A MAG is a Modern African Girl, so no subject is taboo. My purpose is to share things which may interest a MAG.

This week's contributors: Lydia, Doré Fasolati, this week's subjects: Scents and peaks, Fashion accessories, Body Care products again, Warm chocolate and cheesecakes.

Scents and peaks.

Smell is an extremely important sense: it allows you to experience and enjoy the world around you and it also warns you of danger, such as spoiled food or a fire nearby. It’s also important for eating; just think about how bland food tastes when you have a cold and can’t smell what’s on your fork. It’s helpful to understand the way your sense of smell changes throughout the day because these changes can affect all of these capabilities. Although it isn’t exactly the same for everyone, in general, your sensitivity to smells is lower in the morning and higher in the evening, with peak sensitivity beginning around 9 pm. It isn’t well-understood why your sense of smell fluctuates in this way. From an evolutionary standpoint, it could be that having a better sense of smell at night helped ensure greater satiety during the evening meal, or it might be a way of increasing sexual desire. It could also make humans more aware of any potential dangers before going to sleep for the night.

One thing is clear – knowing when your smell sensitivity peaks can help you tailor your scenting experience, as taking advantage of these times of heightened sensitivity could help you get the most out of your essential and aroma oils and enjoy the most pleasant experience.

Fashion accessories. Typically what comes to mind is bags and belts and scarves, searching on the net I get boots and shoes, cravats, ties, hats, bonnets, belts and suspenders, gloves, muffs, necklaces, bracelets, watches, eyewear, sashes, shawls, scarves, lanyards, socks, pins, piercings, rings, and stockings. Pfff, a mouthful, worth about 350 Billion dollars annually. And of course, this market is expanded regularly, to create things which people don't have yet and which hopefully will become a fashion craze. Like every self-respecting iPhone user has something hanging from his ear, and holds his phone with the camera side out, so you can see what model it is, or camera side in if it is an old model… Technology is a big helper in all this, and recently I see more and more people walking around with headphones on their heads, like we use sunglasses Chopard De Rigo Vision – $408,000

on our heads, even in darkness. The next thing will, of course, be that the brand is very visible, say B&O, Bose, iPhone, or Sony. And there has to be differentiation, to make you stand out from the crowd, like Lightning Connectors, Microphones with Built-in Remotes to Control Music, Phone Calls, and Volume, etc. The colour should also become important, you'll need several, a yellow dress with a rose headphone is of course no good. I have a problem with all these earphones and headphones, often the volume is damaging to the ear, and being digital and compressed the music quality is really way way below anything I want to listen to and even the best speaker cannot transform low-quality music into good quality sound, though it can add some bass which makes it sound deeper.

Body Care products again. Earlier (blog 36, 24th Feb 2023) I mentioned that many of the body care products for sale here can be outright dangerous for your health and for your future offspring and that there is hardly any control on the toxic substances being used in some, Even in the developed world there is still too much bad stuff for sale. To be a bit on the safer side (but mostly still not really safe) you can now decide to buy some of the bigger brands, like say M.A.C or Oreal, but that comes with a price tag. But do read the small print. Often you then read things like “98 % organic”, but do worry about the 2 % which is? Not Organic, and maybe dangerous. I recently came across the Dutch brand HEMA (not to be confused with Nana Hema’s Boutique in Alajo) Temporarily closed who used to sell mainly basic household and clothing items but have now added basic body care products like nail polish, lipstick, eyeshade, shampoo, etc, and are aggressively trying to expand their business in this field. And at very reasonable prices. Being an expanding company (though 97 years old) trying to build a brand I would expect their products to be reasonably tox-free, the last thing they want now is scandal. They have expanded to about 800 stores, mainly across Europe, so ask your overseas friend to look out for it.

Warm chocolate and cheesecakes. Looking for areas to receive visitors to have discussions we checked out the lobbies of our 2 major prestige hotels in Accra, the Movenpick Ambassador Hotel Lobby Lounge and the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City Gallery Bar. In both cases I ordered a hot chocolate and the Movenpick was a definite winner, the Kempinski had poured something out of a bag, like you have the Nescafe sachets, and poured hot water on it. I also had cakes in the Movenpick, a blueberry cheesecake, which was a bit dull and surprisingly had a blueish plum on the top, which is not a berry, and an ordinary cheesecake which was uplifting and nice. I'll have to go back to the Kempinski for their cakes (I was really full by the time we got there) but need to do some savings first...

Lydia...

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