How to always smell good

As a teen, I wanted to be like the popular girls — specifically to have certain things figured out. I struggled as an autistic teen growing up to figure things out myself, and neglectful parents only increased my struggles.

I wanted to be one of those girls who smell good when they walk past and leave that kind of impression.

Now, I like smelling good or like nothing — especially as a cat mom.

I figured it out, so here are my tips.

1. Practice good body hygiene.

Showering at night helps keep your sheets free of dirt and pollen, whereas waiting until morning means sleeping in dirty sheets.

Create a boundary for yourself where you don’t go to bed in dirty sheets as much as you can. Some days, I don’t shower — but I didn’t go outside that day, either.

Make a habit of showering if you know you’re going out the next day.

Reduce sweating

Infrequent bathing builds up oils and dirt on your skin, which can contribute to increased sweating.

What you do before bed, the foods you eat, and even whether you’re a hot sleeper all play a part in night sweating.

A quick shower when you awake where you wash your body helps rid you of the sweat smell. I do this more during hotter months; takes me about 5 minutes.

Hair

Wash your hair as it needs to be washed, based on your lifestyle. Daily washing might be redundant for you, but not if your day-old hair smells like week-old football jock socks due to your sweating.

It’s nothing to be embarrassed about — wash it. ✨

Some dry shampoos work better than others. OUAI Super Dry Shampoo was THE ABSOLUTE BEST. It’s discontinued. 😭

COLAB Dry Shampoo works as a nice replacement, though there’s no foam.

Use bar soap

Bar soap works better at removing dirt and oils from your skin than liquid body wash; the fragrance also lasts longer.

Because there aren’t as many “extra” ingredients in bar soap, you’re not loading your skin up with chemicals it doesn’t know what to do with. (Not bashing chemicals here.)

Body wash ingredients can negatively affect your body’s pH more than bar soap ingredients, which affect the way your body smells naturally.

Highly fragrant body washes smell good on the surface, but they fade fast instead of lasting.

You can still enjoy body wash on occasion — I love lavender body wash when I need a good rest — but bar soaps are superior in regard to smelling great on a regular basis.

Shave excess body hair

I have little to no hair on my skin. Hair tends to make you sweat more, adds warmth — contributes to bad smells.

I also shave because I loathe the sensory input of body hair. I’m not shaming people who have it. 💁‍♀️

2. Moisturize after your shower.

I occasionally use lightly-scented lotion and often use a scented body butter.

Body butters keep my skin hydrated longer, and the scent lasts all day long. I love getting a whiff of the body butter at random throughout the day.

Since I sweat at night during hotter months/days, I don’t do this much during the summer.

3. Reconsider your deodorant

My body went through the “detox” process when I switched to organic deodorant, and that was horrific. Never had I ever smelled worse.

After that, though, the natural deodorant helped me way more than typical stick deodorants. I used to have red dots all over my armpits that made me smell bad and even worse when sweating. Switching to a natural deodorant fixed this for me. 🤷‍♀️

This isn’t the case for everyone. Even if you don’t have a sensitivity to traditional deodorant, maybe you need a different brand or scent.

A guy I knew used women’s deodorant because the masculine deodorant increased his musky scent. I’ve also met women who use men’s deodorant.

I have this Shea Moisture Whole Body Deo Cream in Coconut & Hibiscus that covers up sweat-related scents fairly nicely, especially in the inner thigh region. 🧐 It also helps with chafing when I wear short shorts.~

I don’t always wear deodorant, and it works for me. Figure out what works for you and do that.

4. Use scented wax melts (in your room)

Or essential oil scent plug-ins. Even when I use unscented laundry detergent, my clothes absorb the scents in my room.

I used to spray things with Febreeze, but this irritated my asthma and allergies. I leave my closet door open, so the scented air wafts where my clothes are. The scent is extremely light on my clothes, so it’s not too overpowering.

5. Use a body spray or perfume.

Find a long-lasting one. My signature scent is Comptoir Sud Pacifique in Vanilla Abricot.

That was out last refill, so Amazon substituted with Vanilla Extreme. Both only take ONE spray, this one smells like Trader Joe’s vanilla bean scones, and it all day — even when I sweat.

6. Never wear the same clothes twice

Everything you wear, make sure it’s clean. Few things, like sweaters and similar tops, may be worn again.

My dream wardrobe = having enough clothes that I can get through 14 days’ worth minimum without doing laundry if needed.

Wearing clean clothes really makes a difference.

I never wear the same clothes I wore that day to bed, nor the same clothes I slept in (except the undies, unless I sweat too much).

7. Scented hand soaps

When you wash your hands, that’s another scent you could be wearing.

Method hand soaps smell nice, but they don’t last long. I love using these sometimes.

Bath & Body Works hand soap scents last a while on your hands when you wash in warm water and dry thoroughly. “Frosé All Day” is one of my favorites and works well with my other scents.

8. Keep up with your laundry.

Dirty clothes smell bad fast, especially when in a pile together.

Wash your clothes on a regular basis. When I lived in an apartment, I’d put my dirty clothes in the washer and start a load as soon as it was at least 75% full.

Launder your sheets and pillow cases every 14 days or before then. Frequent washing can loosen the fibers, so have a few sheet sets to use on rotation to decrease the wash times on each set.

I have a “top blanket” that is light and okay to be washed multiple times, which goes atop my regular comforter. That way, I can sit on my bed and wash it when I need to. 💁‍♀️ Sometimes, I’ll use my “top blanket” as my main comforter, too.

I wash my pillow and mattress protectors every 1-2 months because I have allergies and a cat. If I was sick, I wash all my bedding once I feel better as a “reset”.

9. Keep your room/home clean.

Clean people in clean spaces smell good, even without additional fragrances.

I say this having used unscented body wash, shampoo, lotion and laundry detergent when I needed to “detox” my scent intake due to sensory overload while recovering from an allergic reaction.

I smelled good, even when I didn’t use deodorant — and I have a litter box in my closet!

10. Make sure the scents complement each other

When doing wax melts, I use a cube of a soft and cozy scent (e.g. vanilla, waves, sunscreen-esque) with a hard and louder scent (e.g. candied, fruity, floral).

When I first started blending wax melts, I would put two fruity or sweet scents together; it was so overpowering.

Fragrances you wear are like that, too. Loading up on the most fruity, sweetest scents might sound like a good idea, but…where do they stop?

I don’t know much about perfume, but I know enough to have an idea of how it works. The luxe perfumes, even when they’re inexpensive, have multiple “notes” of fragrance.

A variety of scents may come from one perfume fragrance in the span of a day; this is why people note different scents when they smell it (if you ever get a sample with someone else and they name a scent different than you).

Scents may smell great on other people but horrific on you. The scents you wear also might not appease people who come in contact with you. How you smell might not be how someone else smells, so they may think you smell horrible.

These are all things to consider.

Treat yourself like you’re bottling your own scent. Develop your signature fragrance, perfect it, and stick with it.

Changing a lot of things in your “smell good” routine affects your body, too. It gets used to the products you use. You can have some on rotation, but everything blends together differently — so you’ll have to know what works and what doesn’t.

I think it’s a science in that way. 🤔

To smelling so lovely strangers remember us. 💅