The earliest joys of life lay in simple things like fragrances, touch and tastes. You would love the taste of your pencil or a toy or a bottle cap, a lemon or maybe a wax-stick and would blissfully chew or suck on it till your mom came running in screeching at the top of her lungs. You got scared and let it go. Then times changed, your tastes changed, from bubble gums to cigarettes to the flesh of your woman and other eatables, your tastes went higher and higher till you banged on a tumbler of whiskey and dropped out. But some old joys remain quintessentially the same. Well, it happened for me.
I was particularly attached to the fragrance of soaps from my earliest days. I still remember my white Johnson's Baby Soap bar, it had a soft fragrance and I particularly looked forward for a bath. I also had a green tub, I remember, where I used to be tucked in. Then there were all sorts of soap bars and I was addicted to the fragrance of soaps. I had collected many soap boxes and I used to smell them from time to time. Glycerin soaps were a wonder -- transparent soaps? O my God! Then with the years came the other solid joys. Fruit fragrances and citrus and rose-scented soaps, antiseptic soaps and the cologne scented ones. They used to be a soap called Lecance which had a pink oval foot shape and a peculiarly new smell. It was withdrawn from the market somehow. Supermarkets and departmental stores keep a huge collection of floral-scented soaps and I smell them there, I dont buy them. Lux has brought out so many different versions which all somehow vary between the dehydrating and anhydrous type. Nothing new except the pretty colours. A bath with a pleasant soap simply makes your day. Whenever I have had a bad day, I buy a new soap and go for a refreshing shower. Cools me down. I have been freaky too. I even tried using detergent soaps on my body, even the dishwashing soap. They were coarse on the skin, which went very dry and developed flakes, not to mention the aweful smell. I had to bathe all over again after the experimental bath. I even used shampoo as bath gel, doesnt help, except that you feel slippery ;)
Talking of bath-gels, bath-salts, body-scrubs --- I dont like them. A soap is a soap, a tangible form of the beautiful fragrance that invades your nose and lets loose a horde of good-feelings, positive hormones and well, a pure delight. A tangible form is like a belief, a foundation of your well-being. I love soaps of all sizes and shapes. I especially dote on fruit-scented soaps and lemon soaps.
By the way, my father had discarded of all my soap boxes and didnt even pay heed to my .... never mind.
