to think that people who drink to excess smell?

[sevenkeystomysoul]

A friend who drinks, a lot, has been round my house recently and I had to open all windows, burn entire collection of scented candles after they left. Not an alcohol smell, but a kind of sweet, sickly, all-pervading aroma that seems to stick to your clothes, and is really, really unpleasant. I do drink myself, not to excess, but have never come across this before. Am I being weird or is this common?

is your friend fat as well?

of course drink makes people smell, assuming you are commenting cos they were sober in your house?

No, not fat. And SlartyBartFast, it wasn't a 'drink' smell, more sort of sweet and cloying with an unpleasant undertone and very, very difficult to get rid of.

I'd noticed that before on people who've been drinking a lot, but afterwards rather than whilst they're drunk - the smell reminds me a bit of rancid butter. Not on the breath, but sort of seeping out of the skin.

how much do they drink? is there any possibility they have liver failure or cirrhosis?
if youve been around many serious alcoholics they do sometimes have a smell which is pretty distinctive - fetor hepaticus - combination of substances that they cant metabolise - its a sort of foul sweet musky smell on their breath. In my experience this smell is pretty distinctive and can be distinguished over general unwashedness, or fresh alcohol (which sadly sometimes coexist with it)

NB: Im not saying that this is definitely what the OPs friend has or indeed that she should approach the subject with her friend: just that it is possible to have a distinctive smell that results from alcohol misuse without casting aspersions on anyones personal habits

but I have a sad feeling that this post might kill the thread

This is what I was thinking pingviner, it's a smell that has got progressively worse over the last few weeks, although this person has been a heavy drinker for a long time, I'm wondering whether it is an indication of the onset of illness. This person is extremely clean, but the smell just seems to be always there recently. I was in their house recently and it was very noticeable. My DD comes back from their house with this very distinctive smell on her. Not sure whether its on the breath or they're just exuding it from their pores, but it's, like you say, a foul sweet musky smell.

Pingviner has nailed it, I think.

In a previous job I used to visit very vulnerable benefit customers in their homes. The dirtiest, filthiest houses always had a sickly sweet cloying smell that seemed to cling to my clothes for hours. It wasn't how you imagine dirty houses would smell and very few of of my clients had alcohol issues

I know you say you've been in their home recently and it wasn't that bad but maybe it was just tidy but not clean? It's an unmistakeable smell. Your friend might be bathing/showering but if her house smells like that then so will she and her clothes, drink problem or not.

yep, my ex had a sweet smell to him, its horrible!

A friend of mine shared a house with a woman who drank excessively, she also had an aunt who was an alcoholic. She said after the first couple of weeks sharing the house (when the woman was on best behaviour), she noticed that smell and recognised it immediately as one she associated with her aunt. I think it's different to the ususal boozy breath some people (not me of course ) have after a night out.

Definitely something to it.

Yes they do.I think it just starts to ooze out of their pores.

Like biddysmama, my ex (who was an alcoholic) also had this distinctive smell. He was aware of it and said he didn't need to wear deodorant because he smelled sweet.

It is probably ketones being produced due to having low blood sugar from processing the alchohol. Similar to people on Atkins.

I know the smell you mean. It is vile. Clearly something horrible going on in the body. Poor buggers.

I can't say I've ever smelled this.

The guy downstairs just smells of brewery/fags.

Yes, I used to work with an alcholic and she smelt terribly, throughout the day even when she hadn't had a drink for a few hours

Oh, alcohol can definitely be smelled as it is working its way out of the system the next day. I've even found it possible to tell the difference between beer and vodka. Scary, eh? No need for Big Brother when Nosey Neighbour is on the case!