The scent of a woman

I have asthma, it isn't serious now, many adults grow out of it anyway and since I don't smoke and currently live in a part of the UK was the cleanest air I have ever breathed, I am not really suffering with it. 

I recall a very traumatic experience when my mother practically fought me to put some noxious spray on my neck, not only was I not in the least interested in girlie things in general (I was well into my T-shirt and tartan phase, aged 12) I did not like the smell, it made me choke....and burned at my sensitive skin.  Anyway, I am unsure whether Mother got her way, I do know she accused me of being a 'lesbionic person' and got very cross with me but I remember little else of that experience.

Since that point I have been virulently anti perfume, I have received countless bottles of posh scent over the years from clueless family members and beaus trying to court but I have never hidden my disinterest or dislike for the stuff....it is one of those things one gets a woman isn't it? I have either passed them onto others or used them to fragrance the toilet....yes, folks, my  Chanel/Gucci/Dior/whatever went down the loo. I did sell and pass on others though.  One friend even gave me a Britney Spears perfume......Britney......Words fail me.

I have found myself unable to breathe when caught behind a woman wearing a lot of perfume, my lungs seize up and I have had to use my inhaler, often gathering dust in the bottom of my purse.

One day however I was at a conference and came across a Pan's Pantry stall. They usually sell incense and herbs but they had in something with an Ankh on it, which drew my gaze. Turns out it was supposedly a scent, which looked like a dark red or black liquid, it was an ancient Egyptian scent and it was.....heavenly....oh my goodness.  It wasn't in a spray bottle but in a roller tube and you just rubbed that against your skin.  I wore that scent just about every day and when I tried to get some more....gone.
They don't supply it anymore, but I always wondered what it was in it that made me fall in love with it, this ancient smell.
Having been so anti perfume all these years I was never the best at identifying smells, I couldn't tell one perfume from the other and thought it was a party drink when one friend would say to the other 'Ooh is that Chanel No. 5?'  

Of course since then I have been the head nose in the family business, I might not be able to pick out one scent from the next half the time but I know what I like and so, buying in a new ingredient the other day I finally, after ten years found out what it was about the Egyptian blend that I fell in love with.....

Sandalwood

In all my years buying essential oils, in all my months running a toiletries business how on earth could I have missed this amazing smell? mostly because, of course, I practised aromatherapy, I brought oils according to their properties, not their smell, it seems Sandalwood is often used to treat acne and anxiety, which are not conditions that has been a problem with me, hence my ignorance.

It has a lovely, woody ancient smell though and it's now part of a scent of this woman!