In fact, up to 80% of the clove experience is a direct result of eugenol and its clove-y aroma and flavor(1). The smell and taste of cloves comes from a chemical called eugenol. I’m talking about the spice that you see on store shelves and that your mom uses in pumpkin or apple pie. No, not garlic, though that’s made of chemicals too. But small amounts of this and that, little touches here and there, contribute to some of the best parts of our lives. All chemicals can cause harm, but there’s a lot of truth to the old axiom “the dose makes the poison.” If you drink a bottle of cold water on a hot day, you’ll feel great. A gallon is not the same as an ounce, which is not the same as a milliliter. There’s been a trend in recent years to indict perfumery because it supposedly exposes us to “toxic chemicals.” Here’s the truth: while some of the ingredients that you find in perfume can be bad for you, it’s all a matter of quantity. But chemicals make up the world around us. “Chemicals.” It’s a scary word that conjures visions of toxic waste being dumped into rivers, of open vats of glowing green stuff, of big clouds of smog and soot being blown into the air. And all of these aromas are made up of chemicals. All of these aromas invite and entice us, making the world more fun, our existence more special. That comforting winter soup that your mom would have on the stove when you got home from school. Of baking bread or roasting meat as you walk down the street. In addition to fragrances that we apply to ourselves and our possessions, there are also the scents of the world going about its business. We love to perfume the spaces around us to make them more comforting, more welcoming, more ours. On the lady that you sit next to on the bus, on the guy who rides with you in the elevator. Candles, air fresheners, laundry detergents, shampoos, aromatherapy diffusers and more all suffuse our daily lives, perfuming the air wherever we go. I've long felt that this is something that requires more discussion and clarification in the wet shaving and perfumery worlds, so I thought you might find the analysis interesting. I put this up on our blog this week after porting it over from Berceuse, where I published it three years ago, just before the pandemic really kicked into high gear.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |