6 ms·

Personally, I find the fragrances of personal care products far more offensive than the smell of a recently showered person without fragrances. It’s not my pre

Personally, I find the fragrances of personal care products far more offensive than the smell of a recently showered person without fragrances. It’s not my preference about the odor, it’s my reaction to the dozens of secret synthetic chemicals that they create the fragrance with. Essential oils are better, but still offensive and cause me various unpleasant symptoms and feelings.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
remir 9y ago
Drugstore brands such as Axe, Old Spice and Irish Spring are absolutely terrible. I'm currently using Dr Bronner's castile soap (eucalyptus) and while the smell is strong, it's not offensive. I also like Ivory (bar soap) and Every Man Jack.
- culot 9y ago
  Desert Essence tea tree vegetable soap bar is also really excellent. It has only a mild smell going on, and leaves no scent behind. Also a killer lather and lasts a long time. Their liquid soap.. no so good, doesn't lather well and doesn't go the distance.
  - remir 9y ago
    Thank you for the suggestion.
pasquinelli 9y ago
i agree totally, perfumes are almost exclusively suffocating. i feel like there's this arms race going on, where you get used to one level if fragrance and then a more potent one lures in people, and now the cover ups are getting pretty close to at least as bad as the stinks they're trying to cover up.
- bsder 9y ago
  The problem is that all of the stuff that used to make perfumes persistent are all gone. I received a really nice French cologne as a birthday gift back in the 80's--women loved it. It was low grade enough that only people very next to you would notice, and it would last days ... even after showers. This made for some interesting interactions with women at the office ... "Oh, looks like someone had a good weekend ..." At some point, they had to change out the binder/fixer/whatever (presumably it's either horribly toxic or horribly cruel to skunks), and colognes haven't been the same since. Now, in order to get a cologne to last even a couple of hours, they create things that are horrifically strong at start, and you still almost can't smell them several hours later. (I actually had the misfortune to test this. My mother used Chanel No 5 Eau de Cologne that I would buy for her as a gift when she ran out or it went bad. The last one I bought smelled wrong as soon as I opened it--they reformulated it and discontinued it soon after. I wound up kicked through Chanel customer service to get some of the last "real" stock they had--they knew that the updated one was wrong and had kept a small amount for customer complaints (and presumably very rich patrons).)
  - dredmorbius 9y ago
    Hrm... "Fixative" appears to be the term. Ambergris is one of several used, and the one I've heard of. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixative_(perfumery) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixative_(perfumery)
  - jstarfish 9y ago
    I'm not old enough to know how cologne and perfume "used" to be, but it certainly works better (and longer) when it binds to oils. Try using an oil-based soap, using a dab of unscented baby oil on your skin or not showering for a day before using perfumes.
  - tripzilch 9y ago
    AFAIK this is also in part because there is a difference between "perfume", "cologne", "eau de cologne", "eau de perfume"--some of these are probably the same, I forget the exact details. Someone once explained me there's three different types of smell-good liquids, and they mainly differ in how long they last. Often you have the same fragrance at various prices.
stinos 9y ago
far more offensive So much. Had this one colleague, luckily not in the same room, but he once touched my screen (which is already a big no-go for me anwyay) and I could still smeel it days later. Maybe my sense of smell is too good, don't know, but this was rather unpleasant.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

remir 9y ago

Drugstore brands such as Axe, Old Spice and Irish Spring are absolutely terrible. I'm currently using Dr Bronner's castile soap (eucalyptus) and while the smell is strong, it's not offensive. I also like Ivory (bar soap) and Every Man Jack.

culot 9y ago
Desert Essence tea tree vegetable soap bar is also really excellent. It has only a mild smell going on, and leaves no scent behind. Also a killer lather and lasts a long time. Their liquid soap.. no so good, doesn't lather well and doesn't go the distance.
- remir 9y ago
  Thank you for the suggestion.

pasquinelli 9y ago

i agree totally, perfumes are almost exclusively suffocating. i feel like there's this arms race going on, where you get used to one level if fragrance and then a more potent one lures in people, and now the cover ups are getting pretty close to at least as bad as the stinks they're trying to cover up.

bsder 9y ago
The problem is that all of the stuff that used to make perfumes persistent are all gone. I received a really nice French cologne as a birthday gift back in the 80's--women loved it. It was low grade enough that only people very next to you would notice, and it would last days ... even after showers. This made for some interesting interactions with women at the office ... "Oh, looks like someone had a good weekend ..." At some point, they had to change out the binder/fixer/whatever (presumably it's either horribly toxic or horribly cruel to skunks), and colognes haven't been the same since. Now, in order to get a cologne to last even a couple of hours, they create things that are horrifically strong at start, and you still almost can't smell them several hours later. (I actually had the misfortune to test this. My mother used Chanel No 5 Eau de Cologne that I would buy for her as a gift when she ran out or it went bad. The last one I bought smelled wrong as soon as I opened it--they reformulated it and discontinued it soon after. I wound up kicked through Chanel customer service to get some of the last "real" stock they had--they knew that the updated one was wrong and had kept a small amount for customer complaints (and presumably very rich patrons).)
- dredmorbius 9y ago
  Hrm... "Fixative" appears to be the term. Ambergris is one of several used, and the one I've heard of. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixative_(perfumery) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixative_(perfumery)
- jstarfish 9y ago
  I'm not old enough to know how cologne and perfume "used" to be, but it certainly works better (and longer) when it binds to oils. Try using an oil-based soap, using a dab of unscented baby oil on your skin or not showering for a day before using perfumes.
- tripzilch 9y ago
  AFAIK this is also in part because there is a difference between "perfume", "cologne", "eau de cologne", "eau de perfume"--some of these are probably the same, I forget the exact details. Someone once explained me there's three different types of smell-good liquids, and they mainly differ in how long they last. Often you have the same fragrance at various prices.

stinos 9y ago

far more offensive So much. Had this one colleague, luckily not in the same room, but he once touched my screen (which is already a big no-go for me anwyay) and I could still smeel it days later. Maybe my sense of smell is too good, don't know, but this was rather unpleasant.