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 do think as a nation many in the UK are lazy when it comes to personal hygiene. Getting the first flight of the day from Gatwick is a real eye opener - so many unwashed, disheveled passengers. If you can afford a flight somewhere you can spare the money to use hot water to shower/wash using soap and shampoo.
even if I need to get up to travel at 3am I’d still have a wash and brush my hair. It’s gross.

I felt the same when pregnant but that's common. It's horrible isn't it!

Yes I absolutely think of that all the time!

But I seem to be offending mumsnet people with perfume.

Imagine how a dog feels.
Living in an odiferous world.

This is a dog that was entranced by the smell of someone's hot dog.

Do dogs ever find smells unpleasant?

Eeeeesh people do talk some shit on here.

Wealth whispers, money shouts. Same with scent. Lots of vulgar people shouting in all forms, including perfume. Far classier if people only catch an alluring waft of your scent when they're close to you. I sat across the table from someone I'd only just been introduced to during lunch the other day. As we were leaving and had a brief farewell hug I caught a whiff of something lovely and discreet that only someone up close would be aware of. Classy. I hope we meet again.

When someone's perfume enters the room before they do I always wonder what they're hoping to cover up. I used to know someone who was so self-conscious after having a colostomy and wearing a bag that she over-compensated with heavy perfume. I'm afraid every time I encounter someone I can smell across a room I think of her.

Ok I consider myself a clean person but this thread has made me verrry paranoid 😅 anyone else?
As an aside, I worked in a café as a teenager and we had a family who came in several times a week. I can only describe the smell as very musty... I think they had headlice too. However they seemed to have plenty of money as they'd come and order big meals several times a week then get taxis home, so the management never said anything. They seemed a very nice family but highly eccentric.
However other customers would complain and I did feel bad for them, nobody wants that unpleasant smell around them when eating.

I never noticed till I moved to Asia where they only bathe in the evenings so they’re all pretty musty on the morning commute. I have to hold my nose at times. Clothes musty too. The expats smell way better in the mornings but get funky later in the day with the heat. One country I was living in was worse, especially the halitosis. Urgh.

The problem with perfume is that we all have different tastes - some of it makes me feel sick, sadly. I don't judge the person wearing it, obviously, but not keen on being near a lot of it either.

It's apparently a faux pas to wear a lot of perfume in Japan. Some high-end sushi restaurants will chuck you out if you're wearing any as it interferes with the delicate dining experience.

I haven't got a great sense of smell but I am particularly sensitive to perfume and pets.

Why do just people think everyone else wants to smell their choice of perfume. It should be subtle enough you can smell it but others can't (unless up very close).

Georgio, Poison and Opium were all banned from certain London restaurants in the 1990s. I was once almost pushed over as I was getting off the tube by a rush of people desperate to change carriages after a woman sprayed herself with Poison.

@Sorrynotsore They do indeed. (Ahem)

I loved poison- part of the problem was eau de parfum masquerading as eau de toilette. First time I sprayed mine on liberally and became that person.

Opium I found choking though.

The problem I find with perfume, I want to smell it myself. Obviously that’s not really going to happen.

'Poison' was grotesque...hideous, like cheap penny sweets. Really ghastly.

'Opium' was so strong you could taste it if someone was wearing it.

''Lush'' shops are painful to walk past. So screaming and 'Loud' with the harsh chemically odour.

And of course it interacts differently on different skin. Sometimes a mature woman can carry a perfume a young one can’t. I’m feeling all nostalgic for those perfumes now…
I wish they didn’t disappear- my preferred perfume was Bulgari original gold, but it’s gone now. And I may be too old for it

I swear that someone was literally smoking a cigarette in Home Bargains this morning!
It was sooo strong, definitely from a lit cigarette (not those fumes when someone has just put one out and walked inside) and not coming from a stock room.
I couldn't spot any likely culprits though 🤔

Onto Asda and one person in a group of several had that type of halitosis that yields from old food/bacteria stuck in the teeth. 🤢
I knew which Aisle they were in as I worked my way around.
The worst smell for me is vomit.
Lifelong Emetophobe.

I was once on a train from Menton to Nice in August. A couple got on in Monaco and the carriage filled up with an awful armpit smell. The worst I have ever smelt. The woman of this couple was wearing a halter top and I sussed it was her when she walked past to get to the toilet. I was hoping maybe she had gone for a wash and a squirt but no! I was having fun trying to catch the eyes of people in the carriage. Some American teenagers who were sitting right behind her kept yelling 'Get a bath!'.

Say what you want to say hun. This ahem nonsense doesn't matter you look clever.

DP has a relly who calls Armani Si 'Armani Sigh'.

When I’ve walked past a branch of Lush I can taste the place. For hours.

I hate catching cooking smells on myself. I try to cook when I know I can change E.g. cook breakfast in pjs that I then take off and shower and put clean clothes on. It’s hard if you eat out anywhere with an open kitchen though, especially if you’re going somewhere else like the theatre, cinema etc after.

I’ve just stuck my nose inside my top, second day of wearing, and it still smells faintly of fabric softener. No BO at all, armpits are fine, but it has to be a very hot day to make me sweat even a tiny bit. Shower every morning. Pants and socks washed daily, everything else when they need it.

Oh there's a popular perfume at the moment that smells - to me - like a mouthful of glycerine, sweet sweet sweet. Urgh!!! I smell it EVERYWHERE. No idea what it is but can't wait for it to have its day.

everyone is way too sensitive. As unpleasant as some smells are, it’s part of life. Especially in crammed commutes/confined spaces.

FWIW I have a very strong sense of smell, I commute in a major city on public transport and it is what it is. Sometimes it can be really unpleasant but not much anyone can do.

I can’t believe some people are so genuinely offended by scented shower gels, deodorant, perfume, fabric softener. Again, part of life and I would say most people use at least one of these items 😵‍💫

🤔