<p>Scents present a problem when too much is applied. Perfume should never linger after the person has left the room, or enter first, for that matter. I only like to smell perfume or cologne when I lean in close for a hug or a kiss. Perfume is intimate and it should be applied sparingly. I also agree with Pizzagirl that it is critical that the scent work with one’s body chemistry. Not all scents work on all people. Many people also wear scented hairspray, deodorant, powders, etc. along with perfume, which makes for a nasty mix. </p>
<p>I actually apply my perfume to my torso, not my neck, so it is more subtle.</p>
<p>I am not a fan of most perfumes and like mentioned above, many times will start sneezing and then smell perfume from someone. However, never in a million years would I complain about a person’s perfume to their face.</p>
<p>So, perfumey people, you might want to ask a trusted friend if you are wearing too much. Just because you aren’t getting complaints doesn’t mean that you aren’t over doing it. : )</p>
<p>I didn’t realize that so many people actually have allergies to scents, as well as strong reactions, so will keep that in mind when I go to closed places and hospitals. I will still enjoy those that I come into close contact that have a delicious scent, as some people have found a perfume or aftershave or cologne that mixes wonderfully with their natural body chemicals. I cannot deny that my brain is happy with a good smelling person, but I will be sensitive to those that have adverse reactions.</p>
<p>Is it only recently that there has been such a pandemic of allergies associated with scents? My god, one would think that every other person in the world suffers from the malady!</p>
<p>Does that mean that those poor souls cannot enjoy the fragrant pleasures of gardens, which are brimming with flowers, herbs, trees – even grass? There is no man-made perfume that bests the natural fragrances to be found in nature, and, the best of what IS made by man is derived from it (natural essences, not synthetic). Those weird concoctions found in many stores are ultimately disgusting – whether one is allergetic or not, but it is hard to fathom that a natural and pleasing formula (found in high quality scents) can cause such strife!</p>
<p>It makes me think of those sci-fi plots where in the future humans don’t actually go out into the world, because the the environment is so offensive. They stay in their climate controlled germ-free houses. They have android replicas of their bodies that venture out into the outside, and their real bodies experience the world vicariously through electrodes that connect them to their androids.</p>
<p>I think Bruce Willis was in one of these movies.</p>
<p>I’m a choral singer, and my day job involves being surrounded by orchestral musicians and opera singers, so the “No perfume, hairspray or cologne” rule is very familiar to me. Musicians take it for granted that much of their time will be spent in very close quarters, where scents are easy to inhale and hard to avoid. </p>
<p>Singers, in particular, are protective of their sinuses, and often claim that scented/perfumed air ‘feels different’ and can irritate their delicate instruments. My mother, who’s asthmatic and generally has a crappy respiratory system, is in even worse straits: to her, air has texture, and any air that carries a strong chemical scent (not just perfume but also paint, cleaning products, etc.) feels too thick to breathe.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, both the singers and my mom seem to have much, much less of a reaction to scented soap/moisturizers than they do to perfume. Mom’s also allergic to live roses and rosewater, but has no particular problem with rose-scented soap. Soap and moisturizers don’t generally contain the alcohol that’s used to both dilute and sustain perfumes, and they also generally don’t contain any of the oil/chemical fixatives that make the scent of a perfume last so long.</p>
<p>A lot of people (most people?) who are affected by chemical/artificial scents can still enjoy natural odors.</p>
<p>Allergies have increased at a huge rate in recent years. Things like pollution, pesticides and chemical food additives have a bad effect on many people…I believe that is the cause.</p>
<p>Yea, I am allergic to floral scents too, even unfortunately live roses, ginger, pikake (jasmine), and others. Never heard of scents described as heavy air and don’t actually perceive it that way. Just know that it sets off my sinuses and allergies and generally makes me miserable if I am too long around these things. For me, scents in soaps and moisturizers can also set me & the rest of our household off. I remember a SF hotel in particular where we had to put the soaps the hotel provided outside the door & buy our own Ivory bath soap because the hotel soap was so strongly scented it set all of us off.</p>
<p>I am so grateful that they are being more careful about separating out scent ads in a lot of the things that are delivered and mailed these days. It makes a big difference for those of us who are sensitive.</p>
<p>Not sure why us having allergies means we live in a synthetic world. Fortunately, NORMAL smells, like cooking are generally fine, just not these scents that companies try to put in their products and people sometimes seem to bathe in.</p>
<p>During periods when I have been wheezy from bronchitis or mild asthma, I have experienced a mild version of the heavy air sensation. The air just sort of chokes you, until you can escape from the scent.</p>
<p>It’s a little bit like trying to breathe in a very high wind, when the wind just whips the air past you and you can’t take it in properly.</p>
<p>OK, the smells that one is normally exposed to in the course of a day if you don’t live in a garden do NOT include heavy floral scents that would be if you had a bouquet of roses or wear a lei (garland of flowers that may be highly scented). No one with allergies ASKED to have them, it is just how we are made and we appreciate & are grateful that folks do try to take these sensitivities into account.</p>
<p>^^Amen. Except Walmart, who obviously thinks those $4 bags of scented pinecones are a good thing. They are at the front door; I can smell them at the back in electronics. They are awful; almost the most overpowering scent ever. The profit margin can’t be enough to compensate for the aggravation. (ok, they have massive number crunchers, but there are a ton of them left 11 days before Christmas and at $4/sale, hard to imagine)</p>
<p>I agree w/ other allergic posters. Natural scents such as human gas, smelly feet, cow manure–those things stink, but they definitely do not set off my allergies. Anything else with artifical scent/perfume–I run. I don’t go in the soap/washing detergent aisle in the store, and I try to stay at least 2 aisles away.</p>
<p>Really, we don’t make this stuff up and wish it wasn’t so. It’s not just a little runny nose, it’s instant headache that lasts for 24 hours, runny nose for 12-24 hours, stuffed nose, and sometimes, not being able to breathe.</p>
<p>I, for example, am allergic to cat dander so cannot go near cats or where they have been recently. But, while you might wish you could enjoy fragrances, I don’t like cats much anyway – except for the “Big Cats”. I don’t know whether their dander would be a problem – and I am not about to get close enough to find out!</p>
<p>For those with allergies, the trigger can start a cascade that can rapidly (speed depends on the individual invovled) into increasing symptoms and end up with accute bronchitis, wheezing or worse, unfortunately. I knew a boy who was hugely allergic to animals, so much so that if he played with another kid who had played with a pet, the allergic kid would start major allergy symptoms. No one is making this stuff up and most of us wish we could enjoy scents without fearing that it will start up our allergies in a big way. :(</p>
<p>I wear purfume EVERYDAY at Harvard School of Law. No one has ever had a problem with it. I think my professors enjoy my presitigious aroma. I say to every kid, a bottle a month! Amen. ;)</p>
<p>In the department I supervise, there is an employee who has me completely and utterly flummoxed. She works in a bullpen area, whcih is a large room with individual cubicles. She is allergic to scents, so everyone in the department has been asked to be considerate, which is appropriate and they have. However, she seems to be sensitive to scents that no one else can smell when the offender contends that no scent is worn. It may be that she is catching the residue of hairspray used in the morning or soap/shampoo that isn’t completely unscented. I’ve had meetings where I emphatically couldn’t smell anything, another manager also couldn’t, and the person being counseled couldn’t figure out (in good faith) what the scented product was. As a side note, this woman is truly allergic, but she is also completely paranoid in all sorts of situations. I am completely at a loss as to how to handle this. Picture it: Employee A says “he has scent on and I’m sick,” Employee 2 says “I don’t have any scent on,” and two managers, also acting in good faith, smell absolutely nothing.</p>