I don’t usually just blurt these kinds of things out (well, I do if you’re someone I know quite well and feel very comfortable with) but I just can’t fight the compulsion to cyber scream it. (!!!) Why, you may ask?
It’s. This. SMELL.
I find it so upsetting when things, especially medicines, have added absurdity; like dyes, weird flavors that do not mask the medicine taste, and the worst: horrid perfumes that give you a migraine and instantly make you feel queasy. Why, why, why, why, WHY?
Of course, it’s spider season and as I’m allergic to most of the natural world I’m also allergic to spider bites. Every year my reaction gets just a bit more severe. This morning I awoke with multiple bites that are huge, swollen, and itchy. Calamine! I need Calamine. Apparently everyone in Boulder also needs calamine lotion as well since most was sold out at the store. I had to get this one:
There are no words to describe the enormity of how awful I smell.
And what’s worse, the scent is growing.
I have noticed this phenomenon with a number of mainstream perfume releases in the past few years where the scent is pretty bad but not too strong when it first goes on. Then it snowballs into the fragrance blob that ate Manhattan. Poorly created rose accords do this frequently, as do weird musk compounds. This horror has both and some kind of floral bouquet bug spray mixed with weeds and decaying fruit. I say again: WHY? I’d like some medicinal smelling medicine please. There needs to be a skull and crossbones symbol on this can next to the words : Fragrance. It’s worse than the smell of a walk in my neighborhood on Sunday afternoon when every college student is doing laundry and the entire world smells of tonalide, berryflor, lyral, and floralozone. It’s this sort of thing that gives “perfume” a bad name and drives me completely insane.
image credits: found on the web. skull and crossbones found here; environmental hazard pictogram found here.
DSH notebook 
Hi Dawn.
I have the same worsening skin allergies to every invisible plus visible/audible biting insect. So here’s what I now know… years of testing have resulted in a liveable pattern:
Use “Coleman DeetFree Skin Smart Insect Repellent 6 oz & beyond the initial spraying-on–no smell, no feeling of anything on yr skin. Lasts for a full 8 hrs, Saves my life every summer. Comes in an aerosol or a pump bottle. I’ve only used the aerosol. No other product even comes close to this one’s effectiveness.
If bitten, apply men’s stick-roll-up deodorant, and-or plain old style white toothpaste on the bites. Forget all that other stuff. These work! Some foresters I know also use rubbing alcohol followed by hydrogen peroxide. These are tried & true NM Rockie’s remedies.
I know that the point of your email shriek wasn’t abt remedies, but how could I allow a sister Shiso afficionado to suffer?
Probably green clay would work as well as calamine, which comes from a marsh plant (so you could harvest the materials to make a much better lotion than commercially available.
Hope this helps you!
Best, Zi
Hi, Zi~
Oh!! You are awesome! 🙂 I am soo grateful for your recommendations~ I grew up with medical people so I always think of medicines first. I have just about everything you mention here already so I am on it for making my remedies. I’m sorry that you have these allergies, too. It’s really not fun and then when the “scenting” adds insult to injury… I go mental.
Love that you love Shiso, too. Please email me for a sample 🙂 I’d really like to thank you for your help. ❤ dsh (at) dshperfumes (dot) com .
ox, Dawn
Your rant is timely and appreciated as it seems more and more people are less and less likely to express their honest opinions about anything. My cyber scream of the day is noise pollution, specifically the music that can be heard five miles away from that public “concert on the green” – inescapable and tortuous!! These sounds give me some idea how my dog must feel on the Fourth of July…
Hi, Azar! 🙂
Thank you for the awesome comment! Yes, sometimes we just need to rant… and YES! I feel your pain. I actually feel the same way about noise pollution. Motor sounds really get to me. And the petrol smells that go with. Arrgh! But thanks again for holding the space on my ‘cyber scream’ (love that phrase).
Your rant is timely and appreciated as it seems more and more people are less and less likely to express their honest opinions about anything. My cyber scream of the day is noise pollution, specifically the music that can be heard five miles away from that public “concert on the green” – inescapable and tortuous!! These sounds give me some idea how my dog must feel on the Fourth of July…
ps: I feel for your poor dog, too. SO much sensory overload for them.
EEEEK! I hear that about spiders and biting bugs like mosquitoes. I get big welts from mosquitoes. UGH. Annoying isn’t comprehensive enough term.
I have found many fragrances of late (via more mass distribution) that start out mild and then go nuclear. It’s very hard to wear something like that
Hope you get past the itchies, welts and the rest..
Stevie
Hi 🙂 have you ever tried essential oils ? Some of them are repelents and some of them has shooting action and can be use undiluted…
I must try some of your perfumes, i only read an interesting reviews about them so far:)
Rafal