How To Smell Good Without Using Perfume


Peonies are one of my favourite scents, along with lily of the valley and sandalwood.

   This post is dedicated to everyone who loves to smell nice but doesn't want to wear perfume. I'm sharing all the different ways to I use scents without necessarily using perfume.

   Pregnancy left me with an extremely sensitive sense of smell. Regular smells can get overwhelming, especially if I am tired. Perfumes can be worse. Don't get me wrong, I do love a hint of perfume on someone, a gentle note that blends seamlessly with their own scent. But anything more than that and I feel like it's hitting me. Regular fragrances often have a chemical note that makes them unpleasant, and a lot of natural perfumes are heavy and annoying.
   Personal preferences and sensitive notes aside, I believe that it is in good taste to wear nothing more than a touch of perfume. It should be detectable to those who lean in to you for a hug, like a secret surprise. And people don't want to smell like your perfume for the rest of the day after you hug them.

   If you love and use perfume, great! Just remember the perfume etiquette: that less is more. There are people actually getting sick from it. And remember that heat and physical exertion intensify perfumes, so wear less in the summer and none to the gym. Be aware that sweet and fruity perfumes are "loud", so you need to be especially careful with them. Clean and fresh scents and the mossy scents are much "quieter".

How to dilute perfume

   When I do use a perfume, I have developed a way to make it very subtle. First, I mix the essential-oil based ones with (alcohol 1:10) to lighten the scent. Then, I spray the perfume in front of me and walk into the mist. I found that I don't like having the perfume anywhere my face, so I spray the mist at chest level.
  Alternatively, apply perfume to the back of your knees. It will waft up every now and the.

How to smell good without perfume:

I found a couple of ways to do this.

Your hair and body products might be fragrant enough. A friend of mine told me several times that I smelled good, when the only thing I used that day was Alverde conditioner. I couldn't smell it any more but those around me could, so I didn't need anything more. I find that many certified natural products have nice, subtle scents. I love the rose products from Weleda and Dr Hauschka, they smell like actual roses and not cloyingly sweet. If they are certified natural, they do not contain synthetic fragrances which are really problematic as the ingredients are by large not regulated.

I often use oils as scents. My favourite is the plum seed oil which smells a bit like almonds. I'm also a huge fan of a Monoi oil I have which contains Tahitian Gardenia flower extract -- it smells like a dream. I use very little of each on the ends of my hair.

Have you ever tried using actual flowers and herbs? In Persepolis the girl's grandmother tucks jasmine flowers into her bra to smell nice. Putting scented herbs or dry flowers like lavender in your pockets will make your hands smell nice.

The scent of hydrolates is very subtle and very close to that of the real plant. Rose water, neroli, lavender are some of my favourites. A spritz on the skin and hair is refreshing and leaves behind a subtle scent.

Essential oils on their own can be pretty strong, so I dilute them. I add a drop or two of fragrant essential oils into my face and body oils. Sandalwood is my favourite, I generally find mossy and woody scents less annoying.
Scented smoke stays on the hair and skin for a very long time. I read about middle-eastern women wafting scented smoke through their hair, and I wanted to try something similar. It works really well with Palo Santo and sandal wood. I tried it with sage but there is too much burn/smoke smell to my liking.I also like to burn incense and resins it my home since I find that the scents of people's homes lingers on their skin and clothes.

Scenting your clothes instead of your skin always works. I add a few drops of natural laundry scent into my washing machine. Sometimes I mist my clean laundry with a home-made laundry spray -- a few drops of essential oils + alcohol + distilled water. I store my soaps nestled among my clothes. Finally, something amazing I have recently discovered is Papier D'Armenie. I keep strips in my wardrobe and from time to time burn a strip near my wardrobe. I swear the scent from these little strips lasts longer than anything else.

Finally, eating clean healthy diet and staying hydrated makes the natural body smell better. A strong body odour is always a sign that something isn't right with what you are putting into your body.

What is your approach to scents? Do you prefer perfume or do you use on of the methods I describe here? What are your favourite scents?

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