Well, I ordered a bit of a limited variety of togos: IFM, instant shine, and p79 and got a micro-mini togo ammo sample kicked in as an added bonus. So, like probably almost every new user, I applied too many things all at once to get a good idea which was entirely responsible. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
I opened my package and carefully opened and sniffed each bottle briefly. Smells like … a vodka martini. All of them except ammo (which still smelled that way, but with something else there). Why the neroli scent somehow reminds me a bit of a dry Cinzano vermouth tossed ever so violently into a not terribly healthy amount of luksusowa (or similar vodka) is a mystery to me. Though it didn’t make me want to go out and drink, which as a former alcoholic, was a good thing.
Regardless of that, I figured my nose does’t smell especially well and I started out with 2-3 blasts of instant shine, spread between the wrists and chest (shirt open 3-4 buttons at the top) about 8am or so. It might have perked me up a little bit. Around 8:30, I added a blast of P79, wondering if I would observe anything. Nope, not really.
About 11am, I was heading from the office to the pharmacy and decided to blast myself with a refresher and added 2 more shine again one split between wrists and one to the chest (yes, maybe it lasts 6 hours, but I didn’t notice much) and two blasts of IFM, one to the chest and one to the back of the head. I noticed nothing from the IFM either personally.
So, I drove to the pharmacy and started scouting out my small list of maybe five various items from around the store. There were several employees around the store, generally about a meter away from wherever I ended up standing, often in another aisle. I should note that the aisles are rather short in this particular pharmacy. After I would stand there for a moment, the associates would scurry around the aisle and ask me if they could help me find anything. I would say no and they would continue to stand near me and straighten things in the aisle where I was. Even straightening things that clearly didn’t need attention. This happened with both male and female associates.
As I was preparing to leave, I stood near the checkout browsing the Easter candy for a minute, again the offer of assistance from the nearby checkout lady which I declined. She hovered near the edge of the counter a bit until I was ready and had to try three times to enter my phone number to find my account in their system. The entire time she rang up my order she was carrying on as if we were old friends about all sorts of things.
I was at this point still one item short and went to their competitor across the street for the final item. There I submitted to the request to assist me in locating it as I needed to hurry back to the office. The checkout lady there told me what a good choice it was, etc and talked, also as if I were an old friend. Now, if you have read my previous few posts, you are aware that I consider the people where I live to be downright hostile and certainly irritable when shopping. This was completely abnormal behavior for all of them to ever even try to be remotely helpful.
I returned to the office and continued my day. The administrative assistant who sits next to me told me she was processing my request (for some computer equipment) multiple times, pausing to talk about her grandkids and to apologize repeatedly that the equipment had not yet arrived and that it wasn’t her fault really, it was just delayed. Then about five minutes later she repeated herself almost verbatim. A little strange, but she is always helpful.
Business meeting around 1, I added a little more shine, 1 to the chest yet again. All guys, but two who seldom speak spent a good amount of time talking that day which was very at odds with their usual meeting behavior.
Around 3:30, I applied 2 more shine, 2 ammo, 2 p79, and 2 more IFM – all to the chest and allowed it to dry for half an hour before covering with a standard cologne. Why cover? Well, my wife has the most outstanding nose and I thought perhaps I could slip something through with a heavy dose of cover scent.
Left work and went home. Wife commented that something smelled nice and something smelled absolutely awful. I volunteered that I had been sniffing colognes at the pharmacy and had probably gotten some on me, which was entirely possible, probable even, as I tend to be a bit clumsy. I suggested I could take a shower, but she demurred, suggesting I do so just before bed (as usual). Which scent was it that overpowered her and stunk something dreadfully? I can’t say for sure. She spent the evening slightly closer to me (despite my stinking dreadfully) than usual, though nothing otherwise exceptional happened.
I showered, still stunk, and received the suggestion to please sleep in an undershirt. The following day, she commented that the sheets still stunk from whatever foul cologne I had been wearing. -none from the ammo perhaps?
Since then, I have been more limited in my experimentation for the moment, not spraying on myself, only objects in the environment. I seem to spray the shine in my cube daily. Though I can’t smell or notice anything, I seem to continue spraying it as if I subconsciously like it anyway.
Well, that’s about it so far.
