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Which is worse...

DogwoodTree

DogwoodTree

Still here...
...perfume or body odor?

So I was around some people today who were wearing perfume, and I wished they would just have mercy on the rest of us and not wear it, but then I wondered if maybe, to them, those of us who don't wear perfume smell badly, but we don't notice it any more than the perfume-wearers notice their invasive scent?

I can't stand the smell of perfume. I can tell when someone wearing it has walked through the store aisle several minutes ahead of me because it makes me gag even after they're gone. I can almost trace their steps through the store if it wasn't so sickening. Perfume is one of the worst parts about hugs at church, too. I actually don't mind too much hugging people who don't wear it (mostly guys), but there are a few women in particular who I can smell them coming in for a hug, and I just cringe knowing I'll be sniffing their perfume that rubs off on me for hours later in the day. I can even tell who has hugged my kids when I wasn't looking by the smell in their hair and on their clothes.

So I always assumed people wore it to cover up body odor, but I may not be correct on that. Not sure that would be any better, but at least someone else's body odor (unless it's really bad) doesn't cling to you for hours.

And then there are a few people who UN-successfully cover body odor with perfume, and the two scents intermingle in a particularly repulsive way, creating a stench that clings to you (worst of both worlds).
 
No, people use deodorant to get rid of body odor, and deodorant can be unscented. Regular showers/baths, combined with deodorant, do the job,
People who wear perfume do so because they like the smell of the perfume itself. Their noses are probably too clogged by the smell of their own perfume to be able to pick out other people's odors.
 
So, you're a bloodhound too, eh? :p

I was blessed/cursed with keen olfactory senses as well. I can't tolerate strong perfume or body odor, and I wear unscented deodorant.

There are some scents I really love, but they have to be extremely light, barely noticeable. I finally gave up wearing perfume because no matter how lightly I applied it, it seemed to take hours before it would achieve a tolerable level for me. I think the smell of a fresh bath soap is the best scent anyway.
 
Perfume is definitely worse for me. I'm essentially allergic to most synthetic scents, so while body odor is unpleasant, at least it doesn't make me feel like I can't breathe.
 
For me it depends on the perfume... some scents are just horrible to me. I'm no connoisseur of it, so don't ask me what scents I do and don't like, lol. I guess the flowery ones often are the ones that smell quite overwhelming to me... and the overly strong, sweet ones. Suppose the same can be said about aftershave, even though that's less of a flowery, sweet smell, some still smell terrible, let alone when people bathe in that stuff.

Body odors are a bit of a mixed bag I guess in that I can tolerate it from a partner, but that's where it stops for me. I can't even tolerate body odor from my parents and I can't recall the times where I told them to go clean up cause they smell terrible. Or at least put some deodorant on.

It doesn't help that I can smell people from quite a distance and can easily keep track of smells out in the open, but I suppose it is what it is.
 
Both are unique pains and I can't say which is worse. Perfume and cologne burn the "top" of my nose and back of my throat, while body odor curls the "bottom" of my nose and leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Both have the potential of upsetting my stomach. Perfume and cologne do make a sharper pain while BO makes more of a dull pain. I guess the perfume and cologne is worse then since it is a sharper and more intense pain.
 
I'd far rather deal with a biological odour than a synthetic, chemically-based one like perfume or most personal care product scents. For some reason, the heavy, cloying floral scents in many perfumes (and to a somewhat lesser extent in shampoos, soaps, some deodorants, some laundry products, and most deodorant sprays, oils, candles, etc) really bother me. For some reason, they give me intense migraines, make me feel nauseous, and can push me into a meltdown if I can't get away. The personal care products I use are either scent-free or versions made for kids that smell like berries, vanilla, or cinnamon. Even then, the scents can be too strong, so I mix a scented product with a similar unscented one, and that tones down the scent enough for me to manage.
Biological smells, even those as intense and offensive as body odour, just don't seem to have the staying power of man-made scents. Even if someone with bad BO has been in an enclosed room for hours, one he or she has been gone for around 15 minutes, the smell is no longer much in evidence. But if someone who has marinated in perfume or cologne has been in the same room for just a few minutes and has been gone even for hours, I can still smell the perfume enough to feel sickened by it.

There used to be a woman at work who would get on the elevator and ride up at 8:30 am. She always was way too much perfume. Even at the end of the day, 5 pm or later, I could still tell which of the three elevators she had used that morning, just from the lingering stink of her perfume! And these were busy elevators, serving thousands of people through the day, opening and closing enough to air out a stadium!
 
Perfume or body odor are not the only choices, you left out "Take a bath you filthy slobs". If you wash yourself daily there is nothing to stink, and nothing to cover up. Deodorant is useful if you are going to be sweating profusely.
 
Both smells are bad to me. I like the smell of clean, the light scent of some soaps is OK.
 
Stagnant body odour is far worse for me.

The smell of a clean body can be highly erotic, as can a hint of perfume at the nape of the neck, wrists or behind the knees.
 
I think NT's become desensitised and need greater and greater stimulus, hence loud music. Also, I understand that all NT's suffer a degree of Social phobia which helps keep belief systems in social groups balanced, so people have similar hair, clothes body language.
I like a subtle perfume/deodorant, but overpowering is definitely out for me!
 
I tend to rank body odor and cheap or too much perfume as equal in offensiveness.

In such instances a vapor trail is a vapor trail...
 
Harrison54 said:
Behind the knee lies a depression called the popliteal fossa, a known erogenous zone. Some women use a hint of perfume there to add to its effect.
Click to expand...
And they say us Aspies have strange habits! I guess it's better than shoving a metal rod through it like they do other erogenous zones... Piercings are such strange things.
 
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