It’s National Fragrance Day. I can’t think of a stupider occasion.
Conversely, it’s World Poetry Day. So, I wrote a poem.
Your smell
Makes me swell
And feel like
I’m burning in hell.
To be honest, I used to scoff at others’ fragrance sensitivities. I thought people complained because they didn’t like a particular smell. I didn’t understand it was a medical issue with serious consequences.
Here are few of my MCAS symptoms that are triggered just from 10 seconds of exposure:
- Throat swelling: feels like someone is choking your neck
- Nausea, diarrhea, and cramping: feels like food poisoning
- Liver swelling: feels like being punched in the stomach
- Hives: feels like mosquito bites on top of sunburn
- Tachycardia: feels like running a marathon you never trained for
Recently, Dior came out with a perfume campaign that I can support. It’s called Poison Girl. In the commercial, a woman with no pants crawls across the screen and says, “I am not a girl; I am poison.” Yazzzz, that is what you are! But poison is not sexy.
I truly believe perfume is the new cigarette smoke. Our grandkids will think we were idiots for polluting our lungs with chemicals and destroying our immune systems. I predict over the next few decades legislation will ban fragrances in public places. In the meantime, stay the hell away from me, poison girl.
Interesting….I’ve never considered that “perfume is the new cigarette smoke,” but I think you’ve got something there. I stopped wearing perfume years ago when I learned how harmful it is to some people. I do enjoy fragrances, but now limit myself to just “stinking up” my own home diffusing essential oils.