There are few things worse than perfume/cologne over the cigarette stench. That’s an instant throbbing headache for me.
Mr Johnson is one of very few guys I’ve encountered that wear cologne well. Never too much. A spray; maybe two. Just enough for me to catch a whiff when I’m in close proximity. A couple of the colognes he has don’t smell good from the bottle, but smell fantastic on him.
I rarely wear perfume. When I do I spray one spray into the air and hope it lands on my outstretched wrist. That’s enough for me. I have a sensitive sense of smell and I don’t want to be smelling a strong fragrance the whole evening!
Because in my experience, body spray is very light and two spritzes of that are nowhere as strong as two spritzes of perfume or cologne. It also doesn’t last as long. I like the smell of it and it doesn’t set off my asthma. I like to think that I smell nice and that it’s very subtle but I usually can’t smell it on me right after spraying it. I have had a couple people comment when we have ended up standing really close and usually it’s just a comment like “do I smell vanilla/cookies?”. One of those people is a co-worker who also has asthma and she usually has no problems complaining if someone has on too much scent, she made a point of saying that it wasn’t offensive, she actually thought I had a cookie in my pocket*.
I like smelling like vanilla, it’s a nice comforting smell. Most of the time that’s the only scent I use, although I have used a spray that was Hawaiian Ginger and it was a nice mild slightly flowery/spicy smell. My boyfriend didn’t like it though because he thought it smelled like cantaloupe (he hates cantaloupe), but the only time he noticed it was right after I sprayed it on.
*Sometimes I do actually have a cookie in my pocket though. When we’re busy we have to eat what we can, when we can.
Blech - I feel your pain!!
I was in Hershey (you know, The Land Of Chocolate) with the kids last night. We went to Chocolate World - where you ride around a vehicle and see how chocolate is made. We’ve been there dozens of times before, it’s just a mandatory part of the visit, and we enjoy the aroma of chocolate that pervades much of the ride.
But oh no, not THIS time. We were in the back of the car, the two women in the front had evidently just escaped from a cathouse. BLECH!!!
Now that would suck, being at the gym and getting a sudden yearning for flan because of the way the dude on the bike next to mine smells…
I am not oversensitive to smells, but I do hate perfume smells, and especially cologne smells. Once in a while, if it is very soft, I can tolerate a hint of perfume. (on someone else…not on me!) But I simply can not stand cheap cologne. I get irrationally outraged when I smell it, in the same way I do when I am standing behind someone buying 90 lotto tickets while I wait to purchase my newspaper.
I like lotions that smell sweet, like cocoa butter. But strong perfumes and colognes actually trigger something in my psyche that drive me insane with rage.
You can comfort yourself with the fact that since sarin is odorless you wouldn’t smell it anyhow.
~
You want to know the worst people in the world for fragrances, it’s European business-class travelers. Flying Club World on BA in Europe can be a horrible experience when they trot out the Duty Free cart. They wheel the cart from seat to seat, and nearly every female on the plane will ask for a sample, spritz it on several parts of their body, rub, frown, and shake their head. Of course they have no intention of actually buying anything, what they’re really doing is taking a whore’s bath for free so they can have maximum stink when they land in Prague. At times the stench in the cabin is so intense I swear the air exceeds flammability limits.
I’m getting faint just reading that. Would it be a terrible faux pas if I slipped on an oxygen mask while they’re doing all that spritzing?
I really don’t think that’s the effect they’re going for. 
I was thinking about people wearing perfume to smell nice for other people, and I’ve decided that that isn’t why they wear it. People pick out perfumes that they think smell nice; they don’t pick out a perfume that “Survey says the majority of people think this is a nice scent.” I’ve come to the conclusion that wearing perfume is almost exclusively selfish.
I just wanted to say that “a whore’s bath” is my first new handy phrase this year. Thanks, Una.
My hubby has some serious allergies so I have to be very picky about what perfume or scented products I use. There’s a “lady” [and I use that word loosely] who must bathe in it because her perfume lingers like a bad dream. I got so sick of her stinking up the hallway near my office that I said, “Oh hi, [name]. Nice perfume. Must you marinate in it?”
Gah. And it’s that type that leaves a taste in your mouth. Bleh.
I used to wear a Christian Dior perfume called J’adore, which I absolutely loved. It would garner the occasional compliment. (And before people start hating me, I only spritz once, just behind my right ear, before going out. I promise.) Then I tried Benefit’s Maybe Baby perfume, which I liked okay, but not as much as the Dior one I’d been using. But every time I wore it, I unfailingly got compliments. I never understood it, becase I still prefer the Dior one, but now I’ve just switched to the other kind. I can’t smell my own perfume anyway, so I figure I should wear something that other people like.
I think the problem may be that a lot of perfume wearers don’t realize YOU as the wearer are not supposed to be able to smell your own perfume. I made that mistake when I first started wearing it, but then my mom drilled it into me that one spritz is usually more than enough.
I love getting compliments on the way I smell, though. It’s somehow more satisfying than getting complimented on something else.
You know dudes, there is this river in Egypt…
I used to wear Givenchy for Men, my SO bought it for me. She loved it. (I never wore a lot, mind you.) Ladies would occassionaly compliment me on my scent. I assumed people loved it, as no one told me elsewise.
Then, someone else told me the smell nearly killed her in an allergy attack. So, I asked everyone in my office (a large sample). Only around 10% actually liked it and it was that small % that had mentioned it. More than half did not like it. (The rest all said they didn’t really care one way or the other). I asked the half who didn’t like it why they hadn’t complained and they all said they thought that would be rude and besides, they appreciated I used so little.
So- people will rarely tell you that you stink. It takes a good friend or a rude person to do so. Or a rude friend. 
Look at the OP, the film ruined, and still they didn’t speak up.
So, think twice and if you decide to keep doing it, use less.
We had subscriptions to the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and as long-time “abonnes”, our seats were upgraded over the years until we reached just about the best seats in the house.
The woman sitting behind my husband, also a regular, was drenched in furs, jewels, and perfume. He got a headache at every concert. As a result, we cancelled our tickets, it had become torture for him to attend a concert, instead of a pleasure.
My mother always told me that people should only be able to smell your cologne/perfume if they are kissing you on the cheek. I’ve taken that bit of advice, and wear something extremely light, “Quartz”, and in a very small spray on one side near my ear, under my hair, and move a bit of the scent with my fingers to the other side. That’s it. People have only ever commented on my perfume if they’ve kissed me-- on the cheek or lips.
Your girlfriend? I thought you were female…opps sorry.
I can’t understand how many of you manage to live. With lungs that nearly give out over some stupid over-perfumed fool…how do you cope next to a road? In a public bathroom with it’s sanitising smell? Did you ever have babies? Babies have to be the most overly artificially scented creatues ever.
While you may be allergic to someone’s stink, I’m sure you would be the first to object to the underarm stench emitting from a co-worker.
Seriously can a person not even decide how they want to smell without a vote from the allergic?
The last time this subject was discussed I took the same position as I am now BUT I stopped wearing perfume everyday, I became paranoid my one squirt of perfume may kill someone BUT I may take it up again. It seems some people’s allergies want to take over the world.
The perfume industry is HUGE. For many of us getting a good perfume is a real treat and something that just feels good. I am very sorry that it upsets some of you but perhaps you need to carry a sign “If you smell of anything other then shampoo, deoderant, hair products etc then you are clearly trying to kill me!..please let me through!”
For those of you who just showered and used a scented soap, then washed your hair with a scented shampoo, followed with a scented conditioner and perhaps mousse or gel, or hairspray, then applied a scented deoderent…well I hope you survived the cloud of smell.
But I won’t judge you for it.
It goes the same way with every thread discussing perfumes. Everyone who wears perfume always assumes that THEY couldn’t possibly be scent offenders, because everyone compliments them on THEIR perfume. There doesn’t seem to be a way to get through to people that if you use perfume in public, the probability is very high that you are offending people. Not everyone, but someone, every time you put it on. You will encounter at least one person who is either:
- allergic
- asthmatic
- sensitive to scents
- doesn’t like your particular brand of stinkum
I think a good gauge would be to see how far away the complimenters are. Basically if it is anyone more than 12 inches away from you, then you are wearing too damn much.
With my work, we have 11 people in an area about the size of a medium sized elevator. Now imagine 30 identical tables in the same room. Seriously, 12 inches of personal space would be a godsend in a poker room and if every decided that they will only gas those 12 inches, that’s a lot of funk.
I actually smelled a nice perfume the other day, I would have liked to have known who’s it was. The problem? There wasn’t a woman at the table and the closest woman was about 12 feet away, there is no freakin’ way I would have encouraged her to continue wearing that much crap, even if I did find it attractive.
My husband, I swear to god, has the most different sense of smell than I do. He uses this god awful Axe body wash that he is forbidden from using anything other than the designated bath sponge with, he is forbidden from leaving the cap open and forbidden from using it if we are bathing in succession. Makes the whole damn bathroom smell like cat piss. That being said, unless he has just bathed in it, I’ve never noticed him smelling like cat piss.
No one is saying you can’t wear perfume/cologne, what they are saying is that some people don’t need to wear as much of it as they do. Scented soaps, shampoos and body lotions don’t tend to make you reek of scent because the scent is very mild.
I am asthmatic and certain chemicals set me off. I am not allergic to it, I am sensitive to it. There is a difference. If I were allergic I couldn’t be around scents or use any myself. I am sensitive so a little may not bother me but when people drench themselves in a bucket of perfume that’s going to get to me. You shouldn’t be able to smell someone 100 feet away and you shouldn’t still be able to smell them an hour after they’ve left the vicinity.
Does anyone else “hear” the thread title sung to the tune of that beer commercial?
Well I do NOW, thankyouverymuch…
As a mother of a 2 yo I have to say that I’d rather have a wiff of dirty diapers than too much perfume. The first stinks, the second will stick to my tongue, nose hair, give me a headache and chase me all day.
If you’re not my SO I shouldn’t be able to smell your perfume. I personally do not use anything and go for the unscented everything. I need toiletries to eliminate/prevent body odors, not to mask them.
Obviously YMMV.