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Drugstore Cowgirl: Smells Without Smelling

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Drugstore Cowgirl: Smells Without Smelling

This is more about dissociating in Target than anything else

Dame Karen
Dec 18, 2022
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Drugstore Cowgirl: Smells Without Smelling

twobossydames.substack.com

Hello, smellwells. How’s everyone doing as this holiday season envelops us in its smothering, frantic coziness and another surreal, incredibly fucked up year draws to a shaky close? I finally got Covid after avoiding it until now — the week I got it, I went back to karaoke for the first time since The Before and some friends who also got it insist we got it there and I’m not convinced, probably because I don’t want to truly give in to the sneaking suspicion that a malevolent force exists and is watching and ready to strike me down any time I start to have a little fun, but honestly, it’s really not safe to do karaoke right now. Or ever again? I don’t know!

Karaoke is such an important part of my sense of self. I’m a terrible singer and it was the source of so much angst and shame for so long because I really LIKE to sing. When I was maybe 25 I decided fuck it, I’m going to be very publicly bad at something and try not to care and it worked! I don’t care! It rules!

Another important part of my sense of self is really liking to Smell Things and Drugstore Cowgirl is a celebration of things that smell good but don’t cost a lot of money. It’s also an ongoing writing prompt for me as well as a way to practice a sort of service journalism and let the people who want to know know about cheap, good scents. The worst part about Covid, aside from anxiety re: giving it other people, which I did, a lot, including my parents [they’re fine] and wondering if my ongoing problems with fatigue and brain fog will get worse, is that I entirely lost my sense of taste and smell! It’s slowly coming back, which means I’ll soon be able to smell all the birthday perfume I got from Sophie, Dave, Holly, and my parents [people who love me know me! what a blessing!] I was zombie marching through Target yesterday picking up stocking stuffers and toilet paper and of course I made my way to the Beauty section and, in a sort of fugue state, picked up two perfumes for $12.99 each. Friends, I have so many perfumes. But now I have two more and I want to talk about them, even though I can barely smell them.

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