Please stop showering in your perfume/cologne!

[kelleigh1]

UGH! I'm about ready to hose off the temp who is sitting next to me today. She had enough perfume/cologne on for the entire office and there are 12 other secretaries here.

Seriously, why do people feel they need to wear so much?

How many squirts/spritzes/etc. do you have to use in order to smell like a drunken prostitue?

This girl is young...early 20's and she's gorgeous, but she reeks because she has so much perfume on. It is giving me a headache. If I was a guy, I'd be afraid of getting to close for fear I might pass out from the smell. If she comes back here with one more wave following her, I may just ask that she stop applying as she's making me ill.

So how do you politely tell someone that they are wearing way too much perfume?

 

[Aidensmom]

I was taught that you spray your perfume into the air and then walk through it, that seems to give just the right amount.

I used to work with someone that you knew the exact moment the time she entered the office, because you could smell her perfume through the whole building. I always kind of wondered if maybe she had some sort of problem with smelling and didn't realize how strong it was.

 

[Evil Queen]

Ask HR or a Supervisor to inform her.

 

[FreshTressa]

Yikes....and with so many people with allergies, you'd think she'd be more considerate.

I wonder what she is wearing.

I'd tell her that it was a lovely scent, but that in such an enclosed space it gives you a headache and if she could lighten up a bit for work.

 

[disykat]

Although I don't wear perfume due to my allergies, I've always thought that perfume is so when people are close to you, they have a pleasant association with your smell. Unfortunately I think many people think the purpose of perfume is for people to smell you from across the room. These people actually think "I could smell you coming" is a compliment.

I haven't found a polite way to ask people to not wear so much perfume. If I'm comfortable with the person I might come out and say it, but usually I just avoid them. When moving away is not an option, like at work, etc. I ask a superior to put out a general announcement about strong perfumes bothering allergies and to be courteous of others.

 

[Keli]

Sometimes I find it hard not to put too much perfume on because of the different scents I wear.

Some scents are very strong a small, small, small amount will go a long, long way, lol. Others are light scents and I have to wear more in order to smell it at all.

I've forgotten which one I had in my hand a couple of times and ended up wearing too much. I've even went in the bathroom and tried to wash some of it off, lol.

 

[m&m's mom]

I love cologne on men and women - in moderation of course.
My pet peeve is when I am working out and someone w/ cologne comes and works out next to me. I almost got sick the other day. The fragrance became putrid when mixed w/ sweat.

 

[olena]

Try singing with people like that. Not only does it cause headaches, but you have to take big breaths. The stage lights make you hot which just amplifies the problem. Suck in a cloud of perfume and your chect could go tight on you, which just ruins a concert. Suppressing sneezes on stage is no picnic either.

And the thing is that a HUGE deal is always made about not wearing perfume to concerts for those reasons, but some people must just be special.

 

[PeterPanette]

I used to work with the sweetest woman, and she absolutely REEKED of that perfume called "Poison". That perfume has a very sweet smell, anyway, and it was just sickening, the way she saturated herself with it. I'd walk into her area and try my best not to breathe as I was passing through. I swore that I could literally see a cloud of it hovering around her desk. I mean, this smell became an entity of its own.

It was so strong, that even when she wasn't there, you could still smell Poison. She went on a week's vacation - and the office area still smelled like her - even up to her last day of vacation.

One day, word went around that HR had called her in and asked her to lighten it up a little. She seemed devastated. She quit the job a couple weeks later.

In a separate story, I had a friend who seemingly bathed in Clinique's Happy fragrance. It really choked me, but she was very sensitive, so I never said anything. Well, one day, she calls me crying and very upset. The HR person at her job called her in and told her - not very gently - that she STUNK and if she were to continue wearing that much cologne, they would write her up, and then if it continued, fire her.

So, OP - it seems as if it's HR's responsibility to have to break the "you stink" news to folks. I wouldn't want to have to have that conversation with anyone.

 

[lulugirl]

Amen to that! I absolutely HATE being able to smell someones perfume!
I honestly wish perfume were never invented, what's wrong w/ just using soap and water?

 

[Disney Ella]

A very nice woman at work wears heavy perfume and smokes. If I see her ahead of me in the hall, I have to hang way back because the combined smells have set off my asthma before. If I worked in the same office, I'd have to say something to her. I'm glad I don't because, as others have mentioned, it's almost impossible to say something without offending the perfume wearer.

 

[missypie]

About a month ago, I met with a client who happened to be a Jordanian man. He was in the conference room for about 5 minutes before I joined in. His cologne almost knocked me over. I could feel it in my eyes and in my throat; I had a headache the rest of the day.

The guy's wife was back in Jordan for the summer. I figure that she would have told him it was too much had she been home.

 

[disykat]

.

And the thing is that a HUGE deal is always made about not wearing perfume to concerts for those reasons, but some people must just be special.

In church choir we have a lady who just reeked who supposedly wasn't wearing perfume or anything with a heavy scent. Everytime the director would say anything about perfume (or anything with a heavy scent like lotions etc.), she'd nod pleasantly and claim she didn't wear it. I would have to move anytime she showed up. She finally cornered me and asked why I was avoiding her and I told her something she was wearing caused me not to be able to breathe.

She finally stopped wearing it all the time, but still wears it on Christmas Eve, etc. She was hurt, but I was glad it was out in the open. Now when I move, at least she knows why.

I have to move whenever I'm next to someone with heavy perfume or any heavy fragrance - especially in a choir setting or if I have a performance coming up. An exposure can take days of inhalers etc. for it to get better.

I guess I can understand why people want to smell like perfume, but the people who smell like laundry or scented deoderant really puzzle me. You must have to use a lot of dryer sheets to make a room smell like laundry when you enter!

I think a good rule of thumb is that if you can smell yourself, you're wearing too much fragrance.

 

[GeorgeG]

I have reactions to just about any strong scent, especially candles. I enjoy when women wear a nice subtle perfume, but it I shouldn't be able to notice from more than a few feet away.

Maybe some people substitute it for being clean? A lot of these things originated back when people only bathed a few time a year.

I play in a 100 pice concert band and we haven't found a stage yet that we aren't crowded on. We have a no perfume/cologne rule, but showers and deodorant are more than welcome.

 

[almacdonald]

I guess I can understand why people want to smell like perfume, but the people who smell like laundry or scented deoderant really puzzle me. You must have to use a lot of dryer sheets to make a room smell like laundry when you enter!

I love the smell of fresh clean laundry. If they made a prefume that smelled like that I'd wear it... in moderation of course!

 

[ilovepooh]

How does it NOT bother them? If I'm getting a headache-aren't they?

I put too much perfume on one night and couldn't stand myself, so I washed it off and put less on.

 

[PatriciaH]

Oh boy Poison is pretty bad but the one that really gets me is Samsara. That stinks. My mother uesd to love it. So thankful she gave it up. DH calls perfume "wh**efume" when it is on so strong. Haha. I hate Polo for men too. I used to work in Lord and Taylor right near all the scents. Whew!

 

[LadyLuc361]

There is a sign in our bathroom at work that says somthing like...please do not apply scents in the bethroom because it can aggravate others allergies. That's not exactly it, but you get the point Anyway, you could be sneaky and sneak in there with a sign like that and see if it makes any difference. Even, please do not wear strong scents at work. I dunno, but maybe something along those lines would help?

 

[Disney Doll]

We have a doc at work who wears so much aftershave that if he uses a phone, the scent lingers on the phone for hours.

If you use the phone right after him, you end up smeliing like his aftershave all day.

We end up cleaning thephone with alcohol to neutralize it.

 

[Jrsy Boy]

I was taught that you spray your perfume into the air and then walk through it, that seems to give just the right amount.

"Spray...delay...walk away" according to Kyan from Queer Eye.

We had a guy in our office who we affectionately called Super Cologne Guy; you could always tell where he'd been. On the plus side, the men's room never smelled so nice!