Perfumes for Sensory Overload: Clean, Freshly Showered Scents

Maybe you’ve experienced this yourself before: your day has been absolutely terrible, you’re irritated and just want to go home. You get on the train. And suddenly someone squeezes in next to you, carrying a penetrating cloud of fragrance – your stomach tightens for a moment and your head starts to throb. Completely unpleasant, right? People who are sensitive to fragrance experience this very frequently. They react more strongly to smells, which in some cases leads to sensory overload – an overstimulation. What then happens in the body varies. Some people, for example, get headaches; in others, the smells trigger nausea. But where does scent sensitivity come from, and what are the causes? Two factors play a major role here:

Perfume is not always the cause of sensory overload. Certain physical factors can also make people react more sensitively to smells. These include:

• stress and lack of sleep: Just think back to our example on the train. When your body is struggling, resilience drops – and your nose becomes more sensitive.
  
  
• migraine and headache sensitivity: Headaches or migraine attacks are often triggered by external stimuli – including smells. Perfume-induced migraines are therefore not a rare phenomenon among scent-sensitive people.
  
  
• high sensitivity and neurodivergence: This is where the term sensory overload comes into play, now commonly used to describe a general feeling of overstimulation. For neurodivergent people (e.g. ADHD or autism), smells can trigger strong physical reactions such as nausea or dizziness, as well as emotional responses like anxiety or a feeling of constriction.
  
  
• pregnancy: Extreme hormonal changes often alter the sense of smell or make it more sensitive.

That said, scent-sensitive people don’t have to keep their hands off perfume bottles altogether: there are various fragrances that are easier to tolerate for those with scent sensitivity. You’ll learn how to identify these creations in the next chapter.

Light fragrances are the best friends of scent-sensitive people. This is often due to the fragrance notes. Bright nuances that give you a freshly showered perfume experience include:

• citrus: bergamot, mandarin, neroli
• musk: clean musk, white musk
• fresh laundry: linen or cotton accords that smell like freshly washed laundry
• light floral notes: orange blossom, delicate rose, peach blossom, lily of the valley
• aquatic notes: aldehydes, salty notes, melon
• molecular fragrances such as Iso E Super

Important: when browsing, pay attention to the fragrance concentration. There are also perfumes with light notes that nevertheless have a high proportion of fragrance oils. In those cases, a delicate blossom can quickly turn into a floral explosion that may overstimulate your senses.

Even the cleanest fragrance can feel intrusive if you apply it the wrong way. We’ve collected the best tips to make sure your sensitive nose actually enjoys your perfume:

• Apply your perfume in fresh air – ideally on a balcony. Or stand by an open window. This prevents the scent from lingering in the room.
  
  

• Use only 1–2 sprays on your wrists. Other pulse points like the neck or behind the ears bring the fragrance closer to your nose – which could be too much.
  
  

• Test how perfume develops on your clothing. Some scent-sensitive people like the effect of not wearing fragrance directly on the skin. And if you spray perfume on a cardigan or scarf, you can even take it off if it becomes too much. For others, fragrance on clothing feels more intrusive because it can smell stronger and fade more slowly – just try what works for you.
  
  

• Heat amplifies the projection of fragrance molecules. The scent becomes stronger, which means: on very hot summer days or during exercise, you should reduce the number of sprays or avoid perfume altogether if you react sensitively to smells.