What happens when a fortysomething women walks around smelling like a 13-year-old boy for a week? Mostly nothing. As it turns out, ours is a culture in which, as a general principle, people don’t really feel comfortable commenting on your scent, even when it is so powerful as to be causing climate change. So even if you apply Axe before a funeral—as I did—nobody is going to grab you by the arm and ask you to please leave.
— Columnist Dahlia Lithwick finds out what it's like to wear Axe. Read more at Axes of Evil at Slate. Hat tip to Jan, C.H. and Aparatchik!
LOL, this is funny. I detest Axe, the teen boys I know seem to BATHE in it. At that age, there is nothing subtle about them so I guess this is par for the course
It cracked me up that her boys stopped wearing it after she started — might be the answer!
Oh, my goodness, what possessed her to even try this? I suspect a dare by family, friends, or coworkers. A very amusing experiment and entertaining read!
Great idea for an article, yes!
Confession: I like the new Apollo scent a lot! I’ve only sniffed the deodorant though.. the rest…meh. I got a whiff of my husband..and I was like what is that, it’s good! He said it was probably his deodorant…yep! I don’t care! LOL
Hey, she said she liked her Axe scent, so why not?
Fabulous! I have to admit that I’m not actually sure what Axe smells like as there are no teenage boys in my family:)
Personally, I wish she had said more at the end about coming to like the scent, and how she now perceives it; perhaps enjoyable in a small dosage?
Yeah, there was “missing info” from the perfumista perspective.
When I read this I thought about forwarding it to NST, but thought someone else would. Ding! Anyway, no teen boys in my life, so I had no first hand knowledge of this product. Until I visited a friend and his family. The guest bathroom was loaded with Axe products. I walked into the dining room with a bottle of the stuff, and said “so this is the kryptonite I keep hearing about?”
My friend started laughing, his wife yelled “get that back to HIS bathroom”, Mike (the 15 year old owner) grabbed it and took it away while pouting, his little brother said “he thinks it makes him sexy”, and the little sister scrunched up her nose and made tiny gagging noises.
I sort of apologized. But I did suggest some other scented products that would be better. English Leather. I think I owe that boy a present.
Ha…it’s what the girls expect to smell, so probably English Leather wouldn’t have the same effect, right? I miss Old Spice.