Perfume Etiquette

I'm walking through the halls at work and all of a sudden I get a choke out.....This lady walks by (not that she's nice to begin with anyway) and her perfume literally has me in tears and gasping for fresh air. How could she not know that she walks around with an overbearing scent that just puts any grown man down to his knees? Too top it off....it's like one of those old lady musky perfumes.....the  ones that give you a pounding headache....for hours.

I feel no matter how nice the perfume smells, over doing it on the number of sprays can make any classic scent a miss and leaving others despising that smell forever! (okay....not forever....but may leave them traumatized!... okay...maybe not that far either....but you get what I'm saying.)

  So ladies and gentleman….let's be careful on how many squirt/sprays we use. Ideally it is best to use 2-3 maximum. I use 3---> 1 on the wrist (then I dab them together…not rub) 1 on my neck, and 1 on my finger which I then use to dab behind each of my ears. (so, pretty much the pule points.) This technique has worked for me and keeps the scent consistent during the day without having to touch up. Years ago I would actually spray directly onto my clothes (which I now know is a big no-no....especially with higher concentrated perfumes. It can leave spot stains on them and ruin the clothing.) After an hour or so I would get immune to the smell and think that the scent faded into my shirt.... So, my 2-3 sprays would be more like 5....haha. I was that girl walking through the school halls....probably smelling like a typical body spray- obsessed teenager. *cringe* But all of my friends and I were into the whole "spray after each class period" and now looking back.......I feel bad for my parents having to put up with my cheap smelling self.

 As far as layering the same scented products, I don’t really care to do so. I tried that with 3 perfumes….and I felt like it was way too much. All I could smell was…….me....nothing else. I felt like I was walking in my own cloud of floral fields and everyone could stop to sniff me. But instead of using the same lotion/body wash, I just apply an unscented lotion to get my skin hydrated. After my skin is well moisturized then I apply whatever perfume it is that I choose that day. When I’m doing this whole process I make sure it’s at least 30 minutes before I go into work/dinner/anywhere. I don’t want to walk into some place and everyone’s like, “Whoa!! Tone down on the perfume, lady.” Thirty minutes gives me plenty of time to let the scent settle in and wear off where it’s just subtle and right.

There's also percentages in the concentration of perfume. If you're more into softer smells then look on the bottle and it'll say eau de cologne or toilette. For higher concentration and stronger scents then you'll want to get the eau de parfum. When I was younger it took me awhile to figure out the difference and I would always wonder why the Chanel perfume I had smelt lighter on me than on my friends. I always purchased the toilette/cologne perfumes (because they were cheaper...of course. What teenager is willing to spend close to $100 on some perfume?) But then I realized that my friends were those teenagers willing to spend the extra couple dollars and get the longer lasting perfumes.... Now I know. :)