Calling all people with a strong sense of smell...

[SomethingLessBoringInstead]

I live in an average sized semi. If I'm in my reasonably sized garden, I can smell my neighbours' shower gel when they showering their bathroom window is open.

I can smell the flavour of crisps being eaten by someone 3 rows in front of me at the cinema/theatre.

I can smell the personal scent of the person behind the bar (don't mean BO).

I can smell when a woman is on her period. Probably not always because I'd have no way of knowing! But sometimes I know.

Anyone else? I know I've got a strong sense of smell because I can often smell things other people around me can't but just wondered how common it is. And whether or not these are examples of it! Or whether they're things everyone can smell...

*when they shower if...

Have you always had that ability or did it appear after a pregnancy?

I definitely have an unusually strong sense of smell. It really pisses me off cos DH doesn't believe that I can smell things if he can't and just winds me up "oh, one of your phantom smells again...."

I know what flavour crisps he's had if he ate them an hour ago and isn't in the same room anymore...

Yours sounds like hyperosmia.

I have a good sense of smell, since pregnancy it is slightly annoying. All perfumes smell overpowering and fake to me now.
I can’t smell as much as you though, I think you are a super smeller!

OOh. Perhaps you could train as a 'nose'. they are very rare!

Yes, mine is really strong and in pregnancy it went through the roof
My Mum was looking for a new house and I went with her for a viewing, as soon as I walked through the door I could smell the damp.
My parents wouldn’t have it and couldn’t smell anything but not only did it smell damp to me but the smell of the stuff they had to cover the damp was really over powering. Turns out the house was riddled with damp!
It’s a bit if a problem because of someone smell nice I struggle to spend time with them. When I was at school in a friendship group of about 6 I could identify them all by smell - we did and experiment once where they all brought an item of clothing into school and I had to pick who’s was who’s by smell alone and I got them all right. I am pretty sure I could identify my close friends by smell alone even now

I have a strong sense of smell which got stronger in pregnancy and never went back to previous levels afterwards. DH thinks I'm crackers when I'm all "I can smell something" and go off to figure out where its coming from. If he's had visitors when I haven't been home I can often tell because the house will smell different when I get back and I know who has visited based on the smell - his best friend, FIL, my mum, his aunt and uncle, my brother, my best friend, they all smell different. My DC all smell different to me too, if I sniff the top of their head they each have a different scent and their scent changes if they're coming down with something, almost like they smell slightly sugary-sour.

Yes I do. I always smell things before anyone else ie if I am uostairs in a bedroom and the pan handle is over the hob and burning, sometimes I will smell the plastic burning before the person who is cooking with the pan next to it!
It’s often not good though- sometimes people’s bad breath is just overwhelming to me and I really struggle with that sometimes

I have an exceptional sense of smell and taste. It’s a blight on my life in some respects as I find the taste of things overpowering. I can’t eat a salad if say, a knife used to cut peppers has been used to cut the tomato etc.
I can’t eat onion because I can smell it on my body for days, I can’t eat anything spicy, not even the mildest chilli or curry, it’s actually painful.
We are currently clearing out my late Fil’s house and there is an unpleasant smell in the living room that nobody else can smell but I can, I’ve shampooed the carpet 3 times now but it’s still there.

It’s not fun.

I do but not as strong as yours as I couldn’t tell if a woman was on her period by smell. I am constantly aware of smell though - what the weather smells like each day when I first go out, different washing products on clothes when people pass by, gas leaks, a brief smell of a shrub or flower brought over by a breeze, what my flat smells like when i walk in, what furniture smells like - I can pick up my brothers‘ family scent from their soft furnishing (like biscuity clean washing), my neighbours cigs from 2 doors away if we have our respective windows open. I feel like a sniffer dog sometimes as I notice every smell both nice and unpleasant.

I can smell next door’s washing if I’m in my living room with the back door open and she hangs it out. It’s lovely - smells like holiday! Unfortunately I’m also hyper sensitive to her cigarette smoke!

Just out of interest what is your eyesight like? I have a sharp sense of smell and I always think it makes up for my poor eyesight!

Me too 😢 I’ve put a sad emoji because I find it overwhelming at times. A friend of one of my children was smoking outside our house at the weekend and the butts ended up in our bin - I could smell them even after I’d taken the bin out.

If I use lime scale remover I can smell it for days afterwards.

I’ve got teenage boys - I sometimes struggle to get close to them if there’s even a hint of BO.

And I suppose there’s no way to have less of a sense of smell 😢 will just have to live with it

I could smell gas in my parents house for weeks, and I was right, but they could not smell it, it's my nurses nose, we can sniff out anything!

Mine got stronger in pregnancy and never went back to normal levels although it's not as sensitive as yours. It drives dh mad as I'm always going on about smells and he is becoming paranoid. My hearing is also very sensitive and I can hear sounds that others can't.

I do and it’s a standing joke with my friends and family that I can smell a fart ten blocks away and have a super sensitive nose. I’m also more reactionary to smells as in a bad one can actually make me physically gag, when it doesn’t others.

what the weather smells like each day when I first go out

DH gives me this face when I tell him it smells like its going to rain but I can! The air has this earthy, damp scent to it. Sunny, dry days have a sort of steam-like warm and sweet smell. Snow has a flat, cotton-esque smell. I'm not describing them well because they're hard to describe but they do smell differently.

My sense of taste is odd too. I cant eat uncooked tomatoes as they taste fishy, cucumbers taste incredibly bitter to me as does kale, avocado tastes overly creamy and 'green' like eating moisturiser, and if things have been too close together in the fridge I can taste them in each other for example my grapes will taste slightly of peppers if they've been too near one another.

Ha this is so good to read! I don't know anyone who is like this in real life!!

Yes to the smelling damp in the house. That's the level of thing.

My children joke that I could get a job as a sniffer dog. And a friend used to call me Bloodhound.

And yes to smelling the weather and seasonal changes too. I judge the change of the seasons by the smell not the date or the weather. I know if it's going to snow or not by the smell - regardless of the weather forecast.

I used to know if my children were coming down with something by the way they smelt - before they were obviously ill.

There's a guy I know and I can tell when he's walked into the pub because I can smell him so strongly. Other people can't smell him - he's not a dirty man - they stand really close to him and talk to him. I can't bear to be near him!

I've got very sensitive hearing too, GreekOddess and can often hear sounds others can't. I failed a hearing test at school and, upon further investigation, it was discovered that I can hear 'too well'.

I have a strong sense of smell, probably not on the scale of some but enough for OH to think I'm weird

I can't walk down the washing powder isle as it's so overwhelming

I have a strong sense of smell and taste. They call me the “canary” at work because I can detect minuscule smells and also gas leaks. As others have said, it’s a blessing and a curse. Im always called fussy with food, but I can taste when things are just going off really strongly.

I also have brilliant hearing.

I have a strong sense of smell too although not as strong as the OP describes. Mine was so much stronger in pregnancy. I think it really contributed to my HG. Smells that DH wouldn't even notice used to make me throw up.
I smelled gas in my sister's house even though she and her husband couldn't. I was very insistent and they got someone in and he found a tiny leak.
A couple of times I knew one of my dc had taken home someone else's uniform as soon as they got in the car because it didn't smell like ours. They couldn't tell the difference.

I'm exactly the same! I once told a boyfriend while we were in bed that I could smell his parents eating eggs on toast down in the kitchen... through 3 doors! I was right obviously.

My mum is like this all the time, I think my normal sense of smell is stronger than average, but my current pregnant nose is my mum level! I know loads about people.

somethinglessboring my children smell different when they are poorly too

I have a strong sense of smell, probably not on the same level as the Op but one upside is if anyone treads in something nasty it never makes it into the house as I can tell straight away.