Shopping for Real Perfumes While They Exist

 I want the Nanny, I mean the EU to allow me to take some personal responsibility.  I refer you to Reuters, http://www.reuters.com/.  This article basically reports that the EU is about to ban a great many natural ingredients in high-end perfumes.  Of course, in the name of consumer protection.  Apparently, 1-3% of the population reacts to certain natural compounds.  So the solution is to ban them or to limit the amounts allowed to such an extent as to make no difference.  The vast EU bureaucracy has over the past twenty years managed to do this to many different, and especially old or artisanal traditions.  Smoked fish or ham is not what our parents ate for example. I am allergic to rucola, walnuts and pine nuts. When I go to an Italian restaurant I inform them of my allergies.  No one gets upset or ill.  None of these natural products are banned by the EU, though if I may take the liberty, I bet 1-3% of the population also have similar allergies.  Perhaps they are not banned because they do not yet have artificial replacements.  Then again, I am especially allergic to artificial flavorings.

When I started shopping for my own perfumes in university, I found myself frustrated by how short they seemed to last on my skin or how they smelled after two hours compared to my mother's perfumes.  These were normal shopping center perfumes... so synthetic they may as well have a different name.  They evaporated fast and I mean fast.  They were designed to force me to shop again and again.  I did not get value for money.  Moreover, their price meant that I would walk into a gathering and every other woman in the room smelled just like me, however briefly.  To make the smell last I was encouraged to also buy the deodorant and body lotion and use them all in one go.  I am not sure how so many synthetic chemicals on my skin are better for my health than natural compounds tested for centuries.  A pleasant smell in these products are almost an accident; pharmaceutical and chemical companies have to shift their million dollar (researched, invented) products.  

I have a sensitive nose.  Smells affect me emotionally and they affect my memory very strongly.  I can sit in the tube and name perfumes as they go past me, to the amazement of Beloved Proof Reader, even if I have never worn that perfume.  Perfumes are an important part of my personal history and my every day life.  They add richness, depth and a sense of attachment to the past.  Chanel No 5, Safari, Issey Miyaki, Poison, One, several by Guerlain, Bond No 9, Tresor, Flower Bomb, I can go on... all mean something personal to me.  Some of these have more synthetic materials than others.  I do not know in what proportions but I can tell you that the older ones do not smell today like they did when I was young.  Regulations have done this as well as scarcity of ingredients.  

I always try perfumes on my skin.  This is part common sense and part self preservation.  Roma, for instance, gave me headaches.  One of the Guerlains but not all, give me rashes.  But I also get rashes from many skin lotions that often have so few natural ingredients they may have fallen in by accident like the bug parts allowed in our sausages. It is in the interest of high-end perfume makers NOT to kill you with carcinogens or to give you rashes because you won't wear it again.  I often go to Parfümerie Schnitzler im Breidenbacher Hof, Königsallee 11, 40212 Düsseldorf (http://www.parfuemerie-schnitzler.de/).  The lovely ladies here go out of their way to make certain I am satisfied with my perfume or anything else that goes on my skin.  They will, without exception, encourage me to sample the perfume on my skin for safety and to see if I still like it once the perfume has reacted with my own natural chemistry.  They will, when possible, give me samples to take home.  Rashes, headaches or other side effects usually turn up by then.  I can even return the lotion or perfume if I react later on.  Let me point out that I have been encouraged to sample in every shop I have ever visited, but it is the high end perfumeries that are especially generous with their time and products.  

Now lets talk about my nose and high-end perfumes.  There is no comparison to lower end perfumes.  Their smells are subtle and difficult to define, they change and bloom on my skin.  They are unique per user because the noses that design them want their perfumes to make you smell like a more wonderful version of yourself and not impose [Insert Starlet Name Here] on you.  So far, this is only possible with natural ingredients and in certain concentrations.  I buy an expensive perfume perhaps once a year.  Because their natural compounds  last on my skin I do not need to bathe myself in them.  I am often complemented on my perfume and people remember me because of it.  I am unique in the memory of people.  This is true value for money.  When I buy perfumes I tell the lady or gentleman what my experiences have been, with Roma, for example, and I rarely have reactions.  High-end perfumes with their high concentration of natural ingredients are wonderful on the skin, on the nose and in the company of my friends and acquaintances.  Synthetics are inadequate replacements and prone to (oops) create health problems in time.  Funny how the companies that produce them are not as likely to point out these issues as quickly as they will point out issues with natural ingredients...And funny how the EU decides to protect 1-3% of the population by asking 100% of the population to go synthetic.