Wednesday 27 October 2010

Musk I ask what she is wearing?

This might strike some as a slightly strange post. I'm going to confess that a lady at work has been driving me crazy and that I'm attracted to her scent. Now, before you wonder what naughty stuff I might be contemplating, let me say unequivocally that I am not a letch. I don't fancy her at all, although she is by no means unattractive and she is a perfectly nice person. Rather, she wears a perfume that just drives me bonkers, to the point of distraction, frankly. I can't quite explain it. I am not usually a person who is that interested by what other people smell like, or what perfume they are wearing. Nor do I wear perfume to smell good and to attract other people. Ok, I do like to smell good, but fragrance for me is very much a personal journey and about self-gratification. I won't lie - on the odd occasion that I've received a compliment about a fragrance I'm wearing, it has pleased me, but it is definitely not my primary reason for wearing perfume.

Getting back to my work colleague then. She wears a musky perfume. That's all I can say really. I have no clue what it is. It isn't a skanky musk fragrance per se, but at the same time it is more than just a clean skin scent. Musk does often recall the scent of skin, which is maybe part of it's allure, but this is no Muscs Koublai Khan. It is at once both quite flowery and yet intensely musky, and on her it smells paradoxically clean and yet surreptitiously dirty, in a good way. As you may have guessed from the title of this post, I am itching to ask her what she is wearing, and yet in a way, I quite like not knowing, and enjoy musing over what it might be. Yes, no one ever said I was totally normal!

What I find quite interesting about this is that in the past I have never quite believed all the guff about perfume and its power of attraction, sexual or otherwise. Yet, I can't deny that smelling the trail from my colleague I can't quite help but feel slightly attracted to her, albeit from afar and in a relatively platonic way. However, I know that she is not my type at all (besides the fact that I am very happily married and quite content to keep it that way) so I can't help but come to the realisation that actually, perfume does have that power of sexual and other attraction. Having said that, I wonder if it is specifically musk that does this to me, or would a certain woman, with a certain skin chemistry, wearing iris, for example, generate the same response from me?

So, have any of you ever experienced what I have, whether it be at work, socially, or whatever? Do you believe in the power of perfume, its sexual allure? Is it purely the perfume at work, or at some more subliminal level, is it actually the woman (or man) that is the attractant?

Image credit - pheromones.ph

6 comments:

  1. This hasn't happened to me lately, basically because I don't know many men who were fragrance in my world. But it was a BIG attraction with an ex-boyfriend - he wore vetiver a lot (which is one of the man reasons vetiver is so melancholy for me these days)

    I'm looking forward to finding out what perfume this woman is wearing!

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  2. Just ask her!! We all want to know now.

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  3. There is only one man at the hospital I work that smells like anything at all. Hospitals generally discourage perfume and I ignore that, of course.

    However, this administrator stands out and smells very good. It makes him sexier than he actually is, as paying attention to detail in this way is a turn-on (so many men don't understand that).

    I sat by a man on an airplane recently who smelled amazing. I wanted to ask what he was wearing, but thought it might embarrass him or make him uncomfortable. He was neither handsome nor stylishly turned out, but he was clean and he smelled heavenly; leathery with woody base notes. Still wish I knew what it was.

    When a man smells good, I make all sorts of assumptions about him, like he must also be fun, sophisticated and romantic. None of those may be true, but it does create a certain allure. And, when not on an airplane, I don't mind saying, 'you smell nice.'

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  4. Interesting comments Josephine. I must admit, on an aeroplane I would do almost anything to avoid smelling the reality of being stuck in that cabin!

    Frida and Persolaise, I will ask her, fear not. I just need to work up to it!

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