SOSA Safar waterless car perfume diffuser with the 20ml bottle beside it

How do I tell a fault from my own nose getting used to the scent?

SOSA · The Founder Diaries · Car Fragrance

A test, because no figure exists

With three instruments, none of which is a number. The mark on the bottle, a few minutes outside the car, and a person who has not been in it. Between them they point one way or the other.

The uncomfortable part of this answer is the part I will not give you. Whether you have stopped reading a smell you sit in every day is a real question, and SOSA publishes no rate, no timescale and no physiological account of nose adaptation, so there is nothing here to settle it with. What there is instead is a door, some time away from the car, and a neighbour.

SOSA Safar waterless car perfume diffuser with the 20ml bottle beside it
SOSA Safar, Rs 3,999. Twenty millilitre bottle, three speed settings and a one, two or three hour auto-off timer. No account of perception is published.

The answer in 30 seconds

How do I tell a fault from my own nose getting used to the scent?

  • In one line. Three readings: the mark, the open door after time away, and a person who was not in the car.₹3,999
  • The short answer. Use three readings. Mark the oil level on the 20ml bottle and see whether it moves over an ordinary week. Park, walk away for a while, come back and read the open door. Then ask somebody who has not been in the car. The pattern of the three tells you which it is. Safar is Rs 3,999.
  • The rule in one line: the mark tests the device and the second person tests the cabin, so anything left over after those two is about the reading rather than about the hardware.
  • Can I tell the two apart? Usually, with three readings rather than one. The oil level against your mark, your own reading after time out of the car, and the reading of somebody who was not in it.
  • Which reading decides it? The mark decides whether the device is working. The second person decides whether there is a scent in the cabin. Your own reading is the one being tested.
  • Why will you not just tell me how long adaptation takes? Because SOSA publishes no rate, no timescale and no physiological account of it, so any figure I gave you would be invented.

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The answer, in full

By taking three readings instead of one, because the question has two halves and a single reading cannot separate them. Reading one: mark the oil level on the 20ml bottle with a marker pen, write the date, and look again after an ordinary week. A level that has moved is a device putting something out. Reading two: park somewhere you can walk away from, go and do something else, come back and open the door, and judge that first moment rather than the ten minutes after it. Reading three: ask somebody who has not been in the car to get in and say, plainly, whether they can smell anything. SOSA publishes no rate, timescale or physiological account of how perception changes across a journey. So there is no number of minutes I can tell you to wait and no timescale I can quote, and I would rather say that than invent one. The three readings together still answer the question. A portion of every SOSA order supports girl-child education through Nanhi Kali.

Three instruments, and what each one is actually for

Each of these tests a different thing, which is why one of them on its own settles nothing. Run all three. The order below is the order that rules most out soonest, and the whole set costs a marker pen and a week.

The mark: tests the device, and nothing else

Mark the level on the 20ml bottle with a marker pen and write the date beside it. Run an ordinary week on whatever setting you use. Look again. A level that has moved is a device putting something out, and that is the only thing the mark proves. SOSA publishes no oil-consumption rate, so no refill interval and no running cost exist to quote. So the mark is a yes or a no about movement and never a measurement of how fast.

The only reading on this page that is about hardware.

The door: tests your own reading, with the car out of the way

Park, shut the door, and go and do something else for a while. Come back, open the door, and judge that first moment. The driver's seat is the worst place to judge this from because you have been sitting in the result. SOSA publishes no rate, timescale or physiological account of how perception changes across a journey. So I cannot tell you how long to be away. Long enough that you stopped thinking about the car is the honest instruction.

The second person: tests the cabin, independently of you

Ask somebody who has not been in the car to get in and tell you whether they can smell anything. Ask it plainly and do not tell them what you are hoping for. Their answer is data about the cabin that your own reading cannot supply, and nothing published predicts what they will say. If two different people both find nothing and the mark has moved, the question moves to the setting and then to WhatsApp at +91 96192 18531.

Somebody who has not been in the car is a fresh instrument.

What this is not a reason to do

It is not a reason to buy a bolder oil, because SOSA publishes no strength ranking of the nine car scents and there is no published bolder one to buy. It is not a reason to run the highest of the three speeds permanently either, since no per-speed duration or output figure is published and you would be guessing at the size of the step. Take the three readings first. A change of oil is a reasonable thing to want afterwards, as a change of subject rather than of volume.

Want a second scent in the house to reset against? The three-spray discovery sets run ₹709 to ₹909 and let you smell a trio before a bottle is committed. See the discovery sets →

What the three readings mean together

What the record says
The mark moved and a second person can smell it The device is working and there is a scent in the cabin, so what has changed is your reading of it. That is not a fault and not a figure this page can date.
The mark moved and nobody else can smell it either The device is putting something out and the cabin is not reading as scented to anyone. Move one step up on the speed for a week, then WhatsApp +91 96192 18531.
The mark has not moved and the unit is running A question for SOSA rather than for a setting. Check the bottle is seated and has oil in it, then message WhatsApp +91 96192 18531 with what the mark did.
How long adaptation takes, for you No answer exists here. SOSA publishes no rate, timescale or physiological account of how perception changes across a journey. Which is exactly why this page is three readings instead of a number of minutes.

Run the three readings in whatever order suits your week, but write each one down with its date. A page of three dated lines is the difference between knowing what you found and remembering how you felt about it. The ten and thirty hour figures describe the 2000 mAh battery per charge, not how long the oil lasts.

“The mark tests the device. The stranger tests the cabin. Whatever is left over is about the reading, and nobody has published a figure for that.”

Separating the two in one week

  1. Mark the oil level on the 20ml bottle and write the date beside the mark.
  2. Run your ordinary week, then read the mark again and write what it did.
  3. Park, go away for a while, come back and judge the open door.
  4. Ask somebody who has not been in the car, and write down what they said.

SOSA car fragrance

Three readings, one week, and no invented figure

The published specification is on the product page. The three readings are a marker pen, a few minutes away from the car, and somebody willing to be honest.

10 ml sprays ₹459–₹559 · 12 ml hanging bottles ₹459–₹519 · 15 ml refills ₹399–₹449 · 50 ml spray ₹1,509 · three-spray discovery sets ₹709–₹909 · SOSA Safar ₹3,999, ₹4,499 hotel-inspired

View SOSA SafarSee the 100 gm and 300 gm oils
Published: the 20ml bottle, three speed settings, a one, two or three hour auto-off timer and the battery figures per charge. Not published: any rate, timescale or physiological account of how perception changes.

Questions, answered

How do I tell a fault from my own nose getting used to the scent?
Take three readings. The oil level against a mark you made, your own reading of the open door after time away from the car, and the reading of somebody who has not been in it. The pattern of the three points one way or the other.
How long does it take to stop noticing a scent you drive with?
There is no published answer. SOSA publishes no rate, no timescale and no physiological account of how perception changes, so I will not give you a figure, and the three readings on this page work without one.
Is it possible that nothing is wrong and it is only me?
Yes, and that is exactly what the three readings are for. If the mark on the bottle has moved and a second person finds a scent in the cabin, the hardware has answered for itself and what is left is your own reading of it.
How long should I stay out of the car before coming back?
No timescale is published and I am not going to invent one. Long enough that you had stopped thinking about the car is the honest instruction, and the same length both times if you repeat it.
When is it a message to SOSA rather than a test?
When the mark has not moved across an ordinary week, or when the mark has moved and two different people find nothing in the cabin. WhatsApp +91 96192 18531 is the route.

If you would rather ask a person

Ask Sonal

Safar is ₹3,999, or ₹4,499 for the hotel-inspired variant. A portion of every SOSA order supports girl-child education through Nanhi Kali.

Write to SOSA on WhatsApp

A portion of every SOSA order supports a girl’s education through Nanhi Kali.
SOSA Home & Body, Pune · written by Sonal Sahani, founder and perfumer, trained at ISIPCA Versailles · The Founder Diaries

Prices and specifications were taken from the SOSA product pages at publication and may change; please confirm on the product page. Nothing here is a health or air-purification claim.

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