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Could We Schedule Some Scent-sitivity Training?
  • Mactans
    I was going to post this in the comments on Paula Begoun's products, but around the third paragraph I realized I was onto a new tangent, so I'm posting it as a topic.

    One point that makes me a huge fan of Paula's skin care products - there is no fragrance, not even the so-called "masking fragrance" that some manufacturers put in supposedly "fragrance free" products.

    I have a seriously throat-itching-can't-breathe-get-to-the-doctor allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) to artificial fragrance; I take medication so that the lovely scent someone else has on merely makes me miserable instead of threatening my well-being, and so that I can actually function out in the real world. Wearing artificially fragranced products myself is in no way an option. I can wear natural scent as long as there is no artificial component - my favorite lip balm is Lizard Lips Xtreme SPF22 (coconut and sweet almond oils - yummy!) - but finding such products that meet my other requirements is not easy.

    I'm incredibly picky about what I use. Finding products that do what they say, leave my skin feeling wonderful, and have no artificial fragrance is an ongoing challenge; it often seems that as soon as I find one, it is discontinued. You would not believe how long it took me to find a scent-free antiperspirant (Almay). Formulations constantly change, so a product I can't wear this season may be just fine next year and my current favorite might make me ill the next time I buy it. However, I choose to look at it as an adventure, with the silver lining that my awareness of skin care and makeup products has been heightened by necessity.

    So, is anyone else here hypersensitive to fragrance, either artificial or natural? How do you deal with the situation? What products do you use?

    For those who don't suffer hyper-scent-sitivity, are you aware of people around you when you use scent, and how it might be affecting them?
  • taiwanesegurltaiwanesegurl
    I'm a bit sensitive, but no where as sensitive as you. I generally stay away from scented products too, although I'm sensitive to some products more than others.

    I broke out with rashes using Shiseido's Pureness line, yet I don't break out using Shiseido's Skincare line, and both products contain fragrance. I sneeze a lot/get runny nose when I smell people wearing perfume, yet I get used to it after a while. Generally though I don't put on perfume, and most people around me don't either (my whole family has allergies toward something). Also I have a personal space issue (I hate people being close to me), so when people start getting close to me, I automatically start leaning away from them. However, if I'm in a tight closed space like an elevator, and I'm already in a pissy mood, if someone is wearing too much perfume or cologne, I will say out loud "whoa.... someone's wearing way TOOO much cologne/perfume.. oh my allergies!" Yes, it is rude on my part, but it's rude for the offending party to wear perfume/cologne that triggers my allergies!
  • Sil
    I'm quite resistant to sensitivity, so I'm lucky there, but my favourite fragrance is simply Jasmine essential oil. The bottle I have at the moment is a 3% formulation in Jojoba oil.

    I hate people who wear overpowering fragrances as well. My mother used to drown herself in Red Door!
  • catecate
    Mactans: I'm sorry you have such a "sensativity" to fragrances :sad: That really has to suck.

    I try not to slather myself in fragrance
  • Sariel
    i certainly don't have an allergy to fragrances, but i still have a sort of intollerance to perfumes and colognes ... the main ingredient for most of them is alcohol. i know this, because that's all i smell in most of them. sometimes i pick up some sort of cheesy-fake flowery smell, but it gets overpowered by the alchohol. i get more irritated and put-off, than have a pysical reaction to the stuff.

    and it's not alchohol like whiskey or something, it's some kind of undrinkable alchohol, like rubbing alchohol. i think it's there to evaporate and get the fragrance airbourne.
  • taiwanesegurltaiwanesegurl
    I think mentally I'm so anti-heavy scent is due to my 4th grade teacher. She doused herself with such heavy perfumes that it made me dizzy! Plus I really really really really really really really disliked her.
  • Left BrainLeft Brain
    The alcohol is actually in there to dilute the fragrance ingredients and make them spray-able. It is designed to evaporate off so you're left with only the fragrant ingredients. Incidentally, rubbing alcohol is the same alcohol as drinkable alcohol. The difference is that there is an ingredient put in the rubbing alcohol that makes it undrinkable. This is done on purpose.

    And taiwanesegurl, I'm anti-heavy scent too.
  • TailFeatherTailFeather
    Don't you just love when people do that "layering" thing with heavy perfume? They bathe/shower in it, powder themsleves in it, then douse themselves in it like going through a carwash. It's like "CAN YOU SMELL ME YET?! HOW ABOUT NOW??!!"

    I'm not allergic, and I seriously am sorry about that Mactans. I doI get nasty headaches if I walk through a mall. It's all those ficticious fruity scents from not only perfume but candles and bath products as well. It's moving away from it now, but for about 7 years everything had this rotting-watermelon-wrapped-in-wet-newspaper smell that was just delightful. :p

    It's not just women either. I swear, hand on my heart, every UPS delivery I get smells strongly like cheap cologne. I literally hold it away from me with two fingers and put it somewhere it won't "infect" other things. It's like they douse the trucks after loading them.
  • PurpleRulesPurpleRules
    It's definitely not just women. I work with a guy who's the stereotypical "ladies man". I think he actually bathes in cheap cologne; he says "chicks dig it."
  • TailFeatherTailFeather
    Yeah, but he's funky fresh, so it's spelled "Chix" :p

    I bet he also wears the top button of his shirt open with some hair sticking out, (grrrrr ;) with some type of gold chain or chains around his neck and a huge gold pinky ring. And if he's not doing the combover he's got a bad toupee. And he says "'Eeey, how *you * doin'" with that one uplifted eyebrow.

    I grew up in Jersey. I know of what I speak. :p

    Nothing against toupee's, gold chains, or chest hair. Cheap cologne on the other hand...
  • PurpleRulesPurpleRules
    Actually, he says "Helloooooo Ladieeeeeeees" but otherwise, you nailed him. He does the gun fingers thing sometimes too. I wouldn't bat an eye if I found out he had a mirror on his bedroom ceiling. I hope to God he never quits; you can't buy entertainment like this.
  • TailFeatherTailFeather
    LOL, tell me about it. This clip from "Anchorman" says it all. :p

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=WtD_Ss3LGJg


    "That's the smell of desire my lady"

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