I never thought I had an unusually strong sense of smell – until I no longer did.
I loved food, and I loved perfume. I hated certain smells – I could smell cigarette smoke from the outside, even when in my 4th floor apartment with the windows closed.
I could smell and taste nuances in wine that other people thought were just pretensions, and I could cook without tasting what I was making – especially helpful for the meat eaters in my family, as I have been a vegetarian since the age of 16, yet I can cook amazing dishes with delicate spices and herbs, even without tasting them.
But, in 2019, before the entire world experienced COVID and the accompanying loss of smell, I was hit was a severe illness that destroyed my sense of smell. It took ages for it to build back up, and it still isn’t to where it used to be. I can smell nuance, but my nose gets tired more quickly than it used to. I need to leave a room and come back to notice the smells. I have to be closer to something to really pick up on the individual parts of a scent structure.
I still love fragrance, however, and I am determined to take back my ability to smell, to capture smell memories, and to follow the smallest traces of scent where I find them.
As part of that process, I jumped headfirst into the world of perfume.