SOTD: None. And breaking the code. And, eew.

You know how sometimes a series of random inputs comes together to produce an idea?

I've been puzzled over my weird scent preferences this spring.

I was just over at All I am - a redhead, reading Ines' post about spring scents, in which she was also puzzling over the same thing. Ines had a picture of daisies, and she mentioned Bal d'Afrique. My thoughts played with these things, without my actually noticing. Bal d'Afrique contains an African Marigold note. Marigolds are rumored to kill bugs. Pyrethrum daisies do kill bugs. Oh, and earlier, Left Coast Nose used the phrase "spring cleaning".

Oh.

I'm craving spring scents that kill bugs.

Eeew.

But, yep, there it is.

Now, I don't mean modern bug spray. I mean scents that smell like the various plant-based oils that you would do spring cleaning with, and repel bugs with, 'way back when. Smelly vegetation that you'd strew on the castle floor to kill the winter's unwanted visitors, and then sweep right out the door, leaving the inside well-aired and smelling faintly of the remaining traces of the harsh oils. That's what I want. Minus, you know, the bugs themselves. Let's not go overboard with authenticity.

I touched on this with Fou d'Absinthe, but I failed to see the larger pattern. I'm also enjoying Brin de Reglisse, with its strong, un-ladylike lavender note. And Vetiver Tonka, smelling of a stinky oily grass. And mint, in White Jasmine & Mint and a natural mint oil that I tried on a recent sniffathon. And cedar everywhere I find it. And I'm thinking back to the bitter orange-peel scent of Parfumerie Generale Bois de Copaiba, and thinking that I might like it now.

And if I had any, I'd be wearing Comme des Garcons Tea, which smells of any number of similarly aggressive things. And Tubereuse Criminelle, with that gasoline note. Almost everything that I enjoy right now has a volatile note that would drop a beetle in its tracks.

Spring, the season of bug-killing perfume. Eew?

Now, I suppose this makes a certain amount of sense. As discussed in the vole theory, in winter it would make sense for me to want the smell of warm unwashed nearby humans. In spring, it makes sense for me to want to bathe myself and my home in things that smell of critter-killing oils. Both scent preferences would have survival value. That's my theory, and I'm sticking to it. Because I'm not weird, or anything.

Image: By Louise. Wikimedia Commons.