please don’t encourage them!

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pepperminr

Just another glossy irritation today. I got my copy of American Elle in the mail yesterday, and while browsing it today, I came across another one of those irritating anti-perfume mini perfume articles. You know, the kind of little blurb that starts out looking like it is pro scent, but then just panders to all the scent-haters out there. This one really rubbed me wrong.   I took a pic of the page (136) on the right, but in case  you can’t read it, it says a recent study discovered that the smell of peppermint reduces anxiety (well, that seems pretty obvious to anyone who thinks aromatherapy even kind of works) but then goes on to tell the ‘fragrance-phobic’ that they needn’t worry, since just smelling the mint for a moment had the same effect as sensing it in the air for an extended period of time. (at least I think that’s what the fairly unclear blurb is saying. It could be saying the subjects were detecting trace amounts of peppermint in the air subliminally, so to speak)

This irritates me not only becausIMG_4982e it caters to—and encourages—fragrance haters, and because it is such a silly little study, but because peppermint seems a ridiculous thing to be afraid of, even if you ‘hate’ perfume. I mean, it’s ubiquitous, and in everything, from dish soap to toothpaste. Honestly.

This kind of mindless, knee-jerk fragrance paranoia is really starting to get on my nerves. But some folks are actively reasoning against this kind of thinking—too bad the glossy folks aren’t reading. Here, find a really thoughtful and well-written defense of perfume against the negative news corps by Indieperfumes. I highly recommend it. 

CREDITS:

Peppermint photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Comments

  1. MarthaJune 3, 2010 at 1:07 AM

    Perfume always seems like an illogical focus for the anti-fragrance folks. I rarely see the same kind of attack against the often-dreadful fragrances in household cleaning products, and laundry detergents, and shampoo, and darn near everything, including, for heaven's sake, Swiffer cloths.

    I suppose that many of those scents are so familiar that they just pass unnoticed, or people think that the stuff actually _smells_ that way. (I had to become a perfume freak to learn that soapy-white-musk is not the real smell of laundry soap and that, yes, the scent of baby powder is perfume and not the smell of powder.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. RoseJune 3, 2010 at 5:25 AM

    I agree, very strange. Surely if you don't like perfume it doesn't mean you don't like smell or taste at all! Perfume writing in magazines is mostly very strange- it's either cut and paste from press releases and extremely dry or it's totally over the top. It's also virtually always about new scents with the occasional inclusion of older, big sellers and never about looking in the archives.

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  3. La Bonne VivanteJune 3, 2010 at 8:24 AM

    Strange and illogical. Two good words for what I'm getting from the beauty press lately. Thank you both for your great comments.

    ReplyDelete
  4. CarolJune 3, 2010 at 8:56 PM

    Perhaps they (Elle) are just pandering to the new-yogis/crunchies out there...you know the type! *but why they'd be reading Elle totally confounds me*

    I'd love to hear what Left Coast Nose has to say about this. Personally I think it's an anti-establishment though process. And how I know how many anti-establishment protests are just fooey

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  5. La Bonne VivanteJune 3, 2010 at 9:18 PM

    I'm sure they are. It's just that it makes no sens. I mean, I'd call myself a granola (the western word for crunchies) for all intents and purposes, but I'd see through that BS in a moment. Even if I didn't LOVE scent... fooey is right, i say. Let's ask the ECN. I'll send a message...

    ReplyDelete

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