Several stories have recently used the smell of cheap perfume pejoratively.
While I understand the thought behind it, does it actually hold water? Whatever their shelf prices, extremely few perfumes contain ingredients worth more than a few pennies. Indeed, perfume marketeers admit that they could produce perfectly good perfumes at a fraction of today's prices but women wouldn't buy them. So what does cheap perfume actually smell of that supposedly makes it so distinctive?
AJ
So what does cheap perfume actually smell of that supposedly makes it so distinctive?
1. Women who buy cheap perfume tend to use way too much of it, in a way that they couldn't afford to use more expensive perfumes. It's not that the specific odor is so distinctive but that the strong smell is overwhelming.
2. To add to #1, it's possible that cheap perfumes are stronger in the first place. It's like what you see in certain areas of women's fashion where the relative prices of individual items in some categories seems to be inversely proportional to the amount of fabric actually used in making the piece. :)
Women who buy cheap perfume tend to use way too much of it,
Understandable if they are using it for its original purpose - hide body odor. :)
Why was perfume invented?
The perfume was invented because Women in the early ages put on white make-up on their faces everyday, because of this their skin began to rot but to hide the smell they invented perfume.
So what does cheap perfume actually smell of that supposedly makes it so distinctive?
1. Women who buy cheap perfume tend to use way too much of it, in a way that they couldn't afford to use more expensive perfumes. It's not that the specific odor is so distinctive but that the strong smell is overwhelming.
I agree with D.S. on this. I've also found that perfumes and colognes vary widely with one's personal chemistry, so while one perform might smell wonderful on one person, they simply won't smell the same on another. I've never investigated it enough to know for sure, but the more expensive perfumes might mesh with larger percentages of people.
On the other hand, 'cheap perfume' is unlikely to 'cover up' most people's natural smells. :(
So what does cheap perfume actually smell of that supposedly makes it so distinctive?
I'm not sure if it's still true, but for most of the 1960s to 1990s the very cheap perfumes smelled heavily of lavender.
for most of the 1960s to 1990s the very cheap perfumes smelled heavily of lavender
My current species of washing powder is lavender-scented. Now I know why people run the other way ;)
AJ
I remember reading that expensive perfumes use different ingredients that last longer to fix the scent. Cheap copycat perfumes can mimic the scent of expensive designer brands but the scent fades faster.
I know this to be true from personal trials. I was told about this and as I had both an expensive genuine body spray and a cheap "knock off" I did a little test. The cheap one had dissipated in a few hours. The good one still lingered on my shirt a couple of days later when I went to wash it.
The cheap one had dissipated in a few hours. The good one still lingered on my shirt a couple of days later when I went to wash it.
Adulterers beware! To minimise the chances of getting caught, only ever engage the services of cheap hookers, never high-class prostitutes!
The absolute best comment I ever heard about cheap perfume was from a friend commenting on the overuse of scent by one woman: "She smells like the elevator in a French whorehouse!"
