Emotional Bolstering: Right Here Right Now

*Current Fragrance: Green Tea and Cucumber Essence from Bath and Body Works
*Currently Listening: Late by Ben Folds

I had a flat out unpleasant day yesterday. Many things contributed to it, but my day did not go as planned. I knew there was a particularly sticky situation that I was going to have to deal with in the evening. When picking my evening scent I thought to myself, "Pick something you don't love too much, because if you evening SUPER SUCKS you're going to end up hating it."

Conundrum time.... If I wear something I'm lukewarm about, then I'll just fell blah, and that won't work. OK...hmmm..."Think, Kathleen. Think." I immediately rule out Liaisons Dangereuses, Une Rose Vermeille and Sexy Graffiti because of my strong emotional love for them. By Kilian's Cruel Intentions for shear hilarity of naming irony? No. That's bitchy, even for me. (Plus, that's on the short list for a dear friend's upcoming birthday and that would just RUIN that gift.)

I then narrowed it down between Byredo's Pulp (i.e. "beating the conflict to a pulp") and Dior's J'Adore (my long time "Can't hold me down" perfume of choice for 10+ years - PLEASE BRING BACK THE ORIGINAL FORMULATION, I BEG OF YOU!) Pulp is on my "Full Bottle Wanted" list, so - best not to potentially ruin my love for that one: and since my track record with J'Adore is time tested, I decided to go with J'Adore.

Later this whole process got me thinking: I was wearing perfume as some soft of emotional armor. An olfactory chain link protection around my soul. In that situation it really didn't matter to me if anyone thought I smelled "nice", it was all about how the smell made me feel, and feel in that moment. Granted there are years of background with J'Adore and I, but you have to run safety test on bullet proof vests before you give them to the cops, right?

I know so much of what I write about in this blog is, "perfume for this place or that premeditated situation" or "perfume that evokes this memory" or "perfume that smells like when the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars". It's all from a rather premeditated perspective. Life isn't really like that. It's MUCH more on the fly. 


In real life, on a day to day basis, I really think that much of our perfume choices are made in the "Emotional Bolstering" sort of way, the emotions may not just be as heightened as they were for me yesterday. Somewhere between functional fine art and actually aroma-therapy (I make this different from "aromatherapy"). To me the beautiful and mysterious part about perfume is that it strikes a balance somewhere between emotional armor and olfactory witchcraft.


Thoughts? Discuss in the Comments.

*Currently Listening: Army by Ben Folds Five
**Photo Credit: middle-aged-diva.blogspot.com