HELP! Wife has hyper sniffer!

I always love good cologne or aftershave, but my problem is my wife has a nose that can detect what someone is cooking 100 miles away. So if I apply cologne or aftershave in the house, she can't stand it. So to keep harmony in the household I usually keep a bottle of cologne in my car and apply it on my way to work.

The problem with this is if I want to change up what scent I am wearing I have to carry a bottle out with me and then carry a bottle in with me when I get home. To say this is a hassle is an understatement.

How have you guys handled a wife who coughes and has issue with what she calles "strong scents"? The ironic part of it, is I have had so many compliments from both men and women I work with over the years about how well I smell.

My wife also owns a sensitive sniffer. I have pretty much avoided colognes. When I use an aftershave it is purely for the temporary cooling and soothing effect because I jump into the shower immediately after my shaves and wash the stuff off so as not to offend Mrs. Straight Arrow's olfactory senses.

TheGrooveking said:

I always love good cologne or aftershave, but my problem is my wife has a nose that can detect was someone is cooking 100 miles away. So if apply cologne or aftershave in the house she can't stand it. So to keep harmony in the household I usually keep a bottle of cologne in my car and apply it on my way to work.

The problem with this is if I want to change up what scent I am wearing I have to carry a bottle out with me and then carry a bottle in with me when I get home. To say this is a hassle is an understatement.

How have you guys handled a wife who coughes and has issue with what she calles "strong scents"? The ironic part of it, is I have had so many compliments from both men and women I work with over the years about how well I smell.

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good sniffer I guess

I have a similar problem in that certain smells make my wife feel claustrophobic. For example, years ago I bought a "green" insect spray that was mostly eucalyptus oil. I sprayed it on some ants that had gotten into our garbage in the condo we used to live in. Minutes later, my wife was in crying hysterics, outside our front door in the breezeway in her pyjamas. Needless to say, we threw that can of spray out. I've not bothered bringing anything else that even mildly smells of eucalyptus into the house.

So far, I've been very lucky. She likes the Penhaligon's Castile (that I absolutely adore), and she's not yet objected to any of the other shaving/aftershave products that I've brought in.

Same problem here, my wife gets a headache when I use Blenheim Boquet, too bad. It smells really good.

Try something citrussy. I love Floris Limes. The scent is very clean and nice, it's not overpowering at all - you can bathe in it, I think. Florals tend to give me headaches. Citrus never does.

You could maybe try and ask her what smells she likes, and if that goes well encourage her to buy (or let you know) an aftershave that she likes... then hope you like it too.

Mr_Eval said:

You could maybe try and ask her what smells she likes, and if that goes well encourage her to buy (or let you know) an aftershave that she likes... then hope you like it too.

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I've done this, even though she likes the smell of much of what I use, she says it's just too powerful when I put it on and then the whole house smells like it.

Or...put it on only when you're headed out of the house! (My wife is the same way)

I too have a sensitive nose. Some of the perfume my wife uses is an assult to the senses. Natural oils seem not to bother me. In some colognes I have smelled I can detect a petrolium base. Perhaps eliminating synthetic constituants could help.

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity; in broad terms it means an unusually severe sensitivity or allergy-like reaction to many different kinds of pollutants including solvents, VOC's (Volatile Organic Compounds), perfumes, petrol, diesel, smoke, "chemicals" in general and often encompasses problems with regard to pollen, house dust mites, and pet fur & dander.

Multiple chemical sensitivity unlike true allergies - where the underlying mechanisms of the problem are relatively well understood widely accepted, is generally regarded as "idiopathic" - meaning that it has no known mechanism of causation & it's processes are not fully understood.

The problem here is made more difficult still, due to the variable nature of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity from one patient to the next & this often makes treatment with conventional medicine & practices ineffective or inappropriate; for most sufferers with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, the avoidance of pollutants/toxicants is the key.

What CAN be said about defining Multiple Chemical Sensitivity - and in order to help the patient decide whether they truly have MCS or another allergy-related illness - is that the following deciding criteria apply to Multiple Chemical Sensitivity:
the patient exhibits problems - often an allergy-like reaction - to both large - often extremely low levels of irritants/toxicants/triggers : other individuals present at the same time may be unable to detect anything at all or anything unusual or out of the ordinary.
the problem is ongoing, ie. chronic, and not a "one-off" event.
the same symptoms are reproducible with repeated exposure to the same triggers.
the patient is affected by many different triggers.
the patient improves when triggers are absent.


The symptoms of multiple chemical sensitivity:

The possible list of symptoms of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity is almost endless - varies from one patient to the next. Also worthy of mention here is the fact that there is no sharp demarcation between the symptoms of MCS and those of ME/CFS/CFIDS/PVFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis - chronic fatigue), but that most sufferers of MCS complain of at least several of the following:

burning, stinging eyes
wheezing, breathlessness nausea
extreme fatigue/lethargy
headache/migraine/vertigo/dizziness
poor memory & concentration
runny nose (rhinitis)
sore throat, cough
sinus problems
skin rashes and/or itching skin
sensitivity to light & noise
sleeping problems
digestive upset
muscle & joint pain.

Quick question: Does your aftershave/cologne smell strong and overwhelming to you as well?

Someone once told me that Gendarme was hypoallergenic. I don't know whether I believe it or not, but if I had to compare it to all other fragrances, I'd say it's about the most inoffensive scent you're going to find. Supposedly, a lot of politicians wear it. I've owned and loved my bottles of it since I started collecting fragrances, and I doubt I'll ever get tired of it. Gendarme 20 is also awesome, and is pretty much just like Gendarme, but with a nice clean lavender top note. My mom is particularly sensitive to fragrance, and she almost convinced herself to get a bottle of 20, but ultimately decided it was a bit too masculine.

Ru4scuba? said:

Or...put it on only when you're headed out of the house! (My wife is the same way)

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That's my scheme...and as much as I love it, I wouldn't suggest Clubman...

I have the opposite problem! Wife can smell very little, except beer, she can smell beer...

muddy250 said:

Wife can smell very little, except beer, she can smell beer...

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And your a Yorkshireman? Oh dear.

Decant...

into one of these...

Zen Master Kool-Aid said:

Decant...

into one of these...

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Dude - I love you.

They used to sell those exact same atomizers at Nordstrom, until about six or eight months ago, when they switched styles to a more expensive and less attractive style. I've got about 30 of the original style that I keep my favorite fragrances in for travel. Well, after they changed styles, my whole notion of consistency was gone - the new kind didn't even fit into the special holding box that I had searched for so long to find!

So I'll be ordering several of these! - Thank you so much for alerting me to their availability!

Scentronic said:

Thank you so much for alerting me to their availability!

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All in a days work.

Yeah my wife seems to be sensitive to most colognes that I like and, as luck would have it, seems to think that the ones I don't like 'smell nice'. *sigh* She does love the smell of Proraro pre/post though which is good.