Sunday, February 11, 2007
Fragrance

The other day, I made a rather uncharitable comment about someone I know while discussing love (yet again) with my sister.

"She's SO needy it's not even funny. It's like, someone will sniff the air and go, "Hey, do you smell Desperate?" "Yeah, X must have walked in.""

Yes, yes I KNOW, IT WAS HORRIBLE. But don't worry, Karma's bitten me in the ass in the form of the stupid pain from the stupid surgery.

But while polishing me bitchskills, I realized something vastly important: We ALL reek of desperation.Of all of us in Singledom, most of us aren't thrilled about it and whether you want to admit it or not, you are ALWAYS on the lookout, always wary, always watching, for The One. It's how we disguise it that makes us what we are.

See, some people cover their desperation by spraying on something called Confidence. It may not come in a wonderfully colourful or pretty bottle, but my GOD. When you open that bottle, the scent is intoxicating: it smells of big smiles and sunshine, chocolate and swagger, happiness and charisma. But here's the catch: it doesn't last too long. At the end of the day, many users still go home and wonder. Pine. Long. Build castles in the sky. In addition, when that special guy gets too close, he finds himself overpowered. That's the shortcoming of this scent: it's effervescent and just what you need, but it's just too strong, dare you get too close.

Another brand of people use another of my personal favourites: Angst. Like her twin scent Confidence, Angst is very popular. It smells quite similar to Confidence as well, but with undertones of bitterness. Users exude peppery personae, confident and seemingly happy, but pride themselves on how bitchy they can be. Unbeknownst to the majority of people, Angst only smells so good because she's seemingly untouchable. Users are often surrounded by potential suitors, many of them lovesick, but again, the problem arises when they get too close. The bitterness and underlying unhappiness of the perfume eventually eats its way through the relationship, deeming it unstable.

A different scent altogether is Indifference. What's so interesting about this scent is, it appears to have no fragrance at all. Indeed, Indifference's only job seems to be to mask the desperation. It is completely neutral, and users, for some reason, feel a decided drop in temperature. And it's not just them! People around them often describe this delightfully deceptive scent as "icy", "cool", "cold-shouldered". Users, however, can be wonderful people: they can have friends they care deeply about. In fact, only members of the opposite sex appear to smell Indifference on them....their own friends find them warm and loving.

Finally, a last common one: Loathing. People who use this scent often find it works wonderfully as a repellant. It smells quite awful: of anger and hatred and self-destruction, but it applies to everyone. People who opt for this fragrance often find themselves with very few friends. A recent survery conducted among users showed that many of them had been hurt very badly in the past, and simply decided never again. What IS interesting though, is that people who DO adopt this scent pull it off perfectly for a few years...but then they actually stop needing it. It's almost as if the perfume becomes second nature to them, and their own bodies can fake that self-hatred.

What's your scent?