I'm allergic to your intolerance...!

I wear fragrance immoderately pretty much every day, and so far no one has reached for the epi-pen.

My understanding is that most people find most ingredients used in most perfumes manufactured today pretty benign. The ingredients are intensively tested and regulated. In most cases the same chemicals (and more) are present in innumerable functional products. I think the worst I've heard of reactions to commonly used fragrance ingredients is contact dermatitis and headaches. And these reactions occur only if the fragrance is directly, copiously and continually applied. This I believe could be termed a "sensitivity" to scents.

In his pop-sci toned tome "What the Nose Knows", Avery Gilbert reports on some interesting studies of perfume reactions.

Sometimes +more variety+ can be a solution! Taking the time to make a sensitive and observational case-by-case approach makes a good deal of sense to me. It's very important to vary application volumes, methods and sites for different scents!

I don't know anyone else who has such a low level of fragranced products for home and self care as myself. This is deliberate: I want to enjoy my chosen fragrance uninterrupted by layering with ocean breeze laundry liquid residue in my clothes and floral face cream and so on...

Myself, I *dislike* the assault of aggressively *Clean!* smells in supermarket washing product aisles, but I don't go to supermarkets. Problem solved. I am not a fan of the peach puff machine in public restrooms or the dangling pine tree "air fresheners" in taxi cabs, but I do recognise that it's a dislike and nothing more :-)

Language used can be pretty unclear (and dramatic) around this issue. If the situation or relationship warrants it, some gentle inquiries might help tease out the differences between a response that could legitimately be called an allergy, as distinct from an intolerance or an irritation or sensitivity. And then of course there is merely disliking something... You could ask: What are the symptoms? Is the response systemic or localised? What levels of exposure or proximity are required for there to be a reaction? How long does the response last?