7 Scent Mistakes to Avoid
When it comes to wearing and enjoying fragrance, there are a few unwritten rules to consider. It’s best not to spritz yourself four or five times with a sexy perfume before entering a medical facility where you might find individuals there who are sensitive to strong scents. And it is maybe not a good idea to wear a really strong cologne when boarding a plane for a transatlantic flight. Here are seven more scent etiquette tips you might want to follow.
1 Avoid spicy foods before fragrance shopping
What you eat can affect how a fragrance smells on your skin. If you’ve ever eaten a dish laced with pungent garlic, you know the next morning when your pores seem to radiant garlic. It can be the same with any exotic spice. These ingredients can change our skin chemistry for a short time. So if you are going to do some serious fragrance shopping on a certain day, avoid eating spicy foods the night or morning before.
2 Try not to shop for scent later in the evening
Our sense of smell is one of the most sensitive in our body. And it is bombarded with stimuli from the moment we wake up. Our sense of smell is constantly working – discerning odors and scents in our environments. We literally make sense of hundreds of different smells by dinnertime. And consequently, our noses can get overwhelmed and exhausted. So if you decide to shop for perfume or fragrance in the evening, your sense of smell may be fatigued. You’ll have a harder time of identifying the different notes and ingredients in a scent. Shopping before noon will give you the most accurate reading of how a fragrance smells on you. Your sense of smell will be in prime condition. You’ll also avoid making pricey mistakes of buying the wrong scent for you.
3 Restrain from wearing the same scent every single day
Yes, everyone wants to find their signature scent, a fragrance that makes them feel sexy, confident and self-assured. The problem with wearing the same fragrance day after day is our sense becomes accustomed to it and doesn’t register it after a while. Have you ever spritzed your signature scent and not really smelled it? Then you spritz again and you get a faint impression of the scent for a moment. That is called scent fatigue and it is our body’s way of protecting us from too much stimuli. Your body recognizes the scent but saves its energy to identify new scents in your environment. By regularly rotating four or five fragrances, you keep your sense of smell alert and engaging.
4 Be culturally sensitive
Before entering a religious building or church, find out if there are any cultural rules regarding fragrance. An overly sexy eau de parfum might be considered rude. And certain flowers my hold significance for certain beliefs. So it is best to research these if you are attending such an establishment.
5 Is your fragrance too sexy for work?
Scroll through any perfume chat room or community and you’ll undoubtedly read stories about how someone wore a sexy perfume to work and attracted unwanted attention from a coworker. This can be particularly apparent when alcohol and cocktails are served thereby decreasing inhibitions. Unless you want to attract the attention of your boss, save that sexy scent for date night not “team-building” at work.
6 Does your fragrance still work with your skin chemistry
Here’s a fact that few people in the fragrance industry talk about: skin chemistry. We know that how a perfume smells on your skin depends on your skin chemistry. A rich Oriental scent can smell deep and elegant on one person and spicy and provocative on another. That is why it is essential to test out a scent on your skin for a full 30 minutes before making the decision to purchase. This allows the scent time to dry down on skin and interact with the skin’s chemistry. Now, skin chemistry can change as we age. What didn’t work on you in your early 20s can suddenly smell beautiful in your late 40s. That is because our skin type can become dryer, moving to a more plant-based diet can alter your skin and even menopause can cause even more changes. So don’t be afraid to try scents that didn’t smell particularly good when you were younger. You may find they smell very different on you now.
7 Don’t fall into a fragrance rut
Finding a scent type that you love can lead to a long-term scent love affair. But don’t let that prevent you from discovering another you may love just as much. There is such creativity in the art of perfumery today. Ouds, once dark and heavy creations with a smoky effect are being reimagined into lighter, joyful eau de toilettes. These contain spicy ingredients but all used with a light hand. Be open to trying new scent categories and types.
