Beauty: Sight unseen

MANILA, Philippines - It is not random thinking: one way to occupy precious space is through fragrance.

If this is any indication, fragrances are always programmatically located at the foyer of any establishment department store. Perhaps as a psychological stimulant (“oh, what a wonderful world”), the subliminal notes (may) lure you into entry-level impulse buy, where every kiosk is a unique bloodline and pedigree. 

With fragrance, take away sight and you can smell smoked dried herring a block away, either to register a frown or an off-kilter smile. Fragrances trigger moods and it is only honest to admit to a scent’s invisible, molecular intangible power.

Perfume may have the reputation of a stuffy nostalgic-ninny. But, true enough, its pure concentration has longer lasting stickiness and, perhaps like aging wine, it gets better with the passage of time. And who says you have to be 40 to appreciate a mature bottle?

The journey of selecting the right one is a slow process. Matchmaking fragrance to your personality is a study in chemistry, concerning sweat glands and an overnight test-run. You have to rub it on your nape or wrist and really smell it for over 24 hours to discern whether or not it is right for you. Showering or wearing it underwater for a swim may reveal the notes’ partiality to your skin. Is it overpowering like bling or does it shout out loud upon arrival?

I once tried to expand my palate and decided to give Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle’s  Carnal Flower as a present to my mum (as a symbol of her son’s coming of age). The whole olfactory experience of sniff, trial and error and the whole non-invasive sales pitch in a leafy courtyard shop had a gravitational pull, luring me to flirt with the another Malle scent, French Lover. The entire range is a “band of brothers” of sorts, with all scents authored by a legion of “fragrance inventors.” With a sharp narrative title (that says it all), each bottle is complexity made pure and invisible.

Waxy (or more oily, really) bougie parfumee candles also trigger a wise unconditional love. Byredo Parfums’ fragranced Bibliotheque candles are a beguiling desktop table enhancement, evoking visions of exquisite matte-coated paper-stock. Who hasn’t sniffed pages of a newly-released paperback and felt like an academic in a university library? And who has not come home “Loveless,” waxing lyrical about a “Peyote Poem” or hasn’t had a weakness for “Candy Darling”?

If the local scent industry concocted a bottle today, would it have hints of a carefree, joyful sunny mango or leathery textures of stingray, or fighting odours of the sweat of Bonifacio High Street runners? Without a doubt, every country has an evolving tradition, and a culture with corresponding top, base and bottom notes that help draw out values that resonate with us now.