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First it was the scent of orange blossom, which my father sprayed swiftly on his wrists, neck and chest. “How about a bit of the lube first?” he’d say when I walked into his room and demand a spray or two. I must’ve been 10 years old. I obviously didn’t know why he was rubbing lotion on my hands.
Then, for a long time, it was Vaseline. “Would you like to rub some Vaseline before I spray?,” he’d ask every time I’d borrow his perfume. He switched the brand of his cologne too. But not the notes of orange blossom. This one also had orange blossom as its top note.
I didn’t know the logic but I trust his grooming choices blindly because he’s 65 right now and he looks not a day older than a 45-year-old man. He smells fresh. Always.
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A few days back we were sharing a room in a hotel by a lake. We were getting ready for our buffet dinner and he’s not the kind of man who goes out in pyjamas. So he set aside his ironed shirt and trousers on the bed. Poured the baby oil into his hands, whisked them together and applied it to his face, hands, neck and chest. Then he slid the bottle to my side of the mirror and said, “Here—rub a little baby oil into your chest and wrists.”
“Baby oil? What happened to Vaseline?”
“I can’t rub that kind of grease on my chest. Can you? Baby oil gets soaked in and holds the scent too.”
As we continued our rare grooming conversation, my father raised his eyebrows and said, “Sunn bacche… learn my secrets now, your wife will thank you.”
Dad said applying perfume on moisturised pulse points is the only perfume trick you need in life but there are different types of lubricants and only baby oil checks all the boxes—makes your skin work like a diffuser while keeping it younger.
He said Vaseline isn’t ideal for the chest but the chest is ideal for perfumes. Applying perfume on your chest (close to your heart) allows it to diffuse slowly and reach your nose for a long, long time. When a girl hugs you or comes close to you, her head often rests around your chest. So she knows your scent; she knows you always smell good—and that’s a bonus.
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Why the baby oil?
Because it naturally sinks into your skin—more naturally than a lotion or any other type of grease.
“Anything combined with the natural scent of baby oil will only smell attractive, I promise you that,” he enlightened me with his logic and experience.
He, although, has moved on to Villain’s Revolver Gold Editon. He says it’s more masculine and makes him feel younger and stronger. But he did clarify his reason for sticking to the orange blossom notes for so long.
He corrected me and said he was actually sticking to both orange blossom and vanilla. Men identify orange blossom perfume more quickly and they can’t resist the scent. Vanilla does the same for most women.
This was one of my old man’s secrets. Many more to come…