To smell like a Blackberry – don’t be silly, I mean the fruity thing.

I adore perfumes, and favoured female ones long before I realised I was more girl than bob. By the time I was 45, I was trying those 'testers' in chemists and department stores, whenever one came within reach, and those sample patches too, in woman's magazines. I was still into tester testing 15 years later, and if you remember a post I wrote – I tried something outrageously overpowering while shopping with Jay – and she promptly banned any further testing. When I’m with her anyway. But why am I smelling like a blackberry?

The key to smelling like a blackberry is to buy budget brands of shower gel. Better still, buy the version of the shower gel you like, but in bath gel. It seems to be the same stuff, but you get a lot more for your money. Decant it into your shower gel container, because that has a smaller hole; the bath gels have huge mouths, and you don't want to waste it unnecessarily.

I came across Sainsbury's lilac scented gels, and it became my fave. There is a store near mum, in Kent, and as I had forgotten to pack my shower gel on our last visit, I nipped in to get some of the delightful stuff. So - I'm standing in front of a selection of bath gels, I see what I think is a lilac coloured gel, grab and go. When I get to the car, and see it in natural light, it is obviously not lilac, it’s blue - again. But it's cheap and cheerful, smells sort of sweet, so it'll do. Later, back at base, I have a shower, and where ever I go afterwards, I can smell blackberries - and it is me. I wanted something called ‘sweet lilac crème bath’ in their Soothe Me’ range; what I got was in the new range packaged as ‘Crème Bath’ and the aroma / smell concoction is called ‘sweet dreams’.

I can see what’s going through your mind; why didn’t she just look at the labels? Because I don’t remember names very well, and the only reason you have got the full titles is – I have got them beside me, as I write. The blackberry bath creme, by the way, froths up like no ones business – obviously a bubbly bath crème – LoL.

My other favourite shower smellies are; Palmolives Aroma Therapy with essential oils, of lavender, ylang ylang and patchouli; Radox Active herbal shower gel and shampoo with lemongrass and sea salt is gorgeous, but I haven’t seen that in anything else.

It’s an unfair world, is it not, that lets girls wear mens aftershave, (my daughter prefers that kind of thing – and was shocked when I said I liked girls perfumes), but frowns on men cross-smelling.

Have fun, hugs Anna.