Perfume in the office

[Aninabertsi]

Why???!! Why do people think I would want to smell them from 30 feet away!? Or have the same taste as them? If you must use perfume, why not just use a small amount so only if I stand directly next to you I can smell it not all the way across the office (open plan office at that)...I can't think or concentrate on what I'm doing because all I can think off is this effing smell. Sorry for the rant but I think it should be banned

Men are worse in my opinion. drenched in after shave that smells like nuclear toilet cleaner or sweet nasty (worst offenders, most Tom Ford stuff and Chanel blue and Sauvage). Don't get me started in the horrible OUD style perfumes. I suffer from asthma and migraine and the smell of these horrible perfumes puts me in the toilet.

When I cycle to work in the morning I usually meet another woman cycling the other way who wears soooo much perfume I can actually follow the scent trail for half a mile up the cycle track - it's honestly that strong.

She wears Aromatics by Clinique, which I actually like. But, as some may know, it's a HUGE scent and you only need one spritz. Wherever she works she'll be stinking out the whole building!

I once walked into the office and said ‘flipping heck it smells like toilet cleaner in here’. Turns out is was somebody’s new perfume gifted by a service user. Oops 😬

I don't think those of us who suffer would mind a subtle spritz of some fresh nice day wear eau de toilette like a cologne (for example how about ck1 or Chanel Chance).

But going to work in an office in a full 'on the pull' musky evening perfume is horrible and antisocial. I'm neuro, migrained and asthmatic and it's just a health hazard .

I love scent, and would hate it to be banned, but I agree with OP hat it shouldn't be used too strongly and with consideration of others. I like to wear it in such a way that only people right next to me can detect it. I've suffered too much from smells that invade

I’m with you OP. Strong perfume gives me a headache. Same with excessive fabric softener, aftershave or incense sticks. All of it is yuck!

One of our newbie apprentices walked through our office yesterday. Once he was out of ear shot I looked at my boss and we said "Lynx".

Suddenly transported back to teenage discos. 😊

I have a tested and diagnosed artificial fragrance allergy. Being around people wearing perfume causes me to have an allergic reaction. In most situations, I can walk away and take medication to mitigate the reaction. That is frustrating because it means I don’t get to be in the space I intended to be, but I manage.

In a situation like work, that isn’t possible. This actually raises to the level of a disability. Workplaces are required to take basic steps to make it possible for people to be employed.

Perfume is not necessary and can easily be skipped when heading to work. It gets more complicated with other personal care products, especially when some are required for medical conditions, but perfume is the biggest offender and serves no function other than to release fragrance into the air.

Back in the dark ages when I was young, a supervisor where I worked used to wear either Tabu (sp?) or Aqua Manda - very handy as you could smell her coming a mile away. I hated both scents by the way.

I used to love Donna Karan's Cashmere Mist, which was specifically designed so you had to be really close to the wearer to be able to smell it. Sadly, it's now discontinued. Maybe we could start a campaign to bring it back?

I love perfume and I don’t like delicate florals - most people comment that I always smell nice .
I don’t like the smell of cigarettes, bo , unwashed clothes but I can’t stop people smelling of it !

I agree. And it’s because of this sort of thing that ND is becoming such a hot topic - it is one of the main reasons why someone who is ND will struggle more on today’s world than they would have in the old days.

I'm ND and I told my last employers about my reaction to these things because my workplace was full of them, not to mention a full on perfume person who'd spray it on liberally in the office each morning. Employer didn't believe me until she saw me having a reaction to an essential oil on a training day. Eyes bright red, sneezing, full on headache etc. They still couldn't comprehend that I wasn't coping with the reed diffusers and plug ins so it's one of the reasons why I left. I jacked my career in and just do gig type work now for little money. My health has improved though.

An allergy is not a ND, the two aren't linked.

While I am also ND, my perfume reaction is not related. Depending on the scent my reaction can include anything from a simple rash to hives, lip and tongue swelling, wheezing, and blood pressure drops. I carry antihistamines, albuterol, and epi-pens at all times. I am mildly allergic to some categories and severely allergic to others.

But there really isn't a worse smell than perfume attempting to mask BO. It's nauseating.

Oh definitely!

Perfume gives me migraines, scented lotions, shampoo and deodorant etc don’t have the pungency (if that’s the right word) as perfume. I’d genuinely rather small BO/smelly feet than any perfume, but obviously the answer if you’re worried about smelling is to shower and wash clothes regularly!

My work place regularly sends out reminders not to spray perfume in the office because it causes migraines/asthma etc, I’m not the only one who suffers in our office, but nevertheless people keep spraying it at their desks. I’m genuinely thinking about getting a doctors note to raise it to the level of a disability so they have to enforce it more!

That just ends up as two bad smells rather than one.

Some chemicals are benign, it's not the 'chemical' per se that is the problem, but the chemicals in fragrance are not good. Just because the big fashion houses are big and have lots of money does not mean they're not putting shit in bottles and selling it for an absolute fortune more than it cost to make. I simply do not believe that the expensive fragrance coming out of the big fashion houses (or the cheap shit) does anything positive to a human body. Synthetic musks, pthalates and parabens for a start. Water, on the other hand, is crucial to life.

People who are ND often suffer from allergies, mcas, chemical and fragrance sensitivities.

I like perfume and wear it every day. You have to be VERY close to me to smell it - like, giving me a hug kind of close. That is how you do perfume. Anything else is too much.

You see this wouldn’t bother me, it’s when there’s a sort of cloud of scent that lingers and you can’t get away from it. Likewise if I’m going to a bar or the theatre or something I expect people will be wearing perfume and I can take painkillers in advance, and move away from anyone particularly strong smelling, but in an office I’m stuck there for 8 hours with windows that don’t open!

I lost my sense of smell completely in 1989, obviously well before Covid but due to a virus that had that anosmic effect.
I realised because a friend had brought back some very good chocolate from a trip to Belgium and gave me a piece (we were students so it was a rare treat). It was like chewing candle wax 😕
When my sense of smell came back it wasn't the same. The perfume I wore smelled different, not bad, just different. I kept wearing it because my boyfriend at the time (now DH) really liked it. I can't smell cat wee, oregano, carnations and probably loads of other things I don't know I can't smell...
And I really like Lynx Africa which I understand most people loathe.

I know. I can’t. There’s nothing left. We’ll be banning colours of clothes next and patterns because they trigger migraines.

Don't mind it, but I do mind when you get on a plane and person sitting next to you smells like they've sprayed copious amounts of every perfume in duty free. I've asked to be moved on planes for this reason