We all think we know how certain things smell. But to someone else that same bottle of perfume - or piece of cheese, or glass of wine - may smell completely differently. American scientists have discovered that we all experience odours in a completely different way. Their paper, published in the Nature Neuroscience journal, reveals that 30 per cent of smell receptors differ between any two people.
— Read more at Why perfume smells different to each of us: Receptors in the nose vary by 30% in two different people at the Daily Mail.
That explains a lot!
In a way, but leaves all sorts of factors…fragrances smell different to *me* on different people…have tested this more than once in groups, standing at the fragrance counter.
The question of how the same fragrance smells different ON different people is separate to the question of how the same fragrance smells different TO different people.
They relate, but I think they often get confused.
The first has to do with the interplay between skin chemistry and perfume, while the other is independent of that – it has to do with the way different noses perceive the same chemical configuration.
I find the second even more disconcerting!
More research is needed! 😉