Scents Lounge

Reflecting on scents is fun, though. Love's used to make something called Rainsoft I believe, and it's kinda neat how it actually smelled like rain.

I read somewhere, too, that those weird cone-shaped things on the heads of Egyptians were scented and melted throughout the day to scent their hair. Not sure if true, but interesting.

I also read that Arabs and N African cultures are less averse to natural body odors than most other cultures. Desert culture, I guess. Reminds me of Dune.

Please tell me everything I need to know about Pumpkin Spice before this category disappears lol
 
I found an article about the substance St. Mary Magdalena used to anoint the feet of Jesus for His burial. He would have carried this fragrance with Him to the Last Supper.

When I first started studying early Christianity and the church fathers 6 years ago, I ran across the argument for spending money on majestic cathedrals as being similar to the expense of anointing Jesus.

I do wish we could such churches today, but everyone has Wi-fi now, so probably won't happen.

 
Very interesting to learn about this plant! I had no idea it came from so far (comparatively) away from the Holy Land. Certainly brings into perspective the great monetary sacrifice it would have been for Saint Mary Magdalene, as well as illustrating the beautiful gravity of the gesture.

I think that's a wonderful argument to make, as well, for the ornamentation of cathedrals. We are making use of the wealth and prosperity we have been given to glorify God before His return.
 
I agree. And to have a shared space that uplifts the soul is a testament to our God-given ability to create.

I've been thinking to write a chaplet of mysteries to contemplate for myself and include this as a mystery because it's so mysterious. Where'd she get the money? Did everyone know Judas was a thief? Why didn't Jesus confront him?

Thinking on the mysteries carries over into real life because we are surrounded by the unknown all the time and we can't know everything and shouldn't be too curious. Like, I don't know what goes on in my neighbor's house and it's none of my business, but if my neighbor is holy, the Saints teach that his holiness, though hidden, will edify the community. I hope I'm surrounded by good mysteries like that.

Which mysteries do you contemplate often?
 
Looked into Russian perfumes recently and this Soviet-era fragrance is making a comeback. Only buy it if you want to smell like the slaughter of 66 million Russian Orthodox Christians.
 
Wait... Is this really the name of the forum that the mods started for us?

So my perfume knowledge is as follows...... In middle school everyone wore Victoria's Secret LoveSpell. They still make it (as far as I know) and it still reminds me of my middle school locker room. Fun times. Also, my great-aunt used to wear this old lady perfume called Beautiful and I still have some and it reminds me of her. It has a super old school scent.

Isn't pumpkin spice a latte?
 
678taliesin678 said:
Perfumes have fascinating histories. Look into Red Moscow and Chanel No. 5. Floral notes of jewry and a base aroma of murder.
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Haha, speaking of the history of perfumes… (from wiki because I’m lazy):

Ambergris, or grey amber is a solid, waxy, flammable substance of a dull grey or blackish colour produced in the digestive system of sperm whales.[1]Freshly produced ambergris has a marine, fecal odor. It acquires a sweet, earthy scent as it ages, commonly likened to the fragrance of isopropyl alcohol without the vaporous chemical astringency.
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Really makes you wonder how they discovered this use in the first place. Still beats synthetic fragrance!
 
That is fascinating. It was even used as a spice (gross lol).

We'd probably still be discovering things if we had what the ancients had - a lot of curiousity, no Internet, no goyslop, and the motive of survival. Sometimes I wonder if we could even build a civilization from scratch if everything collapsed.

Twelve thousand years ago, people understood precession of the equinoxes and could write dates using glyphs. Imagine all the beautiful, clear night skies, the celestial phenomena, the necessity of communication, the entirely different bonds that developed between people.

Sometimes when the power goes off, I notice that my house is not dissimilar to a womb - humming with systems, insulating and isolating me, keeping me alive with little to no effort on my part. The difference when all that shuts off is stark.
 
I like a handful of essential oils. Engineered scents/perfumes are 100% icky to me. Would rather smell poo or body odor.

It's possible my opinion of branded (smells like what??? not a thing that exists!) scents was influenced by listening to the HAIR soundtrack too often as a child.

We starve, look at one another, short of breath
Walking proudly in our winter coats
Wearing smells from laboratories
Facing a dying nation of moving paper fantasy
Listening for the new-told lies
With supreme visions of lonely tunes
Somewhere, inside something there is a rush of greatness
Who knows what stands in front of our lives
I fashion my future on films in space
Silence tells me secretly everything, everything
 
starlight said:
I recall that the prized “essence” in some elite designer perfumes is the territorial spray of male deer.
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I remember now, it’s the scent of “musk.”
The musk deer belongs to the family Moschidaeand lives in Tibet,[7] India, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Siberia, Mongolia, Manchuria, Korea and North Vietnam. The musk pod, a preputial gland in a pouch, or sac, under the skin of the abdomen of the male musk deer, is normally obtained by killing the male deer through traps laid in the wild. Upon drying, the reddish-brown paste inside the musk pod turns into a black granular material called "musk grain", which is then tinctured with alcohol. The aroma of the tincture gives a pleasant odor only after it is considerably diluted. No other natural substance has such a complex aroma associated with so many contradictory descriptions; however, it is usually described abstractly as animalistic, earthy and woody[5] or something akin to the odor of baby's skin.[8]
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Also, one of the most expensive animal products in the world.
 
Oud is one of the most expensive fragrances in the world. It develops inside evergreen trees of SE Asia when a particular fungus grows on the trees, something that generally occurs after damage to the trees.

"During the Vietnam war, the U.S. dropped many bombs over the country's forests, scoring and wounding a great number of wild aquilaria trees and kicking off a new generation of oud to come."

 
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