stillsostrange: (Romance ferrets)
[personal profile] stillsostrange
Not really a poll, alas, for it has no tickies, but I would appreciate any and all data.

If you have a decent to above average sense of smell, how do men and women smell to you? I don't mean in a sexually aroused/arousing way, or doused in supposedly-gendered body products--just a clean person smell. How would you describe commonalities of scent among men vs. women, if you notice them?

I used to have a good sense of smell, but Ashe juniper and other Texas allergens are slowly turning me anosmic. Since one of my pet peeves in fiction is supposedly superhuman senses described in only standard human detail, I would like to make sure my stunted senses aren't leading me into the same trap.

ETA: I tend to agree about the muskiness of men, as described in the comments, but I also find that men tend to smell sharper to me. Women can be musky, but will rarely be sharp. People I find pleasant-smelling tend to fall into a musky/metallic bittersweet range; less pleasant is the too-sharp/sour range. (Not sour as in unwashed, just sour.)

Date: 2011-01-06 09:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/
I'm possibly not the right person for this, as I can be over-sensitive to how some people smell. If it makes any sense at all, some people just smell wrong to me -- I don't mean that they don't wash or such things, I mean that they smell to me as if there is something unhealthy about them. It's a sort of clamminess or sourness, or even milkiness (I loathe the smell of milk).
Otherwise, smells are very individual, although I'd say that women are generally lower key in their smell than men, and that male scent is rounder (sort of earthier, but that's not quite the right word. Like clean fresh mulch? Something like that.)

Date: 2011-01-06 10:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] stillsostrange.livejournal.com
I occasionally encounter a sour sort of milkiness, which is very unpleasant, but not in the same way as illness-smell. Children often smell milky to me, and unfinished.

Date: 2011-01-06 09:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com
Men usually smell muskier, to me. I don't know a good way to describe it, but the odour is usually deeper than with women. Women don't smell light, exactly, but it's a cooler smell.

Mileage may vary, since most of the time I smell people without scent products it's in the gym or on a hot bus. And people on hot buses smell irritated and sour more than anything else.

Date: 2011-01-06 10:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] whiskeychick.livejournal.com
As I loose my hearing, my already very good eyesight and smell has gotten more sharp. The olfactory increase has been the most notable. I was actually sitting in class on Monday night and could tell without looking that the person who sat behind me was male. Past the lingering cigarette smoke, I could smell coffee, some sort of non-descript soap and salt -- salt like you find in the earth. Like what I smelled in the salt mines of Europe. Beneath that there was a small like beaten earth.

He was actually handsome.

Date: 2011-01-06 10:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] auriaephiala.livejournal.com
People each have individual smells to me. A few are revolting, but that involves poor personal hygiene and is obvious visually as well.

Most are just different -- not unpleasant at all. I find it difficult to describe those scents though; the similes aren't there.

I also find that houses/apartments have very individual smells based on who lives there (and secondarily what they cook.)

I agree that men in general have a muskier smell than women.

What really makes me want to throw up is room fresheners and those disgusting restroom cleaning products with the rancid-jellybean smell -- not people.

Date: 2011-01-06 10:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mrissa.livejournal.com
Men smell muskier and also wetter to me. I'm not sure why wetter. That's the word my brain produces when I poke it with a dull stick. (Sharp sticks not available today.)

Date: 2011-01-06 10:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] galeni.livejournal.com
I don't generally smell anything but sometimes perfume with women, but the men I get that close to smell various: old men smell...like musky old sweat. Sweaty young men smell (heavenly) like potato chips (plain salted ones -- Lays regular perhaps). Middle-aged sweaty men smell like old sweat often, a dense mushroomy smell. Some men have a slight skunk smell/taste when very close to them.

Or that's just me....

Date: 2011-01-06 11:49 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kafkonia.livejournal.com
I generally have to get close to someone to smell them, unless they're catpissmen or suchlike. As such, I don't really notice smells of people at large.

Date: 2011-01-07 01:32 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] stillnotbored.livejournal.com
I had to sit here and think about this a minute. And I realized that the majority of the time, I only notice a person's scent--other than soap, perfume, etc.--if there is some other signal or body language cue that is screaming wrong at me. I smell people, especially men, only when I'm wary for some reason or another. That scent is sour, acrid and leaves a bitter taste on the back of my tongue.

Date: 2011-01-07 01:37 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] labradors.livejournal.com
If I smell someone, it's because of their soap, cologne, laundry detergent, or their smelly feet. Sometimes there's that unwashed hair smell, almost always from men. I fail at describing it beyond 'unwashed hair' however.
Most often I notice the tangy fresh-sweat smell during summertime which seems to be pretty common across both sexes.
I had a male co-worker who smelled like cigarettes mixed with this strong, yeasty, bakery smell. Or maybe the smell of cooking pasta.
Another girl smelled like... I don't know, ferrets? Old sweater? And I had an old girl-friend who had this odd cross of slight morning breath and unbuttered popcorn, not unpleasant, but unusual. I called it 'the popcorn smell' which permeated her house and car.

Date: 2011-01-07 02:38 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jaredrackler.livejournal.com
Women, at least to me, smell softer and almost inviting while men are sharper and richer like their scent seeks you out and fills you while a woman's waits to be scented.

Date: 2011-01-07 08:38 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nathreee.livejournal.com
I feel like most women I know smell like fresh laundry to me. Pleasant, with a hint of something soapy and a little wet. Men usually have a darker smell, of coffee and sweat, but not in a bad way. I have one male friend who never drinks coffee and I think he smells wet and meaty for lack of a better word. He's a vegetarian, but the smell is just, slightly salty, a with a hint of metal and clean wetness: meaty.

Date: 2011-01-07 01:20 pm (UTC)
deakat: (Default)
From: [personal profile] deakat
Some interesting research findings reported by NPR this morning: Smell That Sadness? Female Tears Turn Off Men.

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