Perfume for the Occasion: Going to the gym

This is a difficult topic for me considering I concur with this blogger. I will never forget the day I layered Bath and Body Works Moonlight Path lotion all over myself and then went to the gym to work out for 2 hours. Not a good idea. Plus, I will forever feel apologetic to the poor souls who struggled to breathe around me. Oxygen comes at a premium when you are surrounded by artificial fumes.

Therefore, the only scent I think appropriate for the gym is a good soap and an effective, make that very effective deodorant. With that in mind, I would like to list fragrances and notes that in my humble opinion (he!) should never, ever, under any circumstance be worn at the gym:

• Annick Goutal Songes and other heady florals


• As I learned, any lotion from Bath and Body Works


• Chanel Allure


• Christian Dior Poison


• Chypres


• Dark Woods


• Guerlain Shalimar


• Patchouli


• Perfumed concentration of any fragrance


• Musk


• Thierry Mugler Angel

The somewhat tolerable scents include:

• Citrus notes


• "Clean" fragrances, such as Clean Provence


• "Fresh" fragrances like Gendarme Sky


• Fragrances most consider appropriate for summer

If you head to the gym at the end of the day and remnants of the fragrance you applied in the morning linger, this qualifies as another instance in which fragrance is forgiven, barring you douse yourself with a heady floral or over-the-top spicy number with Herculean staying power. As my friend Divina wrote here, body sprays and aromatherapy based scents are the other alternative since their concentration is light and they evaporate so quickly.

Remember, if you can smell yourself without holding your wrist to your nose, others can smell you too - something to consider when circulation is poor or people are breathing heavily. My verdict? Save your fragrances for post-shower in the locker room and other occasions.