An Assault on the Senses

Today I had the pleasure of attending a Bloggers event hosted by Elijah Choo, who is the man behind the brand Bodhi.  Bodhi are a line of skincare products created as skincare for your body; we all focus on pampering and nurturing the skin on our faces, but often don't focus as much attention on the rest of our skin, so the Bodhi line contains things like Lactic Acid (an ingredient I'm a real fan of) and carefully selected fragrance notes to ensure the skin on our body is taken care of too.

The reason for the launch was to celebrate the arrival of the Desert Rose Rejuvenating Face Oil which I'm not going to discuss here as I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but what I wanted to briefly talk about was my discussion with Elijah (who is absolutely lovely by the way and soooo passionate about what he does) with regards to fragrance.

It was a real nose eye-opener, or more specifically, mind-opener today as obviously the Bodhi range is heavily influenced by fragrance, yet whilst I'm definitely someone who enjoys something that smells good, I've never really thought about it past that point.  I have a very limited view of fragrance and tend to lean towards anything a little floral or sweet (Jasmine and Vanilla being favourites) and avoid anything too earthy or woody.

Bodhi Pep Noir is one of the brand's most famous fragrances and is touted as a Marmite fragrance; you'll either love it or hate it.  It's main notes are Black Pepper, White Thyme and Bergamot and as soon as I heard the word 'pepper' I thought there was absolutely no way I'd like it; if it ain't girly, it ain't for me.  Yet I wanted to give everything a whirl and get to know the brand fully, so I had my hand washed in Pep Noir and was very surprised to find that I actually really liked it.  What's most interesting about fragrance is how different it is for everyone; not just what we like and don't like, but also what our own bodily chemicals do to each individual scent.  On me, Pep Noir turned very sweet and almost sherbet-like which was so strange for such a strong, earthy fragrance.  I think on anyone else I probably wouldn't have liked the smell at all.

The point to me writing about this is that I think from now on I will keep a much more open-mind when it comes to fragrances in general.  There's no point smelling something on a bit of card or someone else and deciding you don't like it, as the only way you'll really know if it's for you is if you smell it on yourself; as Elijah said, "fragrance is a personal journey" and as of today, I completely agree.