Hi Ugly, 你好，丑陋的，
I am 47 and have become sensitive to smell – particularly smells of fabric softeners and perfumes. I don’t want to be with people who apply strong scents as the smell makes me feel sick.
我 47 岁了，对气味变得敏感——尤其是柔顺剂和香水的气味。我不想和那些使用浓烈气味的人在一起，因为气味让我感到恶心。
There’s a boy in my neighborhood whom my children want to play with occasionally, but I don’t want to have him in our apartment as the smell of softener that permeates from him is so strong. I don’t want to say no to them playing together. What should I say to my kids and the boy about why he can’t come in to play?
我邻居有个男孩，我的孩子偶尔想和他一起玩，但我不想让他来我们公寓，因为他身上的柔顺剂气味太浓了。我不想拒绝他们一起玩。我应该怎么跟我的孩子和那个男孩解释他为什么不能进来玩？
– Sick of Perfume ——厌倦了香水
My sympathies: never before has smelling “good” been such big business.
我的同情：以前从未有过闻“好”味道如此之大的商业价值。
Fragrance was the fastest-growing category among mass beauty retailers over the first half of 2025, continuing a years-long perfume boom that’s conditioned consumers to eliminate their own natural odors with full-body deodorants; stink themselves up again with specially made scents for the body, hair, vagina and/or testicles; and drench their clothes in multi-product “laundry cocktails” for good measure.
在 2025 年上半年，香水是大众美妆零售商中增长最快的品类，延续了数年之久的香水热潮，这种热潮使消费者习惯用全身除臭剂消除自身的自然气味；再用专门为身体、头发、阴道和/或睾丸制作的香水让自己再次散发气味；并且用多产品“洗衣鸡尾酒”浸泡他们的衣服以作补充。
The hashtag #PerfumeTikTok boasts 4.8m posts. Atomizers are status symbols. People pay $4,000 for discontinued formulas and pray for brands to release bigger bottles. The market’s so hot that Sephora, Ulta and TikTok Shop are engaged in an “all-out ‘fragrance war” – and consumers are losing. We’ve collectively flushed $85.6bn down the toilette this year, cost of living crisis be damned.
#PerfumeTikTok 标签拥有 480 万篇帖子。喷雾瓶是身份的象征。人们支付 4000 美元购买停产配方，并祈祷品牌能推出更大瓶的香水。市场如此火爆，丝芙兰、Ulta 和 TikTok 商店正进行一场“全面的香水战争”——而消费者正在失去。今年我们共花费了 856 亿美元，生活成本危机暂且不论。
On what can we blame this senseless embrace of scents? My take: science tells us that odor molecules travel straight to the brain’s emotional center and bypass the part that handles logic; cue illogical obsession! (And Avon’s brand-new and aptly named perfume line, Perfect Nonsense.)
我们该如何责备这种对香味的无意义追捧？我的看法：科学告诉我们，气味分子直接到达大脑的情感中心，绕过处理逻辑的部分；于是引发非理性的痴迷！（以及雅芳全新推出的、恰如其名的香水系列“完美无稽”。）
But a sounder, less snarky theory comes from Cari Casteel, a University of Buffalo professor who hypothesized that Covid-era isolation “de-acclimated some people to the normal odor of their fellow human, and that when we came back together … hyperawareness of other people’s odor has led to hyperanxiety about our own odor”, reported the Atlantic. In uncertain and unhealthy times, deodorants, colognes and fabric softeners may provide feelings of control, cleanliness and health.
但一个更合理、不那么刻薄的理论来自雪城大学教授卡里·凯斯特尔，她假设疫情时期的隔离使“一些人逐渐适应了同伴的正常气味，而我们重新聚集在一起时……对他人气味的过度敏感导致了对自己气味的过度焦虑”，大西洋报道。在不确定和不健康的时期，除臭剂、香水以及柔顺剂可能会带来控制感、清洁感和健康感。
The irony – as you know – is that fragrance makes many people sick.
讽刺的是——正如你所知——香味会使许多人患病。
A 2019 survey of citizens across the US, Australia, UK and Sweden found that as many as one in three respondents self-reported fragrance sensitivities. Common symptoms of this (under-studied and under-understood) condition include congestion, watery eyes, headaches, migraines, skin rashes, asthma attacks, dizziness and fainting.
一项 2019 年对美、澳、英、瑞典公民的调查发现，高达三分之一的自查者报告了对香味的敏感性。这种（研究不足且理解不深）状况的常见症状包括鼻塞、流泪、头痛、偏头痛、皮肤疹、哮喘发作、头晕和昏厥。
“Around 20% of fragrance ingredients are [potential] allergens,” Lindsay Dahl, an environmental health expert and the author of Cleaning House tells me. Allergens appear in both natural and synthetic products – and even in so-called “fragrance-free” products, which often “use fragrances to mask the base ingredients”, Dahl says.
“大约 20%的香料成分是[潜在的]过敏原，”环境健康专家、著作《清洁家园》的琳赛·道尔告诉我。过敏原存在于天然和合成产品中——甚至存在于所谓的“无香料”产品中，道尔说，这些产品通常“使用香料来掩盖基础成分”。
“It’s estimated that the amount of fragrances in consumer products has doubled since 1990,” she adds, which could explain your later-in-life sensitivity. Women are also “two to three times more likely” to react poorly to these chemicals. “The hypothesis is that women are exposed to more fragrances throughout their day including household cleaners, beauty products, laundry detergents and workplace exposures,” according to Dahl.
据她补充，“自 1990 年以来，消费品中的香料含量估计翻了一番，”这可能解释了您在后期生活中的敏感性。女性也“更有两到三倍的可能性”对这些化学物质反应不佳。据 Dahl 所说，“假设是女性在日常生活中接触到更多的香料，包括家用清洁剂、美容产品、洗衣洗涤剂和工作场所暴露。”
In your case, add play dates to the list.
在您的情况下，请将玩耍日期加入列表。
My suggestion for what to say to your kids and their detergent-doused friend about why he can’t come over is nothing – at least not at first. This is a conversation to have with the child’s parents or guardians.
关于如何告诉您的孩子及其被洗涤剂浸染的朋友为什么他不能来，我的建议是保持沉默——至少一开始是这样。这是一个需要与孩子的父母或监护人进行的对话。
It’s a delicate situation. For starters, understand that telling a family their smell makes you sick is basically telling them they smell bad. And since smell is never neutral – it’s racialized, classed and deeply cultural – even well-meaning comments can sound judgmental or echo old stigmas that labeled certain groups “dirty”, “poor” or “uncivilized”.
这是一个微妙的情况。首先，要理解告诉家人他们的气味让你生病基本上是在告诉他们他们气味难闻。而且，由于气味从来不是中性的——它被种族化、阶层化且深受文化影响——即使是出于好意的评论也可能听起来带有评判意味或回响过去将某些群体贴上“肮脏”、“贫穷”或“不文明”的标签的陈旧污名。
That doesn’t mean you can’t set boundaries for your health! It just means you should be extra considerate, especially if you’re white, wealthy or otherwise privileged, and especially if the family in question is from a different racial, economic or cultural background.
这意味着你仍然可以为你的健康设定界限！只是意味着你应该更加体贴周到，特别是如果你是白人、富裕或有其他特权，特别是如果涉及的家庭来自不同的种族、经济或文化背景。
When talking to the parents, be straightforward and kind. Don’t mention their fabric softener. Keep the focus on your needs rather than their laundry. Try something like: “Just so you know, I have a sensitivity to fragrances and they can make me feel unwell, so we can’t really host play dates inside our house. My kids really enjoy playing with [insert name here] though, and he’s welcome to come play with us outside or at the park anytime!”
与家长交谈时，要直截了当且友善。不要提及他们的柔顺剂。将重点放在你的需求上，而不是他们的洗衣。尝试这样说：“只是让你知道，我对香味敏感，它们会让我感觉不舒服，所以我们真的不能在家里举办玩伴聚会。我的孩子们很喜欢和[插入名字]一起玩，他随时可以来我们家外面或公园玩！”
If your children have questions about why their friend can’t come inside, there’s no need to single out his smell. Explain your sensitivity – “It’s like a peanut allergy in my nose” – and frame it as a house rule. This way, your kids don’t feel like you’re blocking a friendship and the boy doesn’t feel fabric softener-shamed.
如果你的孩子问为什么他们的朋友不能进来，没有必要特别指出他的气味。解释你的敏感——”这就像我鼻子里的花生过敏”——并将其作为一条家规。这样，你的孩子不会觉得你在阻碍友谊，那个男孩也不会感到被柔顺剂羞辱。
Finally, a bit of advice for the scent-obsessed among us: now that you know 33% of people around you could experience adverse reactions to your aroma, consider lightening up on the fragrance. Or spritz before bed, instead! You could save yourself some money – and someone else a headache.
最后，给那些对气味特别敏感的朋友们一些建议：既然你知道周围 33%的人可能会对你的香味产生不良反应，不妨考虑减少一些香味。或者，睡前喷一下！这样你不仅能省下一些钱——还能让别人免受头痛之苦。
