Here's Why Your Ear Piercings Smell Like Cheese

We absolutely love wearing earrings! Every time we buy a new pair of the beloved jewellery, we feel like we're going through a complete transformation. Who do I want to be today? Do I want funky earrings or just a piercing with a subtle sparkle? The choices are endless and we're not mad about it. However, there's this uncomfortable smell that often accompanies earrings. This ominous phenomenon is called "ear cheese".

Almost everyone who wears piercings knows the smell, but almost nobody talks about it: piercings often smell like old cheese and are accompanied by grayish colored gunk, especially on the back. Those who are guilty of wearing earrings for several weeks at a time will have experienced the unpleasant smell at least once. While we all want to be hygienic and avoid unpleasant smells, wherever they may occur, we often forget our ears. However, there's a very simple reason for the nasty smell!

On the next page, we'll tell you where it comes from:

We know, the name of this seemingly strange phenomenon isn't very appealing, but it's so very fitting! Many people have had earlobe piercings since their childhood, but only few know how to correctly sanitize them and their ears in order to avoid the funky smell! Even if you're generally a hygienic person, we often tend to forget the area around our ears.

Let's take one thing at a time: the substance, that is referred to as ear cheese in colloquial speech, is composed of dead skin cells, oil and beauty products that accumulates around the earlobes. This is where the brown-greenish gunk comes from. Don't worry about it, though! It's neither contagious, nor harmful to your health, but an absolutely natural side effect of having pierced ears! When you just had your ears pierced, you might experience an especially unpleasant smell since your body is going through a defense reaction.

Here's how you can avoid the foul smell:

Wearing piercings for a long time is a mistake you should absolutely avoid. If you've been wearing your piercings for more than one week, you better take them out. That's the only way for air to get to the pierced area. Give your ear(s) a break for a few hours or a day, and clean the area gently but thoroughly with soap. The same applies to your selection of beautiful piercings, which you should also clean and disinfect regularly. As is always the case with skin care, however, don't overdo it! If you clean your skin too much, you might damage it.

If you stick to our tips, you'll never have to deal with ear cheese again!