if someone passes you by smelling like a perfume counter, that would be me

came back a while ago from lunch with friends from jersey and their friends. their friends took them to lunch at sumo sam at shang and i was lucky enough to be invited to tag along. food was okay, although a tad bit expensive for my taste (spied the bill, thank goodness i wasn't paying). as some of you know, i'm not a big fan of japanese food in whatever form, except i guess the chibi (kiddie) meal at terriyaki boy.

anyway, this isn't about the lunch, but what i got out of the lunch.

you know how it's like when you meet up with balikbayan friends and being pinoys, they're bound to have a little something for you from the US by way of pasalubong? well, i love that moment. i'm a sucker for gifts by nature (ballpen lang, masaya na ako) and so, considering the last time they went home they surprised me with a bottle of burberry london and a cute xoxo bag, i must admit that there was some tiny part of me that was a wee bit excited as to what i'd be getting this time.

as soon as i arrived, they handed me a package. of course, i couldn't open it right there and then but i could tell it was a box that would fit my hand. i could also spy from the translucent bag that it had some sort of bow on top. and it was weighty. needless to say, i couldn't wait to open it up.

and so, within seconds of saying goodbye, as they headed to one direction and me the other, i had barely stepped on the escalator when i opened the package and saw it was a box of four perfumes in candy colors, which were "impressions of" (take note not imitation of) miami glow by jlo, lovely by sarah jessica parker, fantasy by britney spears, and with love by hilary duff. all celebrities, yes, after all it was the "celebrity fragrance collection."

probably i really just am the type who'd fail the marshmallow text cause when i got back in the office, i opened up the box and tried one perfume after the other: left wrist, left arm, right wrist, and right arm. and, oh, that's on top of the elizabeth arden green tea i put on this morning. i smell, for lack of a better word, cloying.

twenty minutes later, i can still the smell wafting up from my arms. surprisingly, i like the "impression of" with love the most, then again, it did get a good review. or, it could simply be that elizabeth arden scents and i do get along swimmingly well most of the time. (i wore sunflowers almost all of my college life). fantasy was okay although it sort of faded real quick, so quick that i couldn't really tell where on my arm i sprayed it on anymore. i could blame my nose being shocked into a coma, though, considering i applied four scents within two minutes of each other. lovely and miami glow were disappointments, miami glow more so cause i've heard so many good things about glow and how it had a clean scent which i generally love.

but before one reacts violently, it could simply be that these thoughts aren't really worth anything. after all, "impressions of" aren't really the same as the real things and who knows how the actual perfume would react with my skin chemistry.

anyway, just know that if someone passes you by later smelling like a perfume counter, don't think that a salesman waving those tiny slips of paper is running after you. it would just be me, the girl who tried on four various scents cause she couldn't wait.