Discoveries

I was washing the dishes after lunch and put a big squirt of Method Pink Grapefruit dish soap into the sink. As I was splashing the water around to stir up some suds, I thought, "What's that smell? It's like something cooking...but nothing I've been cooking." It reminded me of gravy or something, with a garlicky overtone.

And that's when it hit me. Garlic. Pink grapefruit. I was smelling the dreaded sulfurous undertones of grapefruit for the first time!

As you will discover if you Google "garlic grapefruit perfumery", many people find grapefruit-based scents such as Guerlain's Pampelune to be unpleasantly garlicky, because both botanicals contain related sulfur molecules; grapefruit applied with an indiscreet hand or composed with other fragrance ingredients in the wrong way can turn on you. I wore Pampelune for a couple of years, and own a few other scents containing grapefruit, and I've never smelled it myself. Until now.

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Speaking of Method, their new Christmas line is out: Frosted Fir (no thanks), WInter Berry (probably a lot like last year's Hollyberry), and Toasted Hazelnut. Want!

Unfortunately, the Method folks have not released these in Canada. Instead, perhaps assuming we wouldn't notice, have given us last year's lineup of Hollyberry, Cinnamon Bark, and Peppermint Vanilla.

Oh, we noticed, all right. And we are not pleased.

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Rather than simply launch yet another variation of the standard men's fragrance, Axe has decided to take a different route, and has given us Dark Temptation, which supposedly smells of chocolate, the theory being that women love chocolate and will not be able to keep their hands off you if you wear this.

But it smells more or less like a knockoff of A*Men, only cheaper, of course.