Do you notice your fragrances when you wear them?

[Bauhaus]

Hello,

I hope I am in the right forum section with my question.

I would like to know if you can also perceive your applied perfumes only with difficulty. Unfortunately, I have the problem that I smell my fragrances only rarely or not at all. It takes a bit of the joy out of perfume for me. I wear my perfumes mainly for myself, which is why I find it a great pity that I can not really perceive them.

It also doesn't matter what kind of perfume I wear, it can be fragrances like Kouros, Lapidus pour Homme or Furyo that I have in my collection, meaning that even with stronger sillage I hardly smell them, if at all. I have always done it so that I applied the fragrance on all sides of the neck. I was told that this makes for nose blindness, at least when you apply the scent to the front of the neck, because it always blows into the nose. Instead, only the back of the neck is supposed to be a good spot. I also heard that the belly button is a good spot, which was completely new to me. I chose those two points for that reason, plus the wrists, but I didn't really notice any difference.

I also wear a different scent every day, some more often than others of course anyway, so I thought it was actually rather unlikely that I would get used to the scents. My guess is that I have too dry skin, but even if I apply a moisturizer beforehand, I don't really notice any improvement. Maybe I need to apply the cream day after day or I need something better to keep the skin moisturized longer. Do you have any recommendations?

How is it for you? Do you also have a hard time noticing your scents when you wear them? So is this maybe even normal?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

 

[Foxsbiscuits]

Do you also have a hard time noticing your scents when you wear them?

I often do. Sometimes I'll put on yesterday's t-shirt and the smell is strong of a fragrance I could barely smell on myself.

If I want to enjoy a fragrance for myself then I only spray one wrist and then bring my arm to my nose during the day when I want a sniff. Nose blindness will happen, it's unavoidable as our brain deletes persistent experiences from our current awareness. Scent usually creates an aura around the wearer and it's very hard to experience that aura as "new" when you want to smell it because you're in it.

 

[N.CAL Fragrance Reviewer]

In short, Yes I will notice my scent whenever I wear them.

 

[Black Cloud]

It seems from the OP that you've tried the usual things like avoiding spraying the neck, using moisturiser, etc. Unfortunately though noseblindness is just one of those things that happens sometimes, it might be worth not wearing a fragrance for a few days to give the nose a rest, and then just apply lightly when you start again.

Personally I find that doing just one spray behind each ear can sometimes work really well. Foxsbiscuit's advice of one spray to the wrist is worth a try too; I often test a fragrance by doing one or two sprays on the top of my arm (if wearing short sleeves). I know it can be frustrating but resist the urge to overspray, and let the scent come to you rather than try to keep sniffing it, if that makes sense. Sometimes you'll notice it more when not searching for it.

 

[hednic]

Absolutely.

 

[enframing]

I often do. Sometimes I'll put on yesterday's t-shirt and the smell is strong of a fragrance I could barely smell on myself.

If I want to enjoy a fragrance for myself then I only spray one wrist and then bring my arm to my nose during the day when I want a sniff. Nose blindness will happen, it's unavoidable as our brain deletes persistent experiences from our current awareness. Scent usually creates an aura around the wearer and it's very hard to experience that aura as "new" when you want to smell it because you're in it.

This.

I damn well better be able to smell it!

 

[Akahina]

I wear perfumes primarily for me, so if I can't smell it, I don't wear it.

 

[The Cologne Cabinet]

@Bauhaus

Try the moisturizer and then for where to spray - try the insides of your elbows and lower torso and see how that works.

 

[StylinLA]

Usually I do notice. But after a couple of hours my nose mostly tunes a lot of them out. Some scents seem to last longer and stay stronger than others on me.

I think you may be more susceptible to olfactory fatigue than some people. The scents you listed are not likely fading away on your skin.

I have had many many occasions where someone commented on a scent I was wearing long after I could even notice the scent anymore.

You sound a little to me like you're clinging very hard to wanting to smell the scent very strongly all day long exactly as strong as it smells when first applied. Keep in mind the opening of the scent when first applied is very strong and loud and noticeable to you. But that is the the opening. They almost all morph and shift during full wearing.

 

[Misschronicallyfab]

Hi there!

Yeah, I know this issue. In my case it's unfortunately not a case of anosmia, but a really (REALLY! ) crappy skin for perfume. Of course I initially thought I was anosmic (the pretty word for being noseblind; I'm expanding my English perfume jargon .), but a simple check with friends, family and eventually even the occassional plumber, cableguy and cleaning lady told me a different story: I don't project. Like, at all.

In order to smell even remotely like perfume, I need (on average) 30 sprays divided over bottom and top of my arms, left, right & back of neck and several spots on cleavage. When wearing a dress I sometimes add my inner knees, but never have I smelled anything coming from there...
With all those sprays I usually have less than moderate projection and sillage. However: at least I smell myself! Longevity past 3 hours is also reason to celebrate.

I figure that in my case it's a double reason: I've extremely dry skin & I am chronically ill, which affects my pH. I've already noticed that a few of my perfumes can do duty as a diagnostics team (snort), because the worse I am the weirder a fragrance can smell on me.

I can only advise you a few things:
A) Figure out if it's truly anosmia or if it's your skin. It's simple: apply the same amount of sprays you normally do and then ask around. Can a friend smell you? And if so, from how far away. Add more, do the same et cetera.

B) Find ways to improve your perfume experience based on your fact finding mission, I.e. what's caused the issue?

Anosmia? Then you need to start experiments. I mean: try to expand your fragrance horizons. Maybe you're anosmic to a certain type of Fragrance and other type perfumes won't make you noseblind. Aroma chemicals like Ambroxan - used a lot in male perfumes - are quite common noseblindness causers. Try to find out what else & skip them from now on if you want to smell yourself (duh, of course you do! ).

Not anosmic? A few things influence your perfume projection and longevity. Skin type, pH, climate, certain notes, layering.
Skin>
Dry skin needs extra hydration, yes, but what kind of moisturiser you use makes a difference as well. I prefer those for very dry mature skin that isn't greasy and that dries super quickly. Vaseline lotion and brands like Neutrogena or Cerave are great. Because they don't feel like a layer and simply create smooth skin it's often possible to add a second lotion! Or 2nd layer of the Neutrogena.

Because I don't want a clash of notes I use scent free bodylotion. Of course a cream or bodylotion from the same fragrance helps, but I'll come back to that.

PH >
Illness, medication use, hormones and diet: three things that highly affect your pH and therefore how well a performance a perfume can give. The healthier you eat, the better a perfume performs. Now, if there ever was a great reason to skip the pizza and fries and eat a lot of veggies, this was it . You have little control over the other three, but just be aware they affect your fragrances/ scent.
NB. Smokers have a worse sense of smell, so also go anosmic sooner! And their skin is highly affected by smoking (both in chemistry as in dryness.)

Climate >
Temperatures affect performance of a perfume. I follow someone on YouTube who used the term beastmode rather frequently. Knowing the perfumes in question myself I thought she was perhaps not entirely honest. Turned out: tropical climate. Everything smells stronger in warmer weather and less so in colder areas. While I don't necessarily believe in labels like winter or spring perfumes (nor in male/ female for that matter: wear what you like and smells nice on you) I DO use certain fragrances only in winter or summer because of how they respond to heat or cold. This too can influence what you smell. In Love with clean citrusy colognes and you are spending winter in Alaska, or Siberia? Eh... yeah...

Certain notes >
We all know that some notes last much longer than others and are much stronger than others. Oud Perfumes, in general, far outweigh any other fragrance type in the amount of times they can use the label "beastmode". A note like lemon or mandarin orange f,e is usually the opposite. However: NOT if your skin chemistry responds a certain way to certain notes. For example: I stay away from citrusy fragrances because I smell like a just cleaned bathroom 98% of the time. If an edp has Agarwood (Oudh) in an Indian style - most Oudh notes are synthetic after all - and Cardemom, but it also has sugar and Caramel and vanilla a lot of people say it's gourmand like and very sweet. Oudh and a few spices, like Cardemon, somehow overpower *everything* on my skin. I have a rather decent Middle Eastern fragrances collection but can never ever buy an Oudh containing fragrance blind. If I test 30, only 2 will be okay (true story). Figure out which notes you pull strongly or stronger than others and use this to your advantage by either buying those, or not at all.

Layering >
My own way of applying perfume: moisturiser without scent - perfume oil - edp. Sometimes even adding a 2nd edp because I love creating new smells of like to enhance certain notes.

Way 2, if possible: fragrance free moisturiser - wait till dry - scented bodylotion that suits coming edp (either same fragrance or a matching note/pyramid) - matching bodymist - edp.

Layering, Layering, Layering. It helps. It actually helps more than spraying extra edp.
Especially if you acquire dupe oils then you're set. While oils rarely have strong projection they do - as a rule - have quite the longevity.
I will give you two examples:
1. Black Opium by Ysl. I have a dupe oil and the Zara Gardenia edc mist (dupe Bl.Op). So after moisturiser I'll roll over the most important spots on my body, massage in, then spray the mist all-over and once that's dry I'll add the actual Black Opium.
2. Chopard Love. Fragrance free moisturiser - Honey type edp with notes of rose allover - Chopard - Love edp (a vannilic, jasminy Rose scent) allover. On their own I've intimate projection, when Layering - which makes the scent more sensual and some notes pop extra - I get constant compliments from people who don't need to hang in my neck.
3. CK Euphoria. Make it fruitier, or darker/ sexier.
a. Moisturiser - BBW Dark Kiss bodylotion - Winterberry Wonder - CK Euphoria. Sometimes I even add another edp then, like Amethyst Lalique. This list often adds 2-3hrs, or doubles the longevity. And projection in the first hour, two hours if all products used are of a stronger variety, is much better as well.

Or b. Moisturiser - Sweet Amber perfume oil - Dior Ambre Nuit-CK Euphoria. With double Amber the longevity of this one is a whole day and I can smell myself constantly instead of losing everything quickly or immediately.
^^
Wrote a few of my layering combos down so you get an idea of what's possible. But I can understand wanting to keep it simple as well. In that case, really, if your skin is the culprit instead of your olfactory senses then: oil, oil, oil. I've never ever heard anyone complain about its effects.
Just be aware of the fact that oils can stain light clothing. A decent fragrance mist can also strengthen certain notes or the fragrance as a whole. You don't need to add a 2nd perfume - I just like to do that on occasion for several reasons. Just to add longevity the oil works best.


Last tips:
1. Iso E Super. Same type of thing as Ambroxan, but from what I've heard more people can smell this. You can buy the compound alone, create it yourself (YouTube) or buy a fragrance like Molecule 01 by Escentric Molecules. Iso E Super on its own can possibly be one of those noseblind things for you, but add as a layer to any perfume and they become stronger. If you càn smell it, you also have a nice extra woody type fragrance as a standalone.

2. If you want to try the whole oil thing, but need to save on money, then you can even make your own attars (that's what I am going to do!) Especially simple oils consisting of one to three notes, or dupe oils that have premade concoctions, are cheaper to create yourself. The Black Opium one costs me 6 bucks for 5ml in the shop. I can make 6.5 bottles of 5ml for the same money that are also 10% stronger. Were I to use the same % as the brand (20% instead of 30%) that amount rises to 10 attars! That's 6 bucks for like 3 years of oil, if not more because I don't just use this scent.

Initial costs are or can be a drag, because I don't just need base oils, essential oils, aroma chemicals and concentrated dupe fragrance oils, but also pipettes, blotters, amber glass bottles for maceration of separate pyramid parts, bigger bottles for maceration of entire perfume, perfume bottles or attar bottles to put endresult in...
And there's just the list if I stick to simple oils. Creating my own edp will mean more notes (oils & chemicals, perfume alcohol, extra, larger maceration bottles), fixatives, glass beakers, stirring sticks, a special scale etc.

Still, the reason I'm on this page to begin with, is because that seems like a super cool hobby. I have tried so many fragrances that could've been nice if only one specific note hadn't been in there, or if they'd simply been stronger than an edt. And the search for the perfect vanilla fragrance is still going at age 45 (horror! I hate all the playdoh/ plastic doll heads vanilla or those that suddenly have 12 other notes), so I'm going to make my own.

Plus, as an eczema patient there are plenty times I can't use perfume. Perfume OILS however aren't an issue. If I create 30% edp strength oils then projection will improve too.

Okay, that's the end of my novel 😆. I hope you figure it all out!

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

I tend to smell my fragrances well for most of the day if they have good longevity but I have learned the dosing for most of my fragrances reasonably well.

For instance
Mousse Illuminee is 1-2 sprays max.
Ombre Leather 3-4 sprays and so on.

If you are honestly only wearing for yourself you can try an experiment one day... It may seem counterintuitive but put only a single spray on each wrist. Resist the urge to spray more. Throughout the day you will get wafts of your fragrance as you move. Your nose will be only occasionally stimulated by the scent so you will smell it more often, than if you spray more and run the risk of your nose tuning out the scent altogether. See how it goes and the next tIme maybe add one spray to your lower chest or abs if you feel it isn’t enough. See if you notice the scent more often during the day. Each fragrance will be different.

An important and often overlooked factor is if you feel your skin is dry you may be dehydrated. I found drinking more water helpful and it should help with fragrance longevity.

 

[RedRaider430]

Can't say that I notice ALL my fragrances when I wear them, but when it happens, I DO enjoy it.....especially when it's the perfect combination of strength (without being too much) and an absolutely fantastic scent that you know most everyone's going to love.

 

[Zenwannabee]

In short, I always do. And if not, as has been said above, I don’t wear them. That said, if I’m noticing a scent a bit too much, it’s also a note to self that I may have overdone it a bit, and a lesson for next time! 😎

Good advice already here. Good luck! 🍀

 

[FragSyndrome]

Of course! That’s why I wear them!
I’ve sold off all fragrances that I’m anosmic to.

 

[Pippin06]

Yes. I enjoy wafts of my fragrance for on average 8 to 10 hours. I am a light sprayer, and believe this has something to do with it, and I have never to my knowledge suffered olfactory fatigue in decades of wearing perfume. Like many others believe--less is more.

 

[hollywoodforever]

A watched pot never boils.

I can smell most of my perfumes in wafts for 8+ hours. All of my perfumes last on skin (nose to wrist) until I shower them off.

 

[_Nicolas_]

@Bauhaus

Try the moisturizer and then for where to spray - try the insides of your elbows and lower torso and see how that works.

THIS. I don't become anosmic to my fragrances often, but when I do, this is how I diagnose it! The fragrance will suddenly start to feel quite intense during the day when I do this. Sometimes I have to even resort to spraying the inside of my wrists!

 

[Pippin06]

@Bauhaus

Try the moisturizer and then for where to spray - try the insides of your elbows and lower torso and see how that works.

Spraying the lower back and back of knees works well in the warmer months too.

 

[PrinceRF]

I notice my scents throughout the day unless they are poor performers.

 

[Ken_Russell]

Aside from seconding both the olfactory fatigue aspects and also the possibilities mentioned so far to avoid/limit this (applying more, unscented moisturizer to increase performance etc.) generally and in spite of most obstacles, yes.