Scents in the West

 

Because our air is dry and our soils are mostly minerals with little organic content, summer air here doesn't have the sweet heavy smell I grew up with in the east. After a rainstorm there's a noticeable metallic smell but no pungent aroma of ozone or wet soil; on a fresh breezy day there is a sunny clean quality to the air, but no scent. 

The fragrant plants I've tried here don't smell like anything. In the forest up in the mountains you may catch the fragrance of junipers on a hot day or the tang of pines, particularly the pinions, but down here in the basin we don't get that.

In the house I've tried misting diffusers and pot pourri and essential oils, but the dry air dissipates any lasting fragrance. The smell of smoke from forest fires has lessened, but the house needs freshening, and I'm trying again with some very expensive highly perfumed reed diffusers.

My daughter in law in California had this brand (Archipelago) in her guest bathroom when we stayed at their house recently. I dislike heavy perfumes, but this had a luxe fragrance and it was intense enough that it might persist in our dry climate. So I ordered the same -- a complex pomegranate citrus scent -- for our guest bath.

And I ordered a second, different bottle for the master bath because I am a marketer's dream and easily sold by descriptions. Here's the description that captivated me:

Pineapple leaf, Ginger, Key lime, Hibiscus blossoms, fresh nutmeg, vanilla bean and brown sugar.

I like ginger. I like nutmeg. Brown sugar and vanilla. It sounds like dessert.

But oh my god, it smells like a Hawaiian bakery exploded in our bathroom. Pineapple is all I smell. It's like going to a resort bar in the islands where barefoot waiters bring you tropical drinks on trays. A tiki bar in my bathroom. 

Now I am praying for some dry, dust laden, metallic southwest air to blow in through the windows and mitigate this infusion of fruits and sugars and island confections. Thank god they left out any coconut scent, or I'd be lying on the bathroom floor in a coma, clutching a drinks parasol by now.

I had to get it out of the house, but what to do with a full bottle of intensely perfumed liquid? I stoppered the bottle and left it outside by the potting bench and now the whole back yard and the neighbor's patios smell like a pineapple plantation.

I might try ordering another scent. They have lots to choose from. How far wrong could I go?