Monday, April 17, 2006

Top note

Who uses it: Perfumers
What it means: A light, bright essential oil that makes a fast first impression, but fades quickly. Popular top notes include orange, lemon, bergamot and pine.
How you can use it: To describe anything that starts strong but doesn't last.

This morning's first stop was the grocery store, to buy laundry soap and a few other essentials; Jen and I had scheduled a Trader Joe's run today, but we both have too much work to take the day off.

Laundry soap is the only thing I'm brand-loyal to; as the commercial says, if it has to be clean, it has to be Tide. What used to be a simple decision, however, gets more complicated all the time. Original Tide, or Tide with Bleach Alternative? Original Scent, or Mountain Breeze? Cold Water Formula? Tide with Downy, original scent? Tide with Downy, some other scent? Tide with Febreze?

Decisions are not my favorite things in any circumstance, but especially not at 8:00 on a Monday morning. Why do we need so many choices of laundry detergent?

And why does everything have to smell like something else? In my apartment, I have dish soap that smells like green apples; cleaning solution that smells like lemons; another cleaning solution that smells like oranges; hand soap that smells like cucumber and green tea; other hand soap that smells like almonds; body wash that smells like "ocean breezes," whatever that means; lotion that smells like lavender; air freshener that smells like citrus and sage; and shampoo that smells like herbs. Oh, and deodorant in a fragrance called "Optimism," though I'm not sure what optimism smells like.

I don't want to live amidst the smell of rotting garbage, mildew, farm animals or factory smoke, like my ancestors did, but this is getting a little ridiculous.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Optimism smells the exact opposite of every Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs fan. Also, put me down for powdered, original scent Gain.
--Ed

Peggy & Scott said...

Good post...man soaps scents crack me up. Would you want soap called ICY BLAST first thing in the morning? And Tide...every elephant trainer knows Tide with Bleach is the only thing that will take the smell out and get out the stains. BTW the only soap I'm allergic to is Tide Free....go figure.....

Anna said...

Tarren alternately uses ICY BLAST and ARCTIC FORCE. Is there a difference, I wonder?

I was in the bathroom of a restaurant recently that had an air freshener with a scent so familiar it drove me crazy - I couldn't place it. I went in twice just to see if I could figure it out and the second time all I had to do was push open the door and there it was - Baby Aspirin. The orange-scented St. Johns. Not oranges, mind you, orange-scented Baby Aspirin. There is a difference, as I'm sure your nose knows!

Ellen Clair Lamb said...

The scent of baby aspirin makes me feel a little sick to my stomach -- a Pavlovian response, maybe. And anyone who starts a winter morning in Maine with something called ICY BLAST deserves what he gets!

Joseph's Boston Terrier, Lucy, was allergic to Cold Water Tide... weird.

Anonymous said...

We're already looking forward to this summer's visit and the long, hard search for sparkling mineral water with NO FLAVOR!
Can't wait...
xox
Sue