I have a much weaker sense of smell than most people

Salmon makes me want to throw up

I seem to smell everything sooner than folks around me, or at least I’m usually the first to comment on it.

Thankfully, there isn’t much that irritates me other than the scent of any kind of decay.

I react to anything meant to cover smells. Like parfume, room spray, incense… I loathe fabric softener for some reason.

I can smell fear/stress and it’s unpleasant. It’s almost a metallic odor, and I can’t decouple it from provoking either stress or visceral pity, depending on the context.

I absolutely can’t stand the smell of smoked meat or any kind of pork fat (super lean cuts smell fine to me, but bacon, sausage, or any fattier cuts are anathema to me). I didn’t grow up in a pork consuming household (my dad’s the same way), so it luckily didn’t come up often growing up and I’ve had an agreement with everyone I’ve lived with as an adult that they can cook whatever they like, as long as they wait until I’m out of the house for bacon and sausage and open the windows. Nobody’s really minded and I just shut and block my bedroom door if they really can’t wait. I can still smell it, but it’s bearable.

One year at thanksgiving, my dad smoked a turkey and it was incredibly bothersome to me, but I didn’t want to say anything, because that’s rude as fuck. By the time we were mostly done eating but hadn’t yet cleared the table, I was so overstimulated that I burst into tears and ran out of the room, saying I couldn’t stand the smell. It took me a few minutes in the front yard before realizing that I (f23 at the time) had put my boyfriend (m24) back at the table with my family in an awkward position, because everyone definitely thought I was pregnant.

My husband is an apprentice butcher, and when he does days at the slaughterhouse, he smells like a combination of fear and pork fat (and blood), and weirdly like the smell of skin after a day outside in the summer. That’s normally a mild smell, but it’s so intense that it somehow overwhelms the other scents. I don’t always hate it until I think about it. He hates the slaughterhouse days and as soon as his apprenticeship is over, he wants to work for a vegan butcher shop, but they don’t offer apprenticeships (and you have to be a certified butcher to work there), so he’s got another year to go at a normal butcher shop.

Different body odors. I do combat sports so I can smell the difference between fresh sweat and people who haven’t showered or washed their clothes. Chronically unwashed hands have a distinct smell.

grass. mowing the lawn for the first time was an experience to say the least

Rain

Speaking of smells is there anyone else out there that can turn their sense of smell on or off? The best I can explain it is I have a flap that I close and poof no sense of smell. My wife says that is strange and not normal.

I get a migraine from some smells and mould dusts.

Ammonia, amines, etc. Examples include urine, fish, decomposing material that is high in protein.

It’s usually more the time than the smells themselves. Some of my coworkers will start heating their food at lunchtime, and i’ll have to go walk the production floor for a half-hour or so until it kinda dies down again. It’s not a bad food smell, but I eat later and it makes me cranky.

unrelated, but sometimes my brain gets confused about smells, like when I was going to eat my lunch today, and my first reaction to the smell was like something in the food was rotten, but a second later I recognized it was just the smell of the rosé sauce (which I enjoy a lot).

Smoke and any type of particulates are death to me. Candles, incense, scented laundry soap…

Pine disinfectant. It cuts through everything and makes me feel ill.