getlippie.blogspot.com

'they're so fat that their chubby little fingers won't be able to pick up a skinny-minnie ickle bottle of lotion? Please, let me tell you, as a fat I do not weep when a bottle of lotion in entirely practical and sensible packaging doesn't look like me, because I am not a crazy . Or are you, yet again, trying to sell more products off the back of patronising fat people by pandering to a need that doesn't exist? They look like they'd be impossible to hold, and even awkward to get the lotion out of.

The lavender scent is gorgeous, a herby-menthol woosh of cool and calming lavender, it's a joy to apply, smooth, silky, it doesn't drag, and feels lovely on the pits. You get, maybe, an hours smell-protection *tops*. I noticed earlier this week that I was getting a bit whiffy towards lunchtime (and bear in mind I have a smell disability that renders body-smells almost entirely "invisible" to me - so if *I* could smell it, god alone knows how "fragrant" I have been to others! ), but even in spite of scrupulous daily pit hygiene (as a recovering anosmic, multiple pit washings and deodorant applications are a daily - paranoid - fact of life), this stuff is a dud. Shame, I'd been hoping to move from the "triple strength" chemical, aluminium-heavy stuff I've been relying on for the last couple of years since I lost my sense of smell, but it looks like this was not the greatest place to start.

Get Lippie (the blog) is just having a short break whilst Get Lippie (the writer) finds that having a full-time job and trying to write a book whilst still having an actual life at the are all making things just a bit hectic. I'll be back soon, bigger, better and smellier (ha ha! ) than ever, I promise. In the meantime I'll pop in every now and again with the occasional review and links to things I've written/filmed/recorded elsewhere … see you in the summer!

A life without smell, whether or not you relied upon your nose as much as I did back in the "before", is grey and dull and stressful, and is also one where the simplest of pleasures to distract yourself, such as a glass of wine, or a great meal, or even a cup of coffee or the smell of a hug from your loved ones, are denied to you. Life had segued from my anosmic "glass box" existence, to living in a surreal smell-landscape where every single item you encounter in life, from shower gel to toothpaste, takeaway curry to a supermarket sandwich (and let us not even mention the circle of hell that is a kitchen to parosmic) to even the smell of your own wet hair could make you throw up, no matter where you were. The truth is that the sense of smell is a neglected one, and even in circles where people really appreciate "smells", there is a lot of mistruth spoken about anosmia and (to a much lesser extent) parosmia by people who rely on spreading fear about losing your sense of smell for their own living. There are still things I can't really smell - not being able to smell anything burning is a particular worry.