It could be the little Sri Lankan infant I keep locked in the basement, but I love spicy food almost as much as I love ham. Or at least I used to. Now whenever I consume a spicy meal I’m greeted by toxic perspiration that is in fact, pure chilli itself. I thought I was imagining it, the secretion of tiny beads of devilishly hot sweat, so much I asked a friend to lick my face in a non-erotic manner and I wasn’t crazy, just a freak. So when I hear of swallowable perfume that emits a fragrance, I wasn’t the least bit surprised.
That’s right—swallowable perfume. I’ve heard of all manner of things being ingested, but never perfume outside of Absolutely Fabulous’ Patsy Stone Elizabeth Taylor’s White Diamonds-swilling ways. Created by Amsterdam-based artist, Lucy McRae, along with synthetic biologist, Sheref Mansy, the perfume is contained in a capsule, its contents mimicking lipids found in the body. Once metabolised, the body emits the fragrant molecules through perspiration. The Swallowable Parfum project even has a fancy website, which might be a little over the top even by contemporary advertising standards. Call me égoïste, but I like my perfume advertisements simple, Nineties and camp.
While I don’t expect a purse-sized pack of Chanel No5 to be replaced by a pill, perhaps it’s an excellent non-confrontational way to deal with that sweaty gorilla who works in IT and doesn’t understand what deodorant is. Just slip it into his meat pie at lunchtime, and hey presto—El Stinko is now a bowl of potpourri!
Published on 27 October 2011 by Agony Uncle