Open the door, and let the light in

[venta]

I'm quite a fan of Promod for online clothes shopping (although, like most clothing retailers, they sell some ghastly stuff as well).

Today in Promod's 'Romantic Boutique' section I learned that their delicate colours "will sublime my skin".

Ow!

Comments

[ylla]

Ouch!

Possibly they meant
To transmute into something higher, nobler, or more excellent
but there are surely better ways of saying it :)

[venta]

Promod is a French company, and their clothing descriptions often show signs of having been translated by someone without much knowledge of the English used by the fashion industry.

I think an English sentence which read "make your skin sublime" could be interpreted in either way, so possible the French copy made sense, but has been translated by someone without knowledge of the finer points of the use of 'sublime' as a verb.

[bateleur]

delicate colours "will sublime my skin"

I knew there had to be a solid, scientific reason for wearing black!

[venta]

Indeed! I was delighted to discover that a lifetime's horror of pastels was not mere prejudice on my part.

[sushidog]

Ouch!
Mind you, I remember having to stifle all manner of comments, and an attack of the giggles, while listening to some skincare shop assistant explain how a particular moisturiser contained molten gold, and claimed that the molten gold brightened the skin and improved its texture and so on...

[venta]

molten gold brightened the skin

In fairness, it probably would. Briefly. Not sure about the texture part, though...

[sushidog]

I suspect it might even sublime it, actually! lthough it might be hard to apply it; it'd be no use them including a little plastic spatula like they do with some posh skin creams!

[bateleur]

I suspect it might even sublime it, actually!

Probably not, since carbon has the highest sublimation point of any chemical element and once all that silly water was gone it's mostly carbon you'd be left with.

it'd be no use them including a little plastic spatula

Yeah, if you're going to barbecue something you need proper metal tongs!

[valkyriekaren]

I have a facial scrub which is poorly translated into French. It contains elderflower extract, which is rendered as 'fleur de vielleaux', which I believe means 'flower of the oldies'.

[venta]

Good job it didn't have extract of hawthorn in it, that might have got offensive...