The Hippie Movement's Drift on Fragranceby Eva Pasco Author of "Underlying Notes" 
A lifelong
fragrance afficionado who flits from one femme
fatale fume to another to achieve an olfactory
high, my hip hip hurray to the Hippie Movement's profound
influence on "smelling good" is long overdue.
The counterculture voice of the Sixties, Hippies snubbed their
noses at corporate mainstream French fragrances. Grungy,
unkempt, and giving off an aura of lax hygiene, who would ever
think of Hippies as an authority on scents?
As Hippies
gravitated toward Indian culture, they became fascinated with
essential oils such as sandalwood, musk, and the ever
pervasive patchouli--a rich, earthy, woody, mossy, exotic
essence. Shunning artificial perfumery, our forbears may have
coined the phrase "nature based." Modern university studies
indeed corroborate that essential oils such as patchouli facilitate
romance through lulling the mind and warming the body. They
increase oxygen in the brain to affect emotions, attitude, immune
functions, hormone balance, and energy levels.
Though we will
always have obnoxious killer fragances among us, the Hippie
Movement paved the way for those sought after clean, unobtrusive,
androgynous scents so coveted by today's
society.
|
.jpg "The 60s - Carl - 1968 - Vietnam")
