How do YOU smell?

I have a confession to make; only a very few of my closest friends know this but...

Ok, here goes...

When I'm out and about, I make a special point of smelling people!!! 

Now, I know that sounds really weird but hear me out. Listen to my reasons before judging.

Every morning when we dress, in preparation for going out, not only do we rake through wardrobes, or kick the piles of clothes we keep on the floor; all with the intention to find that jumper of those jeans, the ones that cost a fortune, the ones that make our butts look so so great, but we also often go one step further and add a certain smell to the mix. The smell, this is something I'll get on to later.

Before we go any further we have to ask ourselves a question.

Why spend £100s on Moschino or Dior when there is always H&M and Primark?

Think about it. The latter costs a fraction of the price and does exactly the same thing. They keep you warm and allow you to venture out without fear of arrest on the grounds of indecency.

So why do we do it?

I'll tell you why. We do it to look 'our best' for everybody around us. For some reason, we live our lives spending fortunes for people we pass on the street, on trains, on buses even. These people we've probably never seen before, or will ever see again, BUT for some reason we go through our lives, hitting our credits, crashing our bank balances, all in the outside chance we'll make a complete stranger give a subtle nod of appreciation.

Now you could fool yourself and say, That's not me, I do it because I feel good when I know I look good. My friends appreciate me when I look good.

I say Poppycock, it's not true. We've all been brought up to try to look our very best, to impress people. At school, it's imperative to have the most expensive trainers or the latest Adidas hoodie for fear of being bullied or relegated out of the 'IT' crowd and into the nerdy, free school meals, bunch. We dress the way we do to bring people around to our way of thinking. Your friends, if they're true friends, will adore you whatever you wear. A potato sack works as well as a Lois Vuitton in the real world.

Now don't get wrong. I love the fact that people dress the way they do. I love that people spend fortunes on clothes just for me. I notice people who make the effort for me. I appreciate them. Their credit card debts, the hours spent trawling the internet, or mad dashes through shopping malls for that one item are all worth it. Honestly, they really are, keep it up.

Now let's go one step further. Not only do you get dressed in front of mirrors, making sure the colours go, the accent scarf matches perfectly with your eyes as well as your  socks, even your underwear. It's the people who go the extra metres are the ones who really impress me. I say extra metres because that's the distance between the bedroom to the bathroom. It's in the bathroom where the bottles of smells and lotions live.

Men, as well as women these days, have an entire cornucopia of products and smellies to choose from. The days of just a simple underarm deodorant are all long gone. Take a walk through the aisles of any Superdrug or if you're lucky, spend time in Gatwick's Duty Free, you'll be spoiled for choice. Not only are there perfumes and colognes and aftershaves, all of which have their own scent, but there are face creams, anti-aging lotions, body sprays even 'Deep Heat' pain relief ointments. They smell (some stink, especially Deep Heat) and that's fine by me.

So next time when you're out, shopping, drinking, eating whatever, don't just look, take a sniff too. There's an entire world out there you've been missing.