Smells Like Grandma
Have you ever caught an odor in the air and have it transport you to a memory of your past? It's a real thing and I was surprised at how powerful it can be.
The backstory is that I ran out of my Cover Girl brand foundation and headed to Ulta (one of my happy places - so many eyeshadows!) to replace it. They were out of Albino in my usual formula so I ended up getting Cover Girl Clean instead.
When I applied it the next morning I noticed it was scented and moments after that the picture of my Grandma's dresser came to mind. What was on the dresser, you might ask? Well, it was this:
It may have been your Great Grandma, Grandma, your Mom or maybe even you but this was the be all, end all of cold cream among other uses. I remember it being especially soothing on sunburns but I never used it to remove makeup.
I'm not that old.
I tried to validate that my memory wasn't faulty by searching for the ingredient listings for both the Clean Foundation and Noxzema. The latter clearly stated eucalyptus when I found its ingredients. All I could find on the former was a generic "scent" listing.
Clearly, an experiment was in order.
Off I went to Target to buy a jar of Noxzema. I honestly wasn't even sure it was sold anymore so, when the 20ish year old clerk asked me if I needed help finding something, I took her up on the offer.
"I'm looking for Noxzema cold cream."
After simultaneous consultation with two (two!) different tablets, she told me to follow her and led me to the cold medication section.
"No, it's a cold cream. For removing makeup."
"Oh, I thought you said it was for cold sores."
OK, where to start? First, cold sores aren't treated with cold medicines. Second, you're too young to be my friend if you don't even know what Noxzema is so good thing you didn't ask me to meet you for drinks after work. Not that you're even legal to drink. Kids, these days, always trying to break the rules.
To her credit, she did then lead me directly to the one, bottom, shelf of product that had makeup removers on it and there it was!
I bought the jar, took it home then opened both it and my foundation to compare the scents. They didn't seem exactly the same but I had a cold so it was back to the research. I'm nothing if not a through scientist.
An extensive (more than five minutes!) google search on the foundation gave me several observations from others on its smell. One person said it smelled like Vicks Vapor Rub (which does have eucalyptus in addition to camphor and menthol) but I didn't get that.
But, a couple said it smelled like Noxzema so, experiment complete. I was right. I am nothing if not a thorough until I have evidence to support my hypothesis scientist.
I did find one comment that it smelled like "old lady makeup" a bit hurtful. My Grandma wasn't that old when she used it. I mean, she couldn't have been much older than I am now.
Sigh.
Maybe, I am that old.
The backstory is that I ran out of my Cover Girl brand foundation and headed to Ulta (one of my happy places - so many eyeshadows!) to replace it. They were out of Albino in my usual formula so I ended up getting Cover Girl Clean instead.
When I applied it the next morning I noticed it was scented and moments after that the picture of my Grandma's dresser came to mind. What was on the dresser, you might ask? Well, it was this:
 |
| Do you remember? |
It may have been your Great Grandma, Grandma, your Mom or maybe even you but this was the be all, end all of cold cream among other uses. I remember it being especially soothing on sunburns but I never used it to remove makeup.
I'm not that old.
I tried to validate that my memory wasn't faulty by searching for the ingredient listings for both the Clean Foundation and Noxzema. The latter clearly stated eucalyptus when I found its ingredients. All I could find on the former was a generic "scent" listing.
Clearly, an experiment was in order.
Off I went to Target to buy a jar of Noxzema. I honestly wasn't even sure it was sold anymore so, when the 20ish year old clerk asked me if I needed help finding something, I took her up on the offer.
"I'm looking for Noxzema cold cream."
After simultaneous consultation with two (two!) different tablets, she told me to follow her and led me to the cold medication section.
"No, it's a cold cream. For removing makeup."
"Oh, I thought you said it was for cold sores."
OK, where to start? First, cold sores aren't treated with cold medicines. Second, you're too young to be my friend if you don't even know what Noxzema is so good thing you didn't ask me to meet you for drinks after work. Not that you're even legal to drink. Kids, these days, always trying to break the rules.
To her credit, she did then lead me directly to the one, bottom, shelf of product that had makeup removers on it and there it was!
 |
| They've definitely modernized their packaging. Which makes me a little sad. |
I bought the jar, took it home then opened both it and my foundation to compare the scents. They didn't seem exactly the same but I had a cold so it was back to the research. I'm nothing if not a through scientist.
An extensive (more than five minutes!) google search on the foundation gave me several observations from others on its smell. One person said it smelled like Vicks Vapor Rub (which does have eucalyptus in addition to camphor and menthol) but I didn't get that.
But, a couple said it smelled like Noxzema so, experiment complete. I was right. I am nothing if not a thorough until I have evidence to support my hypothesis scientist.
I did find one comment that it smelled like "old lady makeup" a bit hurtful. My Grandma wasn't that old when she used it. I mean, she couldn't have been much older than I am now.
Sigh.
Maybe, I am that old.
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