There are several reasons why people can’t smell their own perfumes or colognes while wearing them: anosmia, nose fatigue, allergies, body chemistry, sinus injury, and dry skin. For the majority of people, nose fatigue is the reason they can’t smell perfume on themselves.

• Allergies can cause temporary loss of smell.
• Anosmia is the name for no sense of smell.
• Body Chemistry affects how long a fragrance lingers on you.
• Dry Skin can stop fragrances from wafting off of your body.
• Nose Fatigue is when your nose gets tired of a scent and can’t smell it anymore.
• Sinus Injury can damage your sense of smell.

How The Sense Of Smell Works

People can Smell scents by breathing in molecules through their noses. Tiny chemical particles called scent molecules are released by things that have a smell—like flowers, for instance—and those molecules travel through the air.

When people inhale those scent molecules, they are directed to the back of the sinus cavity where the olfactory membrane is.

The scent molecules land on scent receptors in the olfactory membrane, which are neurons that make a protein that binds to the scent molecules allowing the olfactory membrane to examine the molecule and send scent information to the brain.

Scent receptors are also called smell receptors and olfactory receptors.

When the brain receives the scent information, it matches it with previously smelled scents or catalogs it as a new smell. That’s how we recognize familiar scents and learn new ones.

Allergies

Allergies cause congestion, which prevents scent molecules from reaching the scent receptors in your nose. If your nose can’t find a scent, it can’t smell a scent.

Inflammation from allergies also affects your sense of smell. The inflammation doesn’t have to be severe to impair your olfactory senses. You might not feel sick or have difficulty breathing, but you can still have enough inflammation to affect olfaction, which is the process of smelling things.

Sometimes you can’t smell anything, and sometimes you can some things and not others. Depending on your allergies, your ability to smell can change during the course of a day, or it can change depending on the season.

One of the greatest downsides to having allergies is they can make sufferers very sensitive to fragrance, meaning some fragrances will trigger allergies and others won’t.

Which scents trigger allergies is different for everyone so trial and error is a necessity if you’re a fragrance lover. Most allergy sufferers will want to use mild-scented perfumes and colognes.

For Women: Vanilla Fields by Coty, Vanilla Musk by Coty, Emeraude by Coty, and Gardenia by Elizabeth Taylor are all good perfumes that many allergy sufferers can wear.

For Men: Aspen for Men by Coty, Coty Musk for Men, Green Irish Tweed by Creed, Cool Water for Men by Davidoff, and Sculpture Homme by Nikos are all good colognes that many allergy sufferers can wear.

*For Women and For Men are just categories to identify perfumes and make it easier to find them in a store. Wear whatever scents you like.

Anosmia: No Sense Of Smell

Anosmia is the name for having no sense of smell. Some people are born with this condition, and it’s permanent and usually incurable.

People can acquire anosmia from an illness like a cold, from allergies, or from an injury to the brain or sinuses. Depending on the cause of anosmia, a person’s sense of smell can return fully, not return at all, or return in a diminished capacity.

Some people can experience anosmia with some scents, but not others. For example, some people are very sensitive to musky odors, but others can’t smell them at all.

Body Chemistry and Perfume Tenacity

Everyone’s body chemistry is distinct. Because of that, perfume will perform differently on different people.

Some fragrances smell essentially the same on everyone, Cool Water for Men and Brut are good examples of that. Other perfumes can smell very different depending on the wearer. Shalimar and L’Aimant are 2 examples of perfumes that can wow or straight-up stink.

Perfume tenacity, or longevity, is another fragrance attribute that can change drastically depending on the wearer’s body chemistry.

Eau de Cologne(EdC) and Eau de Toilette(EdT) are the 2 most commonly bought perfume-dilution classes. Most people will get 2 – 4 hours of scent from an EdC and 4 – 6 hours of scent from an EdT; however, some people will get far more or much less use from them.

You might not be able to smell your perfume because your body evaporates it too fast. The only way to learn how a perfume will perform with your body chemistry is to try it.

Here are a few ways to make the perfume you wear last longer.

• Layer your fragrances. If you have complementary beauty products like soap, shower gel, or body lotion with your perfume’s scent, use them.
• Use moisturizer. This will help trap your perfume and make the scent last longer. Apply moisturizer first, let it soak into your skin, and then apply your perfume.
• Spray perfume on your clothes, hair, and underclothes. Putting perfume on these areas will slow its evaporation and make the scent last longer. Just be careful not to overdo it. Too much perfume will negatively impact your social life.
• Use a stronger concentration. A higher concentration means more perfume oils, which means a stronger longer-lasting scent. Bear in mind that a higher concentration of perfume can be too strong for certain situations like an office setting or a funeral. Also, if you typically wear an eau de toilette and switch to parfum, the scent will be a little different even if it’s the same perfume. For example, Shalimar’s eau de toilette has stronger floral notes and lighter animalic notes than Shalimar’s eau de parfum.

Dry Skin Could Be Stealing Your Scent

Perfume relies on body heat and the natural oils in your skin to give off scent over a period of time. As your body heats the perfume, it evaporates into the air creating a scent cloud around you. The oils in your skin hold on to perfume so this evaporative process is balanced.

Dry skin doesn’t have enough oil to hold on to your fragrance, and your perfume evaporates very quickly taking all that lovely scent with it.

Here are some ways to improve your skin’s moisture and make your perfume last longer.

1. Use an unscented lotion, or one that has a complementary scent to your perfume, before applying your fragrance. This will help keep your perfume from evaporating too quickly.
2. Use perfume oil. Perfume oils don’t have any alcohol that can worsen dry skin, and they have a higher concentration of pure-perfume oil so the scent is strong and long-lasting.
3. Don’t bathe too often. Bathing too much will strip the natural oils from your skin.
4. Turn down the heat. Don’t bathe in hot water. Heat strips oil from your skin. Bathe in warm water.
5. Use mild soaps and shower gels that have moisturizer in them. Avoid using soaps that contain alcohol or are strongly perfumed.
6. Don’t scrub your skin when bathing. Scrubbing worsens dryness. Be gentle with your skin, it will thank you.
7. Pat skin dry after bathing. Patting is gentler on the skin than rubbing.
8. Use mild-scented, or unscented, laundry soap and fabric softeners. Look for products that are hypoallergenic; they’re kinder to your skin.

Nose Fatigue

Nose fatigue is also known as nose blindness and olfactory adaptation. For the majority of people, nose fatigue is the reason they stop smelling their perfume or cologne.

The human brain is designed to monitor environmental stimuli on a constant basis. The brain uses all 5 senses for this purpose. This activity is necessary for self-protection. Being able to smell smoke or spoiled food can save your life.

When the brain encounters a harmless scent that it’s familiar with, it will stop paying attention to it. In other words, you will stop smelling the fragrance because it’s not a threat and doesn’t require action from you to protect yourself.

Going nose blind to your perfume is perfectly natural, but there are a couple of things you can do to get your nose to smell your favorite perfume again.

• Rotate your fragrances. This is a great excuse to buy more perfume. Constantly changing your fragrance keeps your nose interested in the perfumes you wear.
• Don’t wear your perfume too close to your nose. Try applying your perfume or cologne to your wrists and mid-chest area. This will keep the fragrance from bombarding your nose, and you’ll likely be able to get whiffs of your perfume throughout the day.

Sinus Injuries Can Damage Your Sense of Smell

Sinus infections, sinus surgeries, injuries to the sinuses, and brain injuries can temporarily or permanently damage your sense of smell.

A brain injury can stop olfactory information from traveling between the olfactory membrane and the brain. This type of injury can also damage parts of the brain that decipher olfactory information.

Medical conditions affecting the sinuses can cause inflammation in the sinus tissue or create scarring, which can negatively affect your sense of smell.

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