many as the average nose can accept before becoming tired.
Don’t try and transfer your favorite scent to a plastic bottle for traveling it tends to evaporate through plastic and you may lose it all. Travel with a purse spray or a small sealed bottle that’s not plastic.
Do try spraying your ironing board with fragrance before ironing shirts and dresses.
Don’t waste your scent on the air instead of on you. Once a bottle has been opened, use it, it will only evaporate and lose its potency if you try to save it.
Don’t through your empty scent bottle keep opened it in your unironed clothes in your cupboard, it will give fragrance to your clothes and cupboard as well.
Filled Under: Perfumes