I never realised how bad people smell.

[Nonplusultra]

I’ve had a weirdly sharp sense of smell for the last couple of days and when I’m out shopping, I can smell everyone around me and it’s surprising how few people smell nice or even clean.

I’m not talking about properly stinking - just that mild fug of cooking smells, pets, smoke, sweat, occasional halitosis.

I don’t normally notice, and of course, even now, I’m oblivious to my own pong. I’m not even getting up close to people; this is just the drift of air as you walk past someone who’s a couple of feet away.

I have an extremely heightened sense of smell as well. I feel your pain.

You put your DH in the shower if he's been in a Taxi?

One of our local taxis has a very heavily scented vehicle and DH stinks of it if he's been in it so I agree, clothes in the wash and him in the shower.
I get migraines from strong artificial smells though.

Yes, I have a strong sense of smell and I am pregnant. Double the effect.

They say I have a super-power, because I can smell a cold/sickness before it is obvious. They just reek. It is so much worse working in a school with so many germs going around during the winter term.

Not sure it is great though, because aftershave is so strong I prefer my partner without it. Soap is much nicer to smell.

My question too - I'll never forget the heightened sense of smell when pregnant. Pretty much everything was intolerable.

People look a certain way, make different kinds of sounds, and they also smell of things.

I think that, within reason, we should try to be tolerant of the fact that as well as being able to see and hear people, we'll also sometimes be able to smell them.

Obviously if someone has so much perfume it makes people choke, or has such bad BO it makes you feel sick just to be in the same shop, it's not pleasant, but I'd try to think of that the same way I think of someone making a lot of disruptive and unpleasant noise i.e. tell myself it may be disability-related, or down to circumstances beyond their control, or they may be being antisocial but there's not a great deal I can do about it beyond removing myself.

Many of the people I know seem to have switched to alternative deodorants that cost £15 a pop and don't actually work unless you wash your pits and reapply twice or thrice a day. They don't stop you sweating and they don't cover the smell up for long. They are also the same people who, being eco-conscious, don't wash their clothing or shower every day — not that I think that's a great thing. Most of us are very over-washed and people seem to associate being 'clean' with smelling of fabric conditioner and shampoo and antiperspirant and body spray and perfume.

The worst smells for me are the intrusive ones people cover themselves in. Astonished to read here that people spray their outer clothing with perfume. What a selfish disregard for others. The wearer doesn't notice it after a few minutes, but it's an assault on people who come into contact with you. It's as bad as shouting into your phone or listening to loud music in a public place. But at least I now know why, after being crushed up against a horribly perfumed woman on the tube a couple of weeks ago, her scent clung to me for hours. It must have transferred from her coat to mine. People were sniffing me dubiously when I arrived at my event and I had to explain it wasn't me. Perfume shouldn't shout, it should whisper.

Exactly this including the migraines

some newly bought clothes have the same problem too

I have super sensitive smell too, sometimes it can be a gift but other times it makes me feel sick. I am neurodiverse so have a few sensory issues. I really struggle with people and the way they smell but I can also sniff out people wearing the same perfume as me. I am also peri which seems to have made my nose even more sensitive, some people really do stink. I was in a shop a couple days ago when someone walked in who smelt strongly of cigarettes 🤢 and I had to leave.

@Sartre I'm afraid I have to agree as a lecturer, my female students are in the main fragrant and lovely, but in a hot stuffy classroom, the BO does take over when there's a good component of boys. I don't really care though, it's just young people getting used to being away from home.

I have had extremely enhanced smell since a bad bout of Covid and ended up losing a lot of weight as food smelt awful. I can smell fabric conditioner, washing powder, cleaning fluids, everything and it's not great. So many artificial smells. A nice perfume doesn't bother me so much. I have to hold my nose to use the dishwasher tabs or washing powder now.

I didn't know it was connected with menopause, it may be that as well, but the Covid bout was awful and it happened exactly at that time when everyone else was losing their sense of smell!

This is probably me lol. I don't leave the house other than for the school run 3 days a week so only shower every other day. I have dry curly hair so only wash it 2x a week and make a real effort to not wash outer clothes too often. I can tell when I smell of BO and cooking so I do have to wash more then obvs but I suspect I smell not fabric softener fresh regularly! I hate chemical smells though so don't use perfumes, sprays, air freshener or fabric softener as they make me feel unwell and those are the scents i dread in others (plus dog smell and vapes, dogs mainly because I'm highly allergic and know what's coming once I smell dog on someone) but I aim to be tolerant of them and hope others are tolerant of me. Thankfully I've never had the super sensing smell you've got OP but I did have a peri phase where I could really smell myself and had to wash twice daily as it was driving me nuts, I can't put my finger on what it was the smell but it was my skin rather than anywhere naturally dirty, super odd!

@HamstersAreMyLife it probably isn't you, unless you don't wash when you know you smell, or your clothes are musty through not drying properly (a big issue I think in the COL crisis). Those are the things that come through most strongly to me, and the cheap scents used in cleaning products.

Actual expensive perfume, and the scent of a person really doesn't bother me, it's the artificiality of everything else and the real non-washers (see the relationships section) that bother me most.

Yes I'm often shocked at some of the non washers in relationships! I know we are far laxer in our house than others but when we notice a smell like BO or damp clothes we just wash! I always notice the damp smell on trains as we get into winter and wonder whether people can't dry things easily if in a cold flat or similar. I struggle with some really expensive perfumes so have given up, there's something they must put in some of them which I find really closes up my throat, agree re cleaning products but I try and make my own generally so it's not too much of an issue. Weirdly bleach also really affects me so I struggle walking into places that smell strongly of bleach

Public transport. A man sat next to me on a fairly long journey, I had to move as soon as another seat was free. I can cope with some perfumy smells, its dirty clothes, cat wee and unwashed bodies that make me gip. I feel fortunate that I can shower daily and wash my clothes, towels and bedding regularly. Feeling clean is good for our wellbeing.

The worst smells for me are the intrusive ones people cover themselves in. Astonished to read here that people spray their outer clothing with perfume. What a selfish disregard for others. The wearer doesn't notice it after a few minutes, but it's an assault on people who come into contact with you. It's as bad as shouting into your phone or listening to loud music in a public place.

I have to admit I'm a lot more mentally tolerant of smells people didn't actively choose to emit for the sake of the smell itself — minor sweaty smells or mild BO, cooking smells, cigarettes, damp/fusty clothes or hair; the sort of things that are just the consequences of normal activities, or which require lots of time and money to keep on top of 100% of the time.

But when someone uses e.g. laundry scent booster plus a load of scented deodorant plus lavish dollops of perfume, to the point where they just briefly pass me and my throat closes up like I've walked into the perfume floor at a department store… that's more irritating. But then, there are similarly obtrusive people when it comes to their visual and auditory presence, and we just have to tolerate it.

I draw the line at actually spraying smelly crap around in public places though. I'd rather sit in a cloud of someone's sub-ohm vape than be in the line of fire of their squirty air freshener or deodorant.

Everyone on mn is completely intolerant of smells. Perfume is offensive. Washing conditioner is offensive makes people violently ill apparently. You all smell too. Everybody smells its part of living with other humans.

Have you had Covid or flu recently? I had flu a while ago and tested negative for Covid but lost my sense of taste and smell for a couple of weeks when I recovered. Then suddenly one day I became some kind of super smeller, it was like a superhero origin moment. Anyway I'm glad it went away after a week or so because other people are gross 😄

Lots of people don’t seem to understand that coats and jackets need washed.

Jeez what shop were you in so I can avoid it 🤣🤣

I am always able to smell when people have a build up of plaque on their teeth. Horrible.

Give over!

I've always noticed this, I have a very good nose! I hold my breath when I walk past many people.

Wet people are the worst as their smells are more apparent when damp. Some people never wash their coats which is much of the problem 🤢

A hot summer day in a train carriage smelling of shit. That was memorable.

The smell of an engineering lecture room on a damp winter’s day at the end of the day is not something I miss now I’ve retired.

I thought I had a pretty strong sense of smell before I joined MN (and it got more sensitive when I was pregnant!) but half of MN could be sniffer dogs!!
.... and can tell who's showered today or who showered before bed, who's had a wash, who has pets, who wears scented panty liners, who hasn't washed their fanny, who uses fabric conditioner etc etc
The thing I seem to smell most often is weed - in my hometown, in the park, in central London where I work, in my work building, on the train ....almost everywhere I go!

To be fair they probably do but are currently wearing their one Winter coat!

It can be hard to dry stuff in the Winter so people maybe don't wash clothes as often.

I do sometimes think that we are too used to the smell of shampoo etc on people.

I didn't wash my hair this morning-washed it yesterday.

It smells of hair rather than shampoo.