#womp rats

Strong oil based perfumes would have been very popular on Tatooine for those who could afford it. Even if you were one of those people who were able to wash regularly, the heat would get to you and oils a) masked the smell well, and b) were able to wake you up if you feel you’re about to pass out from heat. They were made from the roots, blossoms, and leaves of various plants that were found on Tatooine from which the oils were extracted and mixed together. Creams and salves were made by adding in wax or fat. There was a huge market for these scented products on Tatooine. The best, strongest, and most refined oils/perfumes were, naturally, reserved for the upper middle classes and richer individuals due to expense. Nevertheless, the other people on Tatooine were able to buy the cheaper perfumes made of less expensive and refined oils like that which is found in the peel of common fruits found on cacti, like pallies, which were than mixed with spices like amee. The less refined the oils were and the more common the source ingredients the cheaper the price. Even amongst the lower classes, most, were able to afford the cheapest perfumes.

Those that could not, slaves, and the poverty stricken families would make their own deodorant by rubbing combinations of fruit peel, fragrant flowers, and spices over their bodies and/or creating bags of the fragrant combinations to place under their armpits in an attempt to mask the stench.

It was a significant thing on Tatooine to smell nice. The nicer you could smell, or could afford to smell, the better. Ideally, on Tatooine when you walked past someone, or at least when you hugged someone, you would smell their oils/perfume and it was meant to be an intense, but pleasant fragrance. Most peope who came to Tatooine found that you had two extremes, you smelled really good, or fairly bad. Really good was what Tatooinian society strived for. People were supposed to smell. Best case scenario it was really good.

I would imagine that Anakin, once he came to Coruscant, made an extra special point of smelling nice if he could. He’s definitely the type to wear extra-strong cologne.

Washing

Laundry pretty much existed on the same level as bathing. Few could manage it with water. Most,who could,tried to do it with sonic cleansers. Those that couldn’t did as described below.

The slaves and the lowest classes would scrape what grime the could off their clothes with special scrapers, then they would rub it with an abrasive combination of sand and salt, this they would then scrape off as well. Then, they would place the clothes in a bag filled with commonly found, fragrant flower petals, herbs, and fruit peels and toss it together. They would leave it their for a while to let the clothes absorb the scent. After, to prevent the Tatooinian version of fleas and lice which were very common even among higher classes, let alone the lower ones, they would smear it with fat, (the luckier ones had scented fat) and than left it to dry. The smearing was done every couple of weeks. The washing was done as deemed necessary. Cleanliness was prized on Tatooine so it was done when feasibly possible

Dishes were cleaned using sand as scouring powder. A rag would have been used to remove the remaining sand on the dish. Salt may have been added to the mixture in hopes of cleaning it better.

(I now have this amusing idea that Padme would have helped Shmi to wash the dishes...it’s the least she can do after all. Than she realizes that these dishes...are not really hygienic. She cringes a bit internally and muses that she shouldn’t be surprised. As much as she likes these people, they don’t smell the best either and it’s not their fault at all.

They smell sort of like body odour masked with something citrus. One minute they smell passably ok, the next they smell pungent, the next they smell some combination of the two and it’s just bizarre. She tries not to wrinkle her nose and eventually gets used to it.

It’s the sand scrub, though, that Shmi teaches her the next day to cleanse her body that really makes her gag. How can people live like this?

It gives her a new appreciation for the comforts she’s grown up with.)