I dont know about you, but for me cleaning the house is akin to painting the Forth Bridge. It’s a never ending job that causes me to be in a state of non stop guilt. As you know I work full time and with my daughter out at college I have to ask my mum to help out during the week to let Bruce out for a walk whilst the house is empty during the working week. No matter how much I try to get done at the weekend, it’s never enough to have a spotless house – in fact I am always amazed if I drop in to see a friend unexpectedly and find almost everything clean, tidy and in its rightful place, just how on earth does that happen! I swear that even overnight things appear to jump out of cupboards and off shelves ready for me to tidy away again. My mum is of a certain age that she doesnt work anymore and seems to have forgotten the plight of the working mother, always happy to point out a ceiling cobweb that she had noticed the day before ”and is still there Julie” - although to be fair, I do remember her often ironing at 10pm when she was working. To be honest, I can always find much more interesting things to do after I’ve had my tea and the hands of the clock are approaching 7pm than starting to get the dust removed and the hoover out or the iron warmed up.

So on this note I have been interested to read recent articles that cleaning products have for some while been upping their ante on the fragrance front. Apparently we have been a little too blase about the standard lemon or pine household fragrances of old for far too long, and so the supermarket shelves bulge and groan with an enormous array of products such as washing up liquids that all more or less do the same job, but now we have a choice of winter spices, pomegranate & passionflower, tea tree & peppermint, green tea, apple blossom - in fact you could almost name any aroma and find it on the aisle ready to brighten your mood AND your dishes.

The happier you are – the cleaner your house (so goes the theory) and so manufacturers vie for our attention with the biggest brightest fragranced products enticing you to pop into your shopping trolley.

I have to admit to never buying a product without taking the top off (off the product, not off me!!) and smelling it first. The fragrance rather than the brand name usually has the sway factor for me, but I have yet to find the aroma that would really lift my mood whilst washing the pots. I am, however the eternal optimist, and so my quest continues to find that elusive smell that will elevate my mood so much that I will dance around the house every night duster in hand, smile on my face .

PS..If you find it before me, please let me know

And to finish off here is a little poem, penned by my own fair hand, that kind of sums up my cleaning regime!

Time for dusting, mopping and sweeping

Wiping and swiping, completely spring cleaning,

Cupboards are wiped and the kitchen is gleaming

then the alarm clock goes off – Oh no, I’m just dreaming!

It seems that all you need these days to make a splash in the fragrance market, is a wacky idea and then its all systems go.

There have been quite a few new launches that are using scent to help promote brands, and I have picked out some of the unusual attempts to share with you today….

Our nation as a whole has a reputation of being heavy tea drinkers, and so Tetleys have taken this on board and designed ‘Le Brew’ – a limited edition tea scented perfume. In addition to the tea note (which in itself isn’t unusual, think Elizabeth Arden Green Tea amongst others), the perfume also has notes of clary sage and oak moss which are designed to give the fragrance a fresh spring like feel. The bottle is available on Tetleys eBay site for the princely sum of £15, and in my opinion it might be a worthwhile investment just for the novelty value.

Never seen as a company to be out of the limelight, even Microsoft have jumped on the fragrance bandwagon with the launch of 2 fragrances under the umbrella name of Liquid Money. These are broken down into a his and hers duo set, and have been underwritten by Vice President Patrick McCarthy. Designed to enhance self confidence, the bottles are said to contain the aroma of freshly minted dollar bills alongside notes such as pink grapefruit and Hawaiian wedding flowers. The bottle is packed with shredded US dollar bills –  a brilliant marketing concept in my opinion. And in another shrewd move, Mr McCarthy has trademarked the word ‘Money’ in relation to fragrance, obviously with a view to launch further perfumes along the line.

The next one I found spins quite a tail (pardon the pun!). It involves a Parisienne butcher by the name of John Fargginay in the 1920′s. Apparently the story goes that he could elevate his customers mood by a secret blend of 11 pure essential oils and the addition of – wait for it – a bacon aroma. After a massive fire on July 4th, 1924, the recipe was seemingly lost in the realms of legend. Well, that is until now! The magical elixier has been recreated by a certain John Leydon, and there are now 2 versions in the range – Bacon Classic and Bacon Gold. The fragrances were launched in April and already there have been well over 5,ooo orders at $36 each, a nice little earner if you ask me.

And finally on another strange note, an Italian fragrance brand, Blood Concept, have launched a range of fragrances  based on different blood types. The designers Giovanni Castelli and Antonio Zuddas  have spent years perfecting the range. At the moment there are 4 main types, A, B, AB and O. Each has a metallic base tang that supposedly denotes the element of iron found in blood. Each is sold in a recreation of an ancient medicine bottle complete with dropper to give an authentic final twist. When asked what the original concept was the designers replied with the following…’the odours trace the evolution of manhood through time, and its evolution of information, history and mutation, so well kept in the vital flushing of blood’ ……..??? nope – I didnt get it either, but if anyone does then please feel free to explain in laymans terms.

I could carry on, as the norm seems to be the more unusual and fantastical the better but I thought it would be nice if we could get some ideas for scent marketing going ourselves just to see what we could come up with, go on…..give it a try and leave me a reply, and on that note i’ll leave it up to yourselves to check out the route Lady GaGa is going down for her new perfume!! Bye for now…..