How to always smell as a woman (all day! even working in retail)

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.

If I eat butter chicken for lunch and dinner, my sweat will smell like butter chicken. No amount of deodorant is masking that.

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. 😭

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

COLAB and MONDAY dry shampoo brands work 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.

So many body washes have excessive ingredients to enhance the smell or suds that can negatively affect your body’s pH more than bar soap ingredients, which affect the way your body smells naturally.

NATIVE body wash, as well as TRUE body wash from Walmart, seem to be exceptions. They’re also both easier on drains!

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

My favorite bar soaps are METHOD Simply Nourish and Tom’s of Maine Creamy Coconut.

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. 💁‍♀️

I’ve used Billie razors since 2019 and don’t care much for any other razor. I use my hair conditioner when I need shaving cream.

2. Reconsider your deodorant

Look, gender labels don’t matter when it comes to body products unless it’s for specific parts of your body. Go with what you like, based on what works for you.

I love Tom’s of Maine Wild Lavender deodorant outside of work. Degree’s 48HR Sweat Protection deodorant what works best for me at my retail job.

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

4. Use activated charcoal bags to eliminate odors

Activated charcoal bags can be hung up or set inside shoes and drawers — even placed at the bottom of a trash can!

In my experience, they help absorbing smells quite well, especially volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

If you don’t have good air flow in a space, though, these might not work well. Old furniture that makes clothes smell musty is the problem, not the activated charcoal. 💁‍♀️

5. Use a body spray or perfume.

Find a long-lasting one. My signature scent was Comptoir Sud Pacifique in Vanilla Abricot, but now I’m leaning toward 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.

Comptoir Sud Pacifique no longer sells directly to the USA without major shipping fees, so I buy from Fragrance Net.

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 because I love using them. 😅

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. 💅