to hate my mum's perfume

[leavesarefalling]

My mum has worn the same perfume forever, L'Air du Temps.

She sprays it on VERY liberally (and frequently) and when we are in a confined space like a car, or if it's warm, it makes me sick and gives me a headache.

For Xmas I gave her a new perfume, Chance, but she has never worn it.

I am wondering if her perfume is out of date, as she has litres of the stuff from birthdays and Xmas's and Duty -free, and she is a real hoarder, never- throw-anything-away sort of person.

She is very easily offended by comments and I don't know how to raise this with her!

Ha ha to all the awful perfume/aftershaves mentioned on here!

Imo it's so true that smell/taste is the most evocative sense. I am an 80s child so:

Anais Anais - 13 years old, drowning myself in the stuff to cover up cigarette smoke smell

White Musk - everyone wore this when I was 14 - sickly sweet sugar water in a white plastic topped cheapo bottle.

Kouros - spending £14 - £14!! that were a bloody fortune - on this for boyfriend for Christmas aged 15.

Dewberry - yuck!! Feel sick now just imagining that shite!

Poison - remember wretching on a bus in late 80s when a shoulder-padded woman reeking of it wafted by

I could go on...! Now I wear Chanel 19 or Chance, Jo Malone or Calvin Klein Euphoria.

My mum used to wear Blue Grass but changed to Clinique Wrappings which is OK but she wears a really strong-scented hand cream - don't know what it is - which leaves a smell on everything she touches - ugh

proudnscary As a fellow Chanel girl, have you tried the new coco noir - it's gorgeous and has gone to the top of my xmas list.

Thank you leaves, no I haven't - I want it for the name alone! Twill go with my Chanel Rouge Noir nail varnish I bought about 15 years ago and rarely have the time to apply . I've never come across a Chanel smell I didn't like.

Buy her some Flowerbomb, yet to meet a person who doesn't love it or ask what I'm wearing when they get close enough for a sniff .

She won't be able to resist. I get all panicky when I'm running low so you can imagine the deep depression that fell over me when I lost my bottle on a night out.

I really, really dislike, Flowerbomb.

Ditto, sorry.

It actually makes my eyes swell up.

It might smell quite nice, for all I know, though!

Heathens!

Sorry!

Ah, go on, I'll forgive you.

I smelled Angel whilst pregnant and loved it so treated myself to some on my next birthday (baby was born by then) went out for a birthday meal and kept getting a whiff of myself. I had to try very hard not to vom. So yeah, a perfume you don't like can be horrible to be around.

I love perfume myself and am probably a bit too liberal, dd had this same moan at me the other day, but I also find some perfumes do this to me too, some are so cloying and sickly so YANBU.

YABU to try to impose your taste and buy her Chance though . I'm sure you could tell her it gives you a headache in the car without it being an issue. Maybe you could take her shopping on the pretense you would like a new perfume and try some with her. I agree L'air du Temps is a bit bleugh, but Nina (the apple one) is really lovely.

leavesarefalling - DW has a major major problem with her mother spraying perfume too liberally. It makes DW feel really ill after a while and she just had to ask her to stop. Her mother just seems to have no sense of smell and puts a lot on.

I think if you explain it to her in terms of it making you feel ill and that it is not a 'personal' thing but really an allergy issue she will understand. Some people have very strong reactions to certain perfumes or elements within perfumes.

Just to add, DH and dcs bought me Tresor Midnight Rose for birthday recently. really lovely!

I think the problem is people think that unless they can smell themselves nobody else can either. You stop smelling your own perfume but others still can so if you're putting so much on even you can smell yourself then to other people you're just an overpowering cloud of perfume.

I had a friend like that, Jeez, no matter how nice the perfume itself was, she'd make my eyes water.

Angel perfume should be renamed Devil's Bum Juice.

Hahahah Devil's Bum Juice. Bloody shame it comes in such a pretty bottle. Would look lovely on my dressing table.

I like Chanel except no19 which smells weird on my skin. No5 is my favourite.

YABU, you'll just have to put up with it.

However, it is reasonable to ask people not to spray stuff in the car as it goes into the air con and everyone has to breathe it.

Oh and I never wear perfume if I am going to meet or cuddle newborns.

I'm another one who has worn the same perfume for about 20 years. The thing is, you don't smell it as much when you do that. it's as if your nose/brain just tune it out, so it is easy to get into the habit of putting too much on so you still get that hit of scent.

I reckon you've just got to tell her as plainly but kindly as you can that she's putting too much on. And remind her that it does go off, especially if it is not stored in a fridge (really), so she would be better off ditching half the stockpile and using a newer bottle.

I wish my MiL would start wearing perfume - any would do - she smells of damp as does everything in her house, everything we take to her house & then bring home, & parts of our house where she's been sitting etc. She goes berserk if we try to raise the subject, as does FiL who also smells damp - sigh. My husband is allergic to them - his own parents!! - They think he's making it up. We also have to 'decontaminate' when we get back from their house - we all strip off in the utility room, everything we've worn is washed immediately & we all have showers & get changed before we even sit down - it really is laughable but otherwise husband's asthma is bad for a week or more every time we've been. 14yo son thinks we ought to wear disposable suits like the police do at a crime scene, but I suspect they'd notice...

I feel your pain, my mum only wears either Poison or Youth Dew and I hate them both. They just remind me of the 80s and I cant believe they both still sell. But I'd never tell her as she would be really hurt.

14yo son thinks we ought to wear disposable suits like the police do at a crime scene, but I suspect they'd notice...

That's made me laugh. Perhaps you should let him, as one way of bringing things to a head?

Angel when it first came out and in it's original formulation was just divine. This watered down, cheap and nasty synthetic version that's around today is utterly vile.

My mother mostly wears Youth Dew and it's just the most overpowering, bordering on unpleasant scent. She also used to wear Tweed - equally horrid. The only fragrance she has even worn that I liked was when she went through a Worth phase.

I'm love fragrance but I'm super fussy about it. I'm currently in love with a couple of the Tom Ford private blends.

Loulou, along with Rive Gauche, are the two perfumes which literally make me gag. I was so glad when LouLou disappeared.