I love perfumes, but I'm also highly sensitive to strong fragrances of all kinds, including fabric softner, soaps and detergents and other cleaning agents, as well as many cosmetics. Finding a scent becomes a challenge.

With some, I can tell immediately they'll disagree with me, but I have to wear a perfume for at least an hour before I'll know how it will smell on me. Two hours is better. Body chemistry can change a scent dramatically and, unfortunately, the majority of scents begin to smell rancid on me after a short time.

I also stick to old fashioned fragrances. Newer ones have chemicals in them to make them last longer and smell stronger. If I can smell a person from across the room or if they leave their scent behind them when they leave they smell too strong and will probably offend anyone with chemical sensitivity as well as anyone who just doesn't like that scent.

Unless you're really close to me, as in touching close, I don't want you to be able to smell me and I don't want to smell you. I currently use two scents that are most widely marketed to men, but they have flower and spice tones. I perceive them as sweet-smelling. Men's fragrances are usually not as potent as women's and that's precisely why I like them. I also have matching body washes and the rest of my lotions and potions are unscented. Combining too many different scents can .... well, raise a stink.

If you're a hugger, you might consider spraying or dabbing perfume on your legs and feet and on the very back if your neck instead of behind your ears, on the front and sides of your neck or wrists. That way you won't be leaving your scent on other people, but if someone is really close to you the scent will rise up nicely if things warm up.

Here is SnakeCharmers helpful hint to aid the sisterhood: Never ever ... ever ever ... use your perfume to cover up unpleasant bathroom odors. If you do, your signature scent will begin to remind the people around you of fresh manure in a field of wild flowers , something my college roommate discovered to her horror when her boyfriend discreetly offered her some Gas-X tablets because, to him, she smelled of perfume and flatulence. Smells are very associative and he started associating her perfume with bathroom smells. She changed perfumes and boyfriends and lived okay ever after.