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Notes03/25/2021
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Keeping calm with care - Martha's scent
Martha is an employee in the FBI. She is the secretary to the head of the Counterintelligence Division. Every day she goes to work carefully dressed and coiffed, performs it conscientiously and with the composure of those who know their job as a matter of course. She is a most valued employee.
Martha is not attractive in the conventional sense, but she is good looking, has a reserved cordial manner and a very winning smile. After an abortion at a young age, she is very cautious about romantic relationships. She does not want to be jilted again. Since she would like to start a family and in the meantime the biological clock is ticking faster and faster, she is privately a little unhappy, but does not wear this to the show.
So she is just predestined to become a victim of a spy from the other side.
And so it happens. Clark, whose real name is something else, cleverly makes a pass at her and wins her love. He pretends to also work for the FBI, partly undercover, and asks her for assistance. At first it's just minor things, like looking up a piece of information, later she's asked to position a bug hidden in a ballpoint pen in her boss's office. Martha, who at first assumes her lover is as loyal to the state and conscientious as she is, just perhaps a little hapless in his job, is happy to lend him a hand with a piece of information or two. But soon she realizes that some things around her Clark are strange. He takes the wind out of her sails, first with made-up explanations, later with a marriage proposal. The two marry, even though Clark already has another family and is leading a double life. Martha is happy with Clark and looks after him a lot, and Clark has even discovered a little bit of his heart for the friendly Martha as well.
But Martha is also intelligent: she can no longer avoid exposing Clark's double life and thus her own role, now as a traitor to the country. And, of course, the pen is eventually revealed to be a bug, too. The noose tightens around Martha.
Still, she keeps her composure and continues to go to work each day carefully dressed and coiffed, performing her duties conscientiously and with the composure of those who know their jobs as a matter of course.
She continues to love Clark.
In the series in question, a great many spies and recruited helpers like Martha die. Usually they are killed, by the other side, but also by their own people. I trembled a lot for Martha because of that.
But Martha has three qualities that, taken together, might save her life: First, she could win Clark's heart enough for him to want to save her. Second, she's intelligent and knows not to do certain things, because then she'll have to be virtually killed, by her side or by the other. And third, she agrees to be flown out to a completely foreign country whose language she doesn't speak, on the understanding that she will never again have contact with anyone she has known in her previous life.
Martha is a heroine. She bears her fate with dignity, with earnestness, with all the emotion that entails, but also with the wisdom to continue to act rationally.
If I were to assign Martha a fragrance for her workplace in the FBI, it would be Chanel No 5 Eau Première. In the evenings with Clark, she'll wear something else, something warmer, more sensual.
Now I have described the atmosphere that I think No 5 Eau Première stands for. Conscientiousness, friendliness, restraint, seriousness, genuineness, a certain dignity coupled with warmth, but also with distance. And not least for the ability to keep calm in extreme situations with deliberation.
In the opening, I smell the aldehydes. I find it very interesting that the modern aldehydes seem quite different to my nose than the old Seventies aldehydes. The modern ones, including the ones in No 5 Eau Première, are a bit stuffy for me at first, and if the note is very strong, it also makes me a bit nauseous. That is also the case here in a short, first top note moment. But then a very delicate, powdery floral note takes over, which I find wonderfully mild and friendly, but from which I don't recognize jasmine, neroli, rose or ylang ylang from the pyramid. Without knowing the pyramid, I would guess very well-dosed heliotrope and some iris, yes, maybe I would even think of YlangYlang after all, as it contributes a bit of joie de vivre - always subtle - and cheerfulness. As the fragrance progresses it becomes more powdery and also a tiny bit woody, there also remains a delicate hint of vanilla. The longevity is relatively short, maybe 5-6 hours, with the intensity dropping quite a bit after three hours. The sillage is also moderate, just well suited for an office.
Maybe this all sounds a bit boring and been there before. I can only say, the balance of this fragrance, its friendly, bright and dignified hovering between closeness and distance is unique.
Unique - like Martha.
P.S. The series is called The Americans and you have to get over the first season first, I think it has such some flaws. So far, the series only gets better after that. I'm on season 5 of 6 now.
Thank you, Blauemaus, for the wonderful sample No 5 Eau Première and thank you, Conchi2019, for the tip to watch "The Americans".
Martha is not attractive in the conventional sense, but she is good looking, has a reserved cordial manner and a very winning smile. After an abortion at a young age, she is very cautious about romantic relationships. She does not want to be jilted again. Since she would like to start a family and in the meantime the biological clock is ticking faster and faster, she is privately a little unhappy, but does not wear this to the show.
So she is just predestined to become a victim of a spy from the other side.
And so it happens. Clark, whose real name is something else, cleverly makes a pass at her and wins her love. He pretends to also work for the FBI, partly undercover, and asks her for assistance. At first it's just minor things, like looking up a piece of information, later she's asked to position a bug hidden in a ballpoint pen in her boss's office. Martha, who at first assumes her lover is as loyal to the state and conscientious as she is, just perhaps a little hapless in his job, is happy to lend him a hand with a piece of information or two. But soon she realizes that some things around her Clark are strange. He takes the wind out of her sails, first with made-up explanations, later with a marriage proposal. The two marry, even though Clark already has another family and is leading a double life. Martha is happy with Clark and looks after him a lot, and Clark has even discovered a little bit of his heart for the friendly Martha as well.
But Martha is also intelligent: she can no longer avoid exposing Clark's double life and thus her own role, now as a traitor to the country. And, of course, the pen is eventually revealed to be a bug, too. The noose tightens around Martha.
Still, she keeps her composure and continues to go to work each day carefully dressed and coiffed, performing her duties conscientiously and with the composure of those who know their jobs as a matter of course.
She continues to love Clark.
In the series in question, a great many spies and recruited helpers like Martha die. Usually they are killed, by the other side, but also by their own people. I trembled a lot for Martha because of that.
But Martha has three qualities that, taken together, might save her life: First, she could win Clark's heart enough for him to want to save her. Second, she's intelligent and knows not to do certain things, because then she'll have to be virtually killed, by her side or by the other. And third, she agrees to be flown out to a completely foreign country whose language she doesn't speak, on the understanding that she will never again have contact with anyone she has known in her previous life.
Martha is a heroine. She bears her fate with dignity, with earnestness, with all the emotion that entails, but also with the wisdom to continue to act rationally.
If I were to assign Martha a fragrance for her workplace in the FBI, it would be Chanel No 5 Eau Première. In the evenings with Clark, she'll wear something else, something warmer, more sensual.
Now I have described the atmosphere that I think No 5 Eau Première stands for. Conscientiousness, friendliness, restraint, seriousness, genuineness, a certain dignity coupled with warmth, but also with distance. And not least for the ability to keep calm in extreme situations with deliberation.
In the opening, I smell the aldehydes. I find it very interesting that the modern aldehydes seem quite different to my nose than the old Seventies aldehydes. The modern ones, including the ones in No 5 Eau Première, are a bit stuffy for me at first, and if the note is very strong, it also makes me a bit nauseous. That is also the case here in a short, first top note moment. But then a very delicate, powdery floral note takes over, which I find wonderfully mild and friendly, but from which I don't recognize jasmine, neroli, rose or ylang ylang from the pyramid. Without knowing the pyramid, I would guess very well-dosed heliotrope and some iris, yes, maybe I would even think of YlangYlang after all, as it contributes a bit of joie de vivre - always subtle - and cheerfulness. As the fragrance progresses it becomes more powdery and also a tiny bit woody, there also remains a delicate hint of vanilla. The longevity is relatively short, maybe 5-6 hours, with the intensity dropping quite a bit after three hours. The sillage is also moderate, just well suited for an office.
Maybe this all sounds a bit boring and been there before. I can only say, the balance of this fragrance, its friendly, bright and dignified hovering between closeness and distance is unique.
Unique - like Martha.
P.S. The series is called The Americans and you have to get over the first season first, I think it has such some flaws. So far, the series only gets better after that. I'm on season 5 of 6 now.
Thank you, Blauemaus, for the wonderful sample No 5 Eau Première and thank you, Conchi2019, for the tip to watch "The Americans".
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