Scents & Sensitivity

[chomiji]

Today and yesterday were both warm as all get-out (for January, anyway), but there was a cold spell before that, which meant my skin got dry, which meant I had to break out the lotion etc.

Which brought me face-to-face (or perhaps arm-to-arm, since I'm OK for facial moisturizer for the moment) with the fact that I'm running out of my two favorite products, and I know that one of them has been entirely discontinued, and I'm starting to worry about the other one. I could probably do quite well with unscented stuff billed as hypoallergenic, but I like the idea of nice-smelling stuff to smear on. The problem is, so many scents and scented products give me problems of various sorts.

I used to use Thymes Green Tea lotion, which despite its name actually smells of rose as much as it smells of anything. But it's a very light scent. I have about half an inch left in the bottom of my last bottle (I also have a little perfume rollerball tube to go with it). The other thing I have been using is Origins Ginger Souffle. Origins makes a perfume to go with it, Ginger Essence, which they bill as unisex. It supposedly has ginger, bergamot, amalfi lemon, and lime, and I wear it sometimes. Their Website currently says that they are out of the souffle and don't know when they'll have more, which rather worries me. These products feel good on my skin, I like the scents - and they don't give me a headache.

I have some Aveeno, which is OK most of the time: not much of a scent, but it usually doesn't bother my skin. Maybe I'll try one of their hypoallergenic products. I bought some Shikai Coconut lotion last year, and still have most of it left. It smells OK - rather too sweet - and sometimes it makes my skin tingle and seem to be about to itch: it just feels sensitive.

So the Body Shop (which has a store more or less next to my office) was having a huge post holiday sale, and I bought two types of body butter to try. The Ruby Red Grapefruit smells wonderful, but I have been getting a bit of the same skin discomfort that I get with the Shikai lotion. The Shea Butter ... I will probably have to throw it out, or something. It has some kind of very strong scent that I associate with men's products and magazine product card samples. It was sort of evergreen-ish. It got in the back of my throat and stayed there all day, and I also felt headache-y. I think part of the problem is that it got onto my pullover sweater when I was putting it on in the morning.

The experience with the last product got me reading online about fragrance sensitivities. It looks like there are several fragrance elements that are frequently tagged as problematic that might be giving me issues. One of them is oak moss, which shows up in a number of men's products (but also in some women's and unisex fragrances). Others include balsam of Peru, citronella, narcissus, patchouli, sage, thyme, vetiver, and ylang ylang. I also might have problems with jasmine (although I like some perfumes that use it) and tuberose.

The funny thing is, I quite like thyme and sage in food, but I guess that's different from having the oil on your skin for hours. Also, I like to sniff narcissus flowers ... but a lot of them in close quarters do give me a headache.

What rather distressed me was the number of people online who were ranting about and mocking people who were sensitive to fragrances. They don't have issues, so obviously other people are making this up: all these people who are complaining about perfumes making them sick clearly just "don't like" the smells and are trying to take away others' right to wear whatever they please.

The funny thing about this is, I think most of them would (perhaps grudgingly) agree that it was possible to play music that others didn't like too loudly in a workplace or public space. They would, I would guess, agree that they might have to use headphones or turn the music way down so that others could concentrate. But somehow a smell - gosh, how could that affect anyone? And yet just as with hearing, there's no easy way to shut out a scent: neither ears nor noses have the equivalent of eyelids. And at least with sound, you might be able to wear your own headphones or shut a door ... but when a scent is drifting all through a closed space, what is one supposed to do? Wear a gas mask?

I actually had to speak to our building services folks about a product that the cleaning staff was using on the floors sometimes. They apologized and said that they thought it would smell nicer .. in other words, it was scented on purpose. But they did switch to something that just smelled like a cleaning product, and it fades away much faster and doesn't bother me nearly as much. Thank God none of my co-workers insists on wearing any sort of heavy perfume.

I guess scent is such a personal thing that the idea that someone would react negatively to it is insulting to some. But like smoking, it's not confined just to your own immediate area: it gets around, and it really can make others sick. There are scents and fumes that feel like an attack on my head: it feels like a spike running up each nostril right into my brain. And I have had quite a lot of various types of pain in my life: I am not exaggerating it when I say that this sensation can really mess me up for a while. One of the sites I was reading points out that the pathways between the inside of your nose/sinuses and your brain are about the shortest in your body, so maybe my mental image of the spikes going up into my brain are not so far off.

On to happier things: the searches I was going also led me to Frangrantica, where I have been having fun with the "search by fragrance note" feature. The trouble is, it's clearly the amounts of the scent elements as well as their presence that makes a difference. One of the perfumes that came up when I was picking notes - bergamot, lily of the valley, green tea - was Bulgari's The Vert. I tried that this afternoon at Sephora, where I was buying my hair stuff. Meh. It didn't give me a headache, but the citrus top notes were overwhelming ... and I like citrus. The drydown does remind me a lot of my beloved Thymes Green Tea, though. (If anyone's curious, here's Fragrantica's full list of notes for it: Top notes are coriander, orange blossom, mandarin orange, bergamot, cardamom and lemon; middle notes are jasmine, lily-of-the-valley and bulgarian rose; base notes are sandalwood, amber, musk, green tea, precious woods and cedar. .)

I also tried some of Lush's skin lotions today, but I wasn't too wowed by how any of them smelled, and the one I liked best - Coco Lotion - was giving me the prickly-sensitive feeling by the time I got home. So the heck with that - if I want a chance of that discomfort, I can get it cheaper than $21.95 for for not quite 8 oz.

So, the quest for the perfect cho body lotion/butter goes on.

Manually crossposted because I forgot again ... .

Comments

[neotoma]

I use a locally produced raw shea butter to pretty good effect. I can try digging it out -- I haven't needed to use it this year, what with the mild weather -- and see who the maker is.

all these people who are complaining about perfumes making them sick clearly just "don't like" the smells and are trying to take away others' right to wear whatever they please.

Oh that sort of thinking pisses me right off, because it's close to the sort of thinking that says "So-and-so can't really be allergic to walnuts. They just don't like them. I'll prove it by sneaking some into the next batch of cookies I bring to the office potluck."

I'm mean, I'm fortunate in that I don't seem to have any delibating sensitivities to scent, but I am certainly repelled by certain fragrances, especially when they're applied with a heavy hand, and that's bad enough.

[chomiji]

I have some unrefined shea butter from a women's collective (or something of that sort) in Africa - I did some research online and found it at Whole Foods. I use it on my feet - I recently developed a tendency toward heel cracks (I use a urea cream as well, to soften up the calluses). But it's solid at room temperature: I have to scrape off a bit and rub it between my fingers until it softens. If I want to use it over a large area of skin, it would take rather a long time ... . Is your product soft from the get-go?

The problem isn't so much finding anything at all that works (which I understand can be a real issue for a lot of people) as it is trying to find something that I enjoy using.

Yes, some people really take things like that personally in a remarkably self-centered way!

[blueraccoon]

I don't know how it is for sensitive skin, but i *love* the scent of Bliss's lemon+sage body butter. It's a good lotion and the scent is strong but doesn't last very long, so if you like citrus, that might be one to consider. You can find it at Sephora. I also love their hand cream, which is among the best I've ever tried. However, the hand cream has parabens in it so I don't know how you feel about that sort of thing.

If you prefer a more natural line, I point you to Aveda, which has a really good "Replenishing Body Moisturizer" that I like the scent of, and again, it's not overpowering. Aveda is all plants-based so there probably won't be any harsh chemicals in it to bother your skin, if that matters to you. You can get the moisturizer in a trial size, too.

I am really sensitive to scents, which is why I almost never wear perfume, but I do like scented body wash and body lotion like you. My health club's spa sells--or used to sell, I haven't looked for it lately--a really great lemongrass-scented lotion that was also a really good lotion, but I don't know the brand. I can look it up if you're interested?

[chomiji]

That lemon stuff does sound nice. Next time I'm at Sephora, I'll have to grit my teeth and talk moisturizers. It's not that they don't have nice salespeople, but I always feel like such a fish out of water there (I almost never wear makeup, and I've let my hair go back to its natural grey). It makes me very shy. I usually just grab my hair products and go.

(We will speak some other time of the inconsistencies in the fact that I like jewelry and good-smelling stuff but can't deal with makeup in general and have very little patience for the idea of clothing as anything other than comfortable and in some color I like ... my little cat-ears icon is pretty accurate.)

[rachel_riecheru]

I have sensitive skin, so fragrances aren't an issue. But I dislike smelling like a floral bunch of flowers. I can't use anything that will agitate my skin or I'll break out with heat rash or something like that. I can recommend only 2 hand creams that might work. One is scentless and I can highly recommend it as you can use it anywhere on your body and its very gentle and does the job.

http://www.cetaphil.com.au/Products/RestoradermBodyMoisturiser.aspx

The other one has a very strong scent of eucalyptus which is quiet strong but is also very gentle on hands. Although I think the smell might be a bit much as its pretty potent :( I can't find a link to it on the website but its called Nuskin (thats the products brand.)

I'm glad to hear you don't have any co-workers that use very perfumes I'd really hate that personally. I got mad at my co-worker once who sprayed himself with Lynx deodorant (which reeks.) Right at our cubicle. I was epic pissed off with him and told him next time to do it in the bathroom.

Hope you can find something that suits all your needs.

[chomiji]

Heh, we have similar problems over here with young men dowsing themselves with a deodorant called Ax, which comes in a variety of puketastic supposedly macho scents. (And ewww, who puts on deodorant in a shared/public space!)

Yesterday, I got some unscented Aveeno, which is an oatmeal-based lotion that's popular over here and comes in a number of variants. I tried some this morning, and it was OK in terms of irritation. So I can fall back on that ... but I'm still hoping to find something that has a pleasant smell as well!

[erika]

Oh god, I hear you so hard on the fragrance sensitivity thing. It's the absolutely surest and fastest way to trigger a migraine for me.

Even just getting a couple whiffs of a few things that I'm sensitive to can do it. :( This makes testing out new products really ... not good.

My mom has it worse, but we're sensitive to the same things, so that's handy, at least--I can usually tell if something is going to trigger a reaction in either of us. But for example, I literally just went into Bath & Body Works, did NOT smell anything intentionally, picked up two items that I then bought for my sister, and walked out, and that was enough to trigger a migraine.

[chomiji]

Yikes ... I'm so glad I don't have migraines, and I'm so sorry that you do. My mom (may she rest in peace) had them, and so do several other online friends. Thank goodness, my headaches from products usually respond to getting away from the stimulus, taking aspirin or ibuprofen, and closing my eyes for a while ... but that's not always an option at the office.

I have easily a dozen bottles/jars of products I've tried and couldn't really use, most just sitting around (shampoos as well). I have to figure out what to do with them ... I'd like to recycle the containers. The problem is that putting a small amount on at the store works for testing for irritation, but not so much for the scent, because it's not really enough to simulate what wearing it all day would be like.