A Wren Says

From six feet away, I could smell him as he sat down in the coffee shop. I pulled up a parking spot and could already smell the driver who sat in his car a full car length away from me. And there was the person I could smell on a cold winter’s day, still yelling distance away. Most offensively, at the gym as I already struggled for air during cardio, yet another offender emerged.

Here’s the thing, as much as I enjoy fragrances, I don’t want to smell yours.

Fragrance is personal. I should have to enter into your personal space to smell you. I should be close enough to give you a handshake. Or preferably leaning in for a hug.

I don’t want the smell of your fragrance to be something that I can taste, at all, but definitely not when I’m a booth away trying to enjoy the meal I just paid for. For sure, we should be mindful people who have asthma or allergies that make them more sensitive to fragrances. But beyond that, I just want to have a choice the smell you or not. To leave your scent cloud should take just a few steps back rather than an escape route to leave the room altogether. And typically, if I can smell you from that far away, it’s not a scent that I enjoy. Or at least that’s been my experience.

We wear fragrances to smell good. Many of us want other people to think we smell good, too. But how about we not force the issue?