I was just lighting the last four incence sticks, Opium, according to the package, and it occured to me that they must mean the perfume Opium, by Yves ST,.L:aurent. When I was a hioppie, the smell of opium would frequently waft through the house and send me , stomach heaving, to the bathroom.
This scent is rather pleasant. Do people still use perfume? I have quite a little collection of perfumes on my bookshelf . My favorite one in my youth was Shalimar. Now it is Goddess or Magic by Marilyn Miglin. And I like men who wear Tobacco, probably a long gone aftershave in Germany. Come to think of it, it was my father's aftershave. Scents engae the most primitive section of our brain and let us access the oldest memories.
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Not sure if I'd recognize opium anymore, I'm a little younger than you and the only time I smelled it was in the late sixties when it was brought back by Vietnam Vets. I'm sure I'd remember tear gas from that era, I always liked it in small amounts.
Buttercup
Level 8
June 16, 2019
1
I think it was nude by Bill Blass but there was a perfume that reminded me of my pet guinea pig cages, a heady combination of cedar chips and rodent musk.
I think the young'ns these days shy away from perfumes. I have two, slightly varying takes on why:
Take 1: A woman, calling attention to herself, or appearing to try to make herself more alluring to the opposite sex is quite antithetical to the current sentiment in sexual relations.
Take 2: if take 1 didn't seem fully apropos, then perhaps we can generalize the sentiment to many young'n females/males/etc, seem to ascribe to the idea that you should be able to be within 1 foot of someone, and still be able to feel that you have zero connection/interaction with that person, through eyes glued to cell-phone, no talking, earbuds in place (with music, or silent as a deterrent), and no discernible smell.
I think it's sad. Those of non-young'n generations still do what they'd like...but there are becoming fewer and fewer perfume wearers over time, it seems.
APaleBlueDot
Level 7
June 16, 2019
2
@Allamanda There's certainly truth in that perspective... but, if you actually look at pollution levels, we have reduced particulate pollution significantly since the '70's, and asthma and stuff has increased. There's an aspect of the human body where the less you are exposed something, the more you react to it... which is similar to the mindset of encouraging kids to get exposure to dirt to increase resistance, and reducing use of hand sanitizers. It'd have been the same for smoking in the workplace, or perfumes. However, you are right...exposing most people in 2019 to Mrs. MacGillicuddy's perfume level on her way to church in 1960 is asking for locked-up lungs! 
@Allamanda you should read Johnathan Haidt's "The Coddling of the American Mind". As we sanitize our environment from disturbances we also destroy our body's ability to deal with them. This is true on a physical as well as mental level. It's not just a saying, it's a fact.
Progress MUST be periodically retarded lest sudden changes break our resiliency. It's like pulling silly putty ... do it slow and you can stretch it a tremendous distance. Do it in an instant, however, and it snaps apart. Technology and evolution help make it more stretchy. But the frailties of human existence make that snap much more inevitable.
@Allamanda ya ever thought about taking up smoking? thats a joke btw.
I see you're in the VI. yeah there's not much you can do. your environment is what's "isolating" you by its' goodness.
@JeffMesser makes a lot of sense
Sadly, no.
I developed asthma at age 40. "Garcon, I didn't order this," I told my doctor. She laughed.
"Being born prematurely increased your chance of developing adult-onset asthma by 35 percent," she replied.
Perfumes trigger my asthma. Years ago, "Beautiful" perfume by Estee Lauder was my signature scent. Sigh.
LiterateHiker
Level 9
June 16, 2019
1
Were you also born prematurely?
"Beautiful" is one oof the very attractive scents ( to my nose)
I want to mention one more thing about perfumes: I could never wear any when I was married to my secoond husband who came back from Vietnam with PTSD. His psychiatrist explained to me in one session that people suffering from PTSD and related conditions ( including melancholy ( depression) have a very intense negative reaction to smells, even pleseant ones.
Maybe our environment is getting too stressful.
I rarely use any perfumes, they are known to have chemicals in then that I don't want on my body. I use essential oils for diffusing from time to time.
HippieChick58
Level 9
June 16, 2019
1
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