Well, my dears, the season of active struggle with Sosnovsky's hogweed has come. It requires more serious chemical protection than a mask to protect itself from the virus, which is boring to everyone this year.
I am very skeptical about information when they try to actively demonize something (or someone). Especially if it is also accompanied by a picture in a bright red or yellow frame (an old marketing trick to get attention on a banner ad) and overly emotional text with a thousand exclamation marks.
But when I saw the hands of a neighbor in the country, who, early in the morning in cloudy weather, pulled out three large stalks of hogweed wearing cloth gloves, I was stunned. A neighbor came to us for dexpanthenol.
No, there were no huge blisters, only red areas, something between eczema and a burn from a hot frying pan, with a clear outline. A bit of a creepy sight, so hogweed is no joke.
You can say anything: used to use the stems as a telescope in childhood, that there is a delicious hogweed Siberian, and now "they are sounding the alarm and are fighting, and insatiable officials are also fining" - all these are weak arguments.
There are plenty of healthy vegetables and fruits, and we can do without hogweed. Better talk about the super-ability of hogweed in photosensitivity - when the skin and mucous membranes become very sensitive to ultraviolet light to such an extent that clear weather for a person becomes warmed up oven.
But the cow parsnip smells interesting. It is clear that it is prohibited in perfume. Just imagine: in hogweed, the concentration of furanocoumarins (the very thing that makes the skin sensitive to UV light) is much higher than in bergamot oil, which was one of the first to be limited by IFRA in perfume.
In the aroma of blooming hogweed there is something from copper, woody balsamic bitterness from galbanum, fresh dill and bitter almonds, the very specific smell of cyanides.
It is interesting, unusual, and if niche perfumery had something similar in smell, I would buy it without hesitation. Something similar, if not for the prevailing leather in the smell, is available in perfumery stores. For example, Italian Leather MEMO.
So if you suddenly get bored and get a strange idea to find out how cow parsnip smells, you can walk to perfume salons and smell the above aroma.
If any of you know more interesting options for perfume that sound similar to toxic weed - let me know in the comments. And remember: cow parsnip is a dangerous weed, you certainly shouldn't come close and sniff at it!
