When used correctly, scent is nice. When overdone, or combined with scented deodorant, detergent, shampoo, etc etc, it makes me sneeze.

(I started giving my partner Polo Black for Christmas, because I think he smells HAWT wearing it. He knows how to use it sparingly, though.)

I am amazed that 85% of women wear perfume. I would have guessed that the number was more like 50%.

oh man, danf, good post. I was thinking about posting something similar recently because my crazy princess SIL recently BLEW UP the mister's Jeep with some gawdawful witches' brew of hers before going out on a date. She wears some powerfully potent scent that must for some unknown reason incorporate cat piss (I kid you not, that's what it smells like). So we got to do the 2 hour trip to Copper over the weekend alternating between a Jeep that smelled nauseatingly of rotting flowers/cat piss, and freezing our asses off with the windows down.

I don't know what that stuff is, but jeezus, in quantity, it's migraine-inducing. And there are thankfully very few folks at work here who indulge, but a couple days ago some sales creep wandered in drenched in some species of corporate man-stench that immediately got half the floor sneezing. Thank goodness for working amid a bunch of hippie chemists. I'll take patchouli and funk over chemically-induced respiratory distress any day.

I will (rarely) wear a smidge of Chanel #5 if I'm dressed up to go out to something special. Yeah, so what, it's an old-lady perfume, and I'm an old lady, so there. I've been wearing it since I was thirteen, so I dunno

I'm pretty much scent-averse, so I agree with that. When I first started making out with girls, they sometimes had a lotion-y scent, which is still, at least in memory, a turn-on. But it should really be so subtle, imho, that you'd need to be kissing someone before you'd notice it.

I love scents, but I don't think you should ever be able to smell them on someone else unless you're *very* close to them. Like, making out close. And then it shouldn't hit you in the face, but be barely noticeable. I do the "spray it in the air and walk through the mist" method (if it's spray perfume) and that seems to work out OK.

People that drench themselves in perfume make me want to gag.

I came in to say exactly what darkforest said, or rather the flip side: I've always worn scent in tiny amounts, so that someone must be close enough for an embrace before they smell it.

That said, what the article describes as the Proustian effect of scent on memory cannot be overstated. I've worn the same (somewhat obscure) scent for (oh, my) 22 years, and people do remember. Some time ago, I saw a man I had dated when we were both young dummies. He hugged me, then breathed out softly, "You still wear the perfume. Ooooooh."

It was odd, and a bit sad.

I do the "spray it in the air and walk through the mist" method (if it's spray perfume) and that seems to work out OK.

I do the "dab it on the breastbone, where body heat will make it rise" thing. Sometimes I dab some in the crook of my elbow, too, which is especially nice when I go to sleep 18 hours later; when I wrap my arm around my shoulders, I get a wavering faint scent of perfume. I love it.

I'm not a big scent lover but when any man wears Aqua di Selva I want to die. It's so very sexy to me for some reason. The first time I ever smelled it I was sitting behind a guy in some class in college. He wasn't even a blip on my radar until I smelled the cologne, and as soon as I did I developed a huge crush on him. Like, my heart would start beating wildly in my chest whenever I saw him coming, and I couldn't concentrate on my work whenever he was wearing it. Luckily he transferred out of the class a couple of weeks after I fell madly in love with him, but not before I found out what kind of cologne he was wearing.

I tend to wear vanilla oil, or vanilla perfume from bath and body works.
I've never been told I smell like a carnival, but strangers do tell me I smell nice all the time.

Sometimes I wear that cheap, crappy Vanilla Fields perfume from Coty. The one they sell at Target and drug stores and stuff for $10 a bottle.
I don't know if it's me or what, but people go NUTS for it. "wow, what's that perfume! you smell so nice1 etc."

However, I've also been told I have no personal smell whatsoever, so who knows. Even after working out, on a summer day, I smell like... nothing. My gym clothes on my floor have been worn two or three times. They smell like fabric softener sheets. I have no real smell. It's freakish.

I think part of the reason I asked someone out was because he came over... on a SUNDAY... wearing cologne. I live in a world where one wears cologne to interviews, dates, going out (somewhere- not to a friend's house!), or to see the gal you like.

I suspect in his world it's just, like, the thing you do after combing hair or whatever.

The mister and I have to approve, or purchase, each other's cologne. He was heavily applying one that was already a heavy scent and I asked him to back off a bit and it's fine. I use one usually if going out somewhere or sometimes just for myself at home, but either way it's just a very light spritz in the cleavage area.

Ohhh... and HP gave out oil diffusers today to everyone in sales.
I'm currently DRUGGED TO THE HEAVENS since something in them triggered my allergies hardcore.

The mister and I have to approve, or purchase, each other's cologne.

That reminds me... what does everyone think of the couple cologne trend? As in, there's a male and female version of the sent, and they're DESIGNED to be worn by couples, and work together.
I find it neat, but creepy too.

Most perfume smells like soap to me, and perfumed soap just sends me running. I can wear one (thankfully cheap) scent, and hubby can wear one that doesn't make me gag.

I'm with the "you have to be close enough to kiss to detect the perfume crowd". We had an intern who was drenched in some godawful stuff that smelled like Lysol. Everyone else thought it smelled great. I had to ask a co-worker to get him to not wear it; I couldn't get close enough.

It's funny, all my life I never cared one way or other about perfume (my brother still doesn't like it because it triggers his allergies). I relied on scented body lotions and such.
But lately I've been more in a perfume mood. Not the same one, and not every day. But I feel pretty if I catch a whiff of it (as others said, I spray it on my cleavage area, and I'll catch whiffs as I move around through the day). My current favorite is Donna Karen's Cashmere Mist - not too strong, very subtle. I loved Victoria's Secret Halo, but they discontinued it. :^(

I wasn't a big fan of heavy perfume (suffice it to say that I've used the phrase 'olfactory terrorism') until I dated someone who affected a signature scent. All of a sudden, I was aware of, even in awe of, smell's amazing evocative powers. It's a powerful sense, and one that doesn't get enough respect.

(And, just as a heads-up for people who normally wear hippie aluminum-free organic-ingredients deodorants: this Jason Herbs & Spice stuff I just bought smells much, much more strongly than the usual Desert Essence or Tom's or whatever's on sale. I'm not saying that's a good or a bad thing, but I am saying much, much more strongly. Take it how you want to take it.)

The term 'olfactory terrorism' sums it up nicely for me. Most perfume makes me retch, literally. I have to avoid the perfume counter in department stores, or else I'll have a headache for the rest of the day. Same thing with scented candles.

Given that I work with an older population, this can cause problems. The sense of smell is one of the first to go, so the grandma-ladies tend to douse themselves because they can't smell a subtle application. I've had to share elevators with kindly older women with scents wafting from tham that would drive Godzilla weeping to his knees.

Oh, and for those of you who hit Hempfest every year: PATCHOULI OIL IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR BATHING. EITHER WAY, YOU FUCKING REEK.

I love my perfumes, but I'm totally paranoid about bothering other people with them. I think mainly because I ride public transportation during rush hour. Though the bus is usually so smelly with highly unpleasant natural odors that I'm often quite happy to be able to pull my perfumed sweater up over my nose.

And lfr, there's totally some perfume ingredient that smells like cat piss. I bought a perfume I thought I liked, until I realized that every time I wore it, the house smelled like the litter box needed to be changed. I thought it was probably just reacting weirdly with my skin, though.

Oh, and, all the perfumes I currently have are boyfriend-approved. I went to Sephora and picked out some I liked, we went back together and I sprayed my choices on paper strips and we figured out which ones didn't give him a headache. The process was kind of amusing.

And I have a gorgeous white-flower gardenia-y perfume that he picked out for me. It makes me want to go to garden parties.

The cat-piss ingredient seems to be blackcurrant bud absolute. Apparently fruity smells are in right now, so I guess there's going to be a lot of cat-piss-smelling going on.

I think, in the perfume I have, it may actually be eucalyptus -- the perfume is pretty lemony and woodsy and sharp, not really fruity. (And, for a while, I managed to convince myself that it was the trees in the park nearby causing the unpleasant smell; totting eucalyptus leaves after the rain can be a bit intense.) But I just found a New Yorker article on its creation, which is too long for me to read right now, but maybe that'll shed some light!

rotting. Rotting eucalyptus leaves.

OK! After finally getting through that article and doing some research, it seems to be honey that's the problem -- it seems to react with certain people's body chemistry in a way that ends up smelling like cat pee.

Wonder if that's why I'm not a fan of eating honey? Maybe I just have a weird reaction to honey in general.

And lfr, there's totally some perfume ingredient that smells like cat piss.

Oh, yes, although I would amend that to read "stale urine." When I worked in a posh boutique (and so routinely got close enough during fittings to smell people's scent, however lightly applied), a good percentage of my customers favored a perfume that smelled very much like a heavy floral or woodsy scent covering up the smell of bus station bathroom.

I always figured that was something odd in my smell receptors, though. Other people can smell it, too?