A few years ago I started to really notice fragrance.  Most of the time it was something I didn't mind, I even wore some perfume occasionally myself. Really scented people bothered me, but they also bothered everyone else (teenager drenched in cologne) so I didn't think anything of it. Sometimes my asthma would get really bad for seemingly no reason, sometimes I would get migraines and not know why or how they started. I also have always had bad ezcema that seemed to get worse and worse. Then I dropped a bottle of perfume on the floor and had to clean it up.  After that I was sensitive to fragrance and I would sit far away from people in movie theaters and in restaurants.  If I was around someone with any perfume or cologne on I would get a migraine the next day.

           Six years later it is much much worse.  I got pregnant with my first child. My sense of smell got even more acute. I couldn't take my migraine pills when I  got exposed. I would be sick (vomitting) for days from the severity of the migraines. I started to avoid people, avoid going out, avoid crowded places and avoid friends of mine that didn't want to give up fragrances they love just to hang out with me. It was hard, my husband was very understanding through the whole thing.  He was also a bit frustrated and sad about it too. We stopped going to movies. We stopped going to the mall. We stopped going to some restaurants.  I was eating mostly all organic food, not taking any medicine, not smoking or being around smoke, not drinking even a sip of wine, and even exercising fairly regularly.  I was a model pregnant person.  I hoped that once the baby was born my life would go back to normal and see my friends again.  My daughter was born and nothing changed. I think it actually continued to get worse. We were new parents though and didn't really notice since new parents hardly leave the house anyway.

      A few months later I gave up waiting for it to go away and got rid of every scented product I still owned. My foundation, my eye cream, my mascara, my lipstick, my acne face cream, my suntan lotion, bug spray, toner, eye shadow, my lip gloss, my shampoo, my conditioner, my husbands hair pomade, my hair pomade, my mousse, my hairspray, my hand soap, my husbands after shave, my laundry detergent that claimed to be sensitive fragrance free (actually had fragrance as a masking agent in it), tons of cleaning products, car waxes, expensive furnisher cleaning products, dishwasher detergent, candles, becoming fragrance free all at once is quite expensive.

Can I say that again? Becoming fragrance free, is expensive! I didn't throw away most of the products, I gave them away to people I hardly ever see anyways. The only thing I still have in my house that is slightly scented now is my husbands deodorant which has a masking fragrance that you can only smell when cuddling, he won't switch to my deodorant because it doesn't work as well so he will only wear it on the weekends.  Which is amazing of him to compromise and I am so grateful that he has allowed me to change all his products to fragrance free ones.  He has been very patient. We have had a few arguments about it and he was a bit reluctant at first but I found him pretty great fragrance free options for almost everything he needs.

       Also in my research I've discovered that becoming fragrance free is actually much healthier for you anyways.  Not that I wouldn't rather be able to join the world and watch Star Wars in the theater with everyone else. Or go out to a hot new restaurant.  Or go to the State Fair. Or buy jeans from the mall. (yes I can't buy things from the mall because remember how all those stores smell of perfume? That apparently works its way into the fabric and must be washed in vinegar water six or seven times to get it out. I buy everything from Amazon instead. Even then, it comes scented sometimes)
Anyways when fragrance isn't made of animal scrotum or beaver scent sacs fragrance composed of  toxic VOC chemicals. [Fragrance makers use more than 5,000 different ingredients. Of these, only about 1,300 fragrance ingredients have actually been tested and evaluated. 16 percent of the colognes, fragrances, and perfumes reviewed by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) contain carcinogenic ingredients. The EWG also reported that there were 38 secret chemicals found in 17 brand name perfumes that they tested. - See more at: http://healthimpactnews.com/2014/secondhand-fragrance-contamination-a-public-health-problem/#sthash.sxniR168.dpuf]

I read other articles like this one 
http://healthylivinghowto.com/1/post/2013/04/healthy-body-7-toxic-reasons-to-ditch-dryer-sheets.html

Some fragrance ingredients are not perfuming agents themselves but enhance the performance of perfuming agents. For example, diethyl phthalate (prounced tha-late), or DEP, is widely used in cosmetic fragrances to make the scent linger. Phthalates are choice ingredients in cosmetics because they are cheap and versatile. However, the European Commission on Endocrine Disruption has listed DEP as a Category 1 priority substance, based on evidence that it interferes with hormone function. ^xi Phthalates have been linked to early puberty in girls, reduced sperm count in men, and reproductive defects in the developing male fetus (when the mother is exposed during pregnancy). ^xii Phthalate metabolites are also associated with obesity and insulin resistance in men. ^xiii As well, Health Canada notes evidence suggesting that exposure to phthalates may cause liver and kidney failure in young children when products containing phthalates are sucked or chewed for extended periods. ^xiv DEP is listed as a Priority and Toxic Pollutant under the U.S. Clean Water Act, based on evidence that it can be toxic to wildlife and the environment. ^xv

Being such a home body now, I decided to paint a painting for my daughter's room.
So that is one tiny positive. After some more bouts of two and three day migraines from very short exposure to fragrances I now have to wear a mask in stores to do any shopping because I couldn't take the chance of the overly scented person sending me into a two day migraine. I have a baby to look after and it's nearly impossible with a migraine. Some times I feel weird about it, people think I must have a cold or something.  I try to tell people but it gets exhausting. I hate talking about it, it feels like a constant battle sometimes.  I was lucky that my family and my husbands mom are really good about being unscented and also switched to unscented products. I've been helping them by sending articles about how much it will help their skin clear up.

Have acne?  Go fragrance free makeup see if that helps.
Have ezcema? Have a child with ezcema or other skin rashes?  Change to unscented laundry detergent, change from dryer sheets to wool balls see if that helps. Change soap change lotion.

I used to have super oily skin and now I don't.  I hardly even need makeup anymore because my skin is so clear and way less greasy. I also only get migraines once a month now instead of weekly.  And usually I can tell what it is from. I feel healthier and more energetic.
Try being fragrance free for two weeks and see how it goes. That will give your body enough time to detox and heal.  Just put all your scented stuff in a cabinet and if you miss it, after two weeks go back and try it again.

We still get out and do things, despite my allergy.  We go hiking and biking and all sorts of outdoor things.  This year some friends of mine and I went kayaking for my birthday, it was one of the best birthdays I've had. I hope to eventually figure out a cure but until then, this will have to do.

Next post will be a list of awesome products I've found that are unscented and fragrance free and work well.  Which took a year of research to find and hundreds of dollars and time spent returning products that claimed to be unscented but were not, or were unscented but didn't work.