Amnesia of the Nose

[Guest guest]

Howdy Ruth, Geri.. other good folks ..

I think the subject line (above) should maybe be Amnesia of the Brain

rather than the nose. ;-)

> " incense " she said FRANKINCENSE F R A N K I N S E N C E!!!!

> I shouted inside my head.

>

> I didn't say anything to her after that except to make small talk

about how

> my herbal products were going etc. I felt so BAD though, like how

can

> I be training to be a perfumer when I couldn't think of the name of

that

> oil!!!

>

> Has anybody else had something similar happen to them???

Yes ma'am .. more than once. I don't have a calibrated nose and I

could probably not guess more than a couple of ingredients in a blend

of EO or a perfume .. but odds are I would not forget the odor of

that blend.

> Ruth

> http://www.whitewitch.ie

>

>

> The brain recognizes scent way before we can process what we are

smelling.

Exactly .. that is where I was above.

> It's happened to me many times: an emotional response that stops

me in my

> tracks, trying to diagnose what I've smelled. Sometimes I win the

game ...

> sometimes it takes me hours afterward to come up with the name.

( " Oh, yeah!

> Vetiver! " ) Geri

That emotional response is common .. explaining the reasons for this

to perfumer's is risky business but some folks charge into places

where Angels would fear to tread. ;-) Was a time that man depended

more on the nose than on any other sense .. likely it is that man has

not completely lost that basic survival tool. Rose Otto brings out

many different emotional responses .. one lady I know has to work

hard to avoid breaking down in tears when she sniffs it. Could be

she had her first kiss in a Rose garden .. could be she got bad news

of some sort in a Rose garden .. she can't recall.

As for remembering scents .. back in the late 80s I went to a party

where a lady (who I did not know) was wearing a perfume that had a

very faint odor but it was pleasing enough to me that I kept trying

to pass by her as I mingled in the crowd. Finally, I grabbed the

chance to ask her what it was and she told me. I later forgot the

name .. and I didn't smell it again after that .. until around 15

years later while walking through Munich Airport. I passed by a lady

who had the exact same scent .. I turned back, caught up with her and

sheepishly explained the short of it and asked what she was wearing.

When she told me the light bulb in my suddenly mind clicked on. I

remembered the name I had forgotten but I still had a good fix on the

scent. It was Roma.

I have often wondered why I was turned on to it in the first place. I

think it might have been because I had just been granted a divorce a

week or so prior to this party and I was feeling finer'n frog hair

split three ways. Roughly 16 years after the initial encounter with

Roma I married again and I bought a bottle of Roma for my wife .. she

doesn't like it all that much and truth is, I am not really turned on

by it now .. but she wears it from time to time because she thinks I

like it or maybe because it was costly enough that she feels a need

to use it up. ;-)

Y'all keep smiling. :-)

Butch .. http://www.AV-AT.com