With Valentine’s Day looming ever closer the fantastic Mademoiselle Robot and Monsieur Robot have kindly agreed to share their love potions of choice with us.
Mademoiselle Robot
I’ve been through several different perfumes in my life… and,
well… I’ve been through several men too. Don’t judge me, I am 33 and I am
French. It is in my DNA: I love perfume and I love men. I am not sure about
perfumed men. Actually I do like them as well, as long as they don’t smell like
a teenage locker room. One of my first really serious crushes as an adult still
is engraved in my memory because of the perfume he used to wear. Guerlain’s
Vetiver. I love the scent of Vetiver, it is like catnip for me. So you can
imagine the effect this guy had on me… Within a minute of smelling him, I had
decided he’d be the father of my children (he isn’t) and the man of my dreams
(definitely isn’t).
Fast forward a few years and I met a man who really is the man of my
dreams and really is the father of my child. When I met him it was instant
fireworks. We got on swimmingly, it was like we had known each other forever -
pardon the clichés. One issue presented itself: he used to wear Lynx deodorant.
As I said earlier, there really is one thing I can’t handle and it is the smell
of a teenage locker room. As soon as we moved in together, I decided to educate
him a little about scents. Pregnancy was a great excuse to make him ditch the
Lynx (you don’t say “no” to a pregnant lady dealing with morning sickness) and
take on a much more refined scent: Eau Sauvage. There is a little bit of
Vetiver in there and it is a classic cologne worn by classy men like Cary Grant
and my grandfather.
After a few blissful years swimming in this Eau Sauvage, I met
Juniper Sling and thought it was time for my beloved husband to shake things up
a little bit. Juniper Sling also has Vetiver in it, so it is also like catnip
to me but it is more unique than all his previous scents. I love coming home
and smelling it on his discarded jumper or having a shower after he’s gone in
the morning when the bathroom still smells of him – or of Juniper Sling.
Happy Valentine’s Day!!
Valentine’s Day is dismissed by some as a crude capitalist invention to wring money out of
guilty husbands and boyfriends. There are millions spent on cards, flowers and
ill-thought out lingerie purchases, but to us romantics it’s a wicked
opportunity to remind your other half of how much you love them. Fragrances
probably sell more at Christmas time, but the gift of scent seems a bit more
personal to me, ideal for Valentines. Fragrances are key to attraction, so
smelling good is in everyone’s best interests. Most couples have a ‘song’, a
tune that reminds them of when they met, it might even get played at their
wedding. But if you ask, they’ll probably also have ‘scents’ too; a perfume or
aftershave that was worn during the early days of the relationship. These
fragrances will hold a special ability to rekindle all the emotions, joys and
memories of that time in one simple whiff.
For me there is one special fragrance, the release of which just happened to
coincide with me meeting a certain someone. I think of this coincidence almost like the planets aligning (I did say I was a romantic, didn’t I?). The fragrance I’m talking about is Tom Ford’s Black Orchid. A fragrance whose bottle can barely contain the scent within, a sexy, ribbed, black decanter with a splash of gold, it was pure Tom Ford. I ran to
the store to buy it. The lady at the counter assured me it was a unisex fragrance
but when I smelt the woody base notes, the vanilla and blackcurrant I honestly
didn’t care who it was meant for, I wanted it. In fact if the raunchy ad
campaign didn’t make it explicit enough this is the smell of sex, Tom Ford
style. I don’t think it should be called unisex, so seductive is its charm I’d
say it was more bisexual.
The big night came, the first date after a very long drawn out courtship. Drunk on
the glamour of Tom’s new scent I decided to go overboard. About £30 worth of
Black Orchid body cream was liberally applied (all over), as well as this I
sprayed as much of the fragrance on myself as I could, without making my
clothes look wet. The night went well and a few days later I received a text
“What was the fragrance you were wearing the other night?” I panicked, had I
overdone it? Did he hate it? I told him what it was but received no reply…
A few dates down the line he made a confession – he’d asked about the fragrance
because he’d become infatuated with the smell, (and dare I say with me?) I’d
left one whole side of the sofa smelling of Black Orchid and he was rushing
home for work to inhale the smell that reminded him of me. I’d got my man,
albeit with a little help from Tom. Nowadays one whiff of Black Orchid reminds
us both of the early days and the infatuation we had with each other then. The
fragrance is a precious thing to me, and I don’t use it so much anymore, unless
it’s a special occasion, anniversaries and Valentines Day of course. It’s how
Tom would want it.
Mademoiselle and Monsieur Robot write for fashion blog Mademoiselle Robot. You can follow them on Twitter @MelleRobot and @RobotMonsieur
What’s your love potion of choice?
- Lauren
