Conference turris::womannotes-v1

    
    	Interesting subject -- I for one find it just an offensive 
    as you do, having a somewhat sensitive system as to dust, scents,
    etc. 
    
    	BTW:  It isn't only women who have this problem.  I have had
    the same problem with men and their after-shave/cologne.........
    I'm all for letting a female friend know, but how do you tell a
    man you work with, your boss, etc??  
    
    	re.: 1  You may be right, friendly eagle!! 
    		How ya doing?? 
    
    	Myra
    
    	

    
    Re .0, why don't give this woman some *nice* cologne for Christmas
    so she won't have to use that cheap, horrible smelling stuff from
    K-Mart :-) ?  Chloe, Opium, Anais Anais, and Ruffles all smell really
    nice!
    
    Lorna
    

       
    re: .4
    
    I think Mr. Topaz is not complaining about the actual quality of
    the perfume, but rather the quantity.  It's a question of too much
    of a good thing.
    
    Now, of course, I'm going to be crushed underfoot by a bunch of
    people telling me what a loathesome vermin I am for liking perfume
    on women.  So sue me.  I like just a little of something.  I don't
    consider it a requirement or anything.
    
    DFW

    Perfume/after shave lotion is a very personal thing.  How do you
    tell someone that you are gasping for air because their perfume/after
    shave lotion is too potent?  I imagine most people would feel insulted.
    I wish I had the solution, because a LOT of people over do it.
    
    Someone once told me that scents should be obvious only in close
    contact, not 2 minutes before they come into view.
           
    I also heard that some people become immune to their perfume/after
    shave lotion, so they apply more, more to compensate.
    
    Sniff, sniff...
    
    
    

    I believe that is true about being immune to perfume.  I wear the
    same thing almost every day.  I put it on lightly never heavy....and
    I almost put more on because I couldn't smell it after awhile it
    was only when one of the guys at work said to me....geez you smell
    so good today what are you wearing that I realize you could still
    smell the scent - so I did the right thing but not loading it on!
    What I try to do is alternate scents.....
    
    But I agree how do you tell someone to not go heavy on the perfume!
    I will tell my best friend but not my co-workers!
    
    bs

    This is a problem I don't see any good solution to. I am
    allergic to most perfumes - no matter how expensive. I can
    usually tolerate brief exposures. One woman in my group,
    however, wears so much that I can't stand next to her or
    sit near her at staff meetings. I like her a lot but she must
    wonder why I seem to be avoiding her.

 When you first put perfume on, you smell it quite strongly. Then, over
time (and comparatively short time), your olfactory receptors in your nose
adjust to the smell, and stop responding... this "smell" has become the norm.
 So, after about five minutes, you stop reacting to the perfume/cologne that
you just put on. If you know this is happening, all well and good. If not, you
think "Oh hell, the perfume's worn off/evaporated already" and you ladle some 
more on. This cycle may be repeated a few times. After a while, you always 
ladle on some of the perfume because "it evaporates too quickly otherwise" and
always, after some small period of time, you will stop smelling it. 

 The rest of the world, not having had the chance to become acclimatized to the
stuff, smells an overwhelming essence of lilacs (or whatever) and you get the
effect that Mr Topaz was describing earlier.

 Maybe a little polite education is in order; such as "You know, if you put
less perfume on, it will smell just as good to the rest of us, and your bottle
will last longer too".

			Nigel

    I like perfume, but I don't think it should be obvious any further
    away from 1 foot!  I often ask my SO if I have too much on, and
    have been known to go wash it off.  What I really like is to have
    someone get near to me, and sniff and say, "Are you wearing perfume?
    I can hardly smell it, but it smells good.  What is it?".  
    
    I certainly hope my co-workers would say something if I were blasting
    clouds of fragrance around my group!  And I wish the cigarette smokers
    would start to worry about their output in the same way!
    

	A woman friend I had just met came to my place one Sunday late
	afternoon for dinner.  She, too, must have ladled it on before
	coming over.  She left a perfume-spot on the couch where she had been
	sitting!  I didn't mind much, though, I liked what she had on!!

	Josh

    Oh God, here I am being paranoid again. I wear perfume most days
    and now I wonder if I am offending some. If no one tells you how
    would you ever know? I can still remember back to my childhood sitting
    behind a woman who wore so much Emeraude, I nearly became ill. I
    still gag at the smell of it even when it's light. 
    
    I suppose if someone told me I wore to much I'd be embarrassed and
    I would wear less next time. Why is it so hard for us to tell others
    the truth? I get upset wondering whether to tell someone they have
    food on their face. Maybe it's just me and my neuroses. Liesl

    I'm allergic to both smoke and perfume (along with a host of other
    things; it's slowly getting better with desensitization shots!).
    I know very few people who smoke, but one of them (someone I don't
    know well; she belongs to our synagogue) uses MORE PERFUME than
    anyone!  She smokes a lot, too (thank goodness you can't do that
    in the synagogue...), so the combination is an instant sinus attack!
    This is WHY I don't know this lady very well!  Anyhow, I'm CERTAIN
    she can't smell much, or she surely wouldn't do this on purpose,
    since she seems to have good taste in other matters.
    
    /Charlotte

Two things:

It could be worse! I used to  work with a woman and  you often could smell
her before you could see her. Problem was: it wasn't her perfume you could
smell! Try working with someone who doesn't believe in personal
cleanliness! It was awful!!! Perfume would've been an improvement!

I remember someone telling me about a college roommate who used too
much perfume. Turns out she had a medical problem that had somehow affected
her sense of smell. She had *NO* idea how strong her perfume smelled!
She was grateful that someone had pointed out to her that she had too much
perfume on. In fact, she came to rely on my friend to give her a test "sniff"
before she left, to let her know if she was coming on too strong.

-cg

    Yes!  I had a problem like that at a job.  Except, I couldn't smell
    this guy before he arrived, but I could track him like a bloodhound
    through the hallways, and if he leaned against my cubicle wall,
    it lasted for hours.  Ug, and he talked very quietly, so you were
    forced to get closer and closer...long conversations were impossible
    because I couldn't hold my breath that long.  I couldn't figure
    out what to do then, except that I bathed myself extra frequently,
    and guzzled mouthwash like a lush.  I should have mentioned it to
    my boss, but, well, it turned out eventually that one of them had
    a similar smelly problem.  It was awful.
                    
    When I went back to school, we had a only slightly less bad problem
    with users at the computer center.  Sometimes the prof or grad student who'd
    smelled bad at midnight smelled worse the next morning at 9am.
    There were times when a person would lean towards you ask some fortran
    question, and you'd lean backwards about falling out of the chair.
    It was hard not to be crabby about it.  
    
    Then there're the times I go to the womens room at work and come
    out gasping and coughing out hairspray.  Of course, then *I* smell
    like it for an hour too.