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Then, hormones.
When I turned the age corner from 35 to 36 or 37, I noticed my Shalimar didn't smell quite the same. Actually, it smelled just as wonderful as always - for about two hours. Then, nothing. Always before then, it was at the 2-hour mark that the fragrance was starting to work a third-level of magic. Those undernotes in the potion would go from spicy and start to get mellower and kind of smoky.
By the time, I hit 40, I had to give up on Shalimar. The perfume still worked for me. Mostly. Thing is, the perfume is pricier than I could splurge on that often.
I played with some other scents, trying to find any one of them that made me feel the way Shalimar once had. And, believe me, with fragrance, it is so much about the feeling. When I wore Shalimar, I felt beautiful and sexy. I felt empowered by my own femininity. That may sound strange, but it's true. No matter what clothes I wore or how I styled my hair and makeup, I just didn't feel completely "finished" until I dabbed on, spritzed on, or smoothed on my Shalimar.
The first other fragrance I kind-of-sort-of loved after Shalimar was Dior's Dune. I really liked it a lot, but it didn't take away my grief over Shalimar.
Then I met Flori Robert's Gold fragrance. Oh, mercy. It's as if the heavens opened up and breathed out golden sunshine. Once again, I felt like I had found my soul's aroma. That latest for about 2 years and then, I will be damned if Gold was no more.
What is it about wonderful things like the perfect fragrance or a really good makeup product? Is there a demon of the vanities that decides when to slap us with reality by discontinuing something we love?
Whatever.
Everyone knows what they feel like when something they love is discontiued.
Since then, I have never had a "signature scent". I like Viva la Juicy (a lot), Donna Karan's Cashmere, Kenzo's Flowers, and another Gold scent that I lost my tester tube of so I don't know who brands it. I like a lot of scents, but I have never been in love with one again since Shalimar and Flori Robert's Gold. I became perfume celibate.
Then, I was reading about how a lot of femme scents have matching Homme scents (and, no I don't care if I just mangled that all up). I started to wonder if Shalimar had a matching "brother" scent. And, here, folks, is where life gets weird...
This is apparently the brother scent of Shalimar:
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| I even like the bottle |
That is Habit Rouge. Which happens to have been the favorite scent of one of my biggest celebrity crushes ever. This man:
via GIPHY
Makes me sweat.
OK, that's when he was young and so were we. He still had that charisma when he got a bit older.
via GIPHY
The saddest thing is, he never lived to reach middle age with the rest of us.
Still, you know a man is hot when he's been gone from this earth for something like 20 years and women still swoon at the mention of his name. Just take a look at the teenagers on Tumblr who crush on the man.
via GIPHY
Go ahead. Swoon a little. I'll wait.
Anyway, I heard about the fragrance matching Shalimar a while before I learned my late crush had favored it. And it smells ah-may-zing.
Now, I will wear a fragrance meant for men. Fahrenheit is a favorite of mine, but only because I like the way it smells, period. I love Habit Rouge because of the way it smells on me. Isn't it just crazy the power scents and smells hold over us? They evoke all kinds of emotions and memories.
If you ever wanted a fragrance that compliments Shalimar, Habit Rouge is the one.
Peace
--Free
