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my girlfriend told me everyone has a smell and she can smell their individual smells (apparently I smell like coconut and woodchips?). I have never been able to smell the scent of a person and now I'm confused as to if everyone can do this or not?
Dogs are able to identify individual humans by scent alone, so that suggests we do each have a specific odour.
I've read that some scientists believe humans have all the necessary equipment to be just as good (or nearly as good) at smelling things as dogs are. Apparently, since we're more tuned in to vision, we just don't pay much conscious attention to scents. There have been experiments which seem to show that we are aware of them at a subconscious level, and how people smell has a strong influence on things like how attractive we find them on first meeting.
There were reports in the British media a while back about a woman who had discovered that people who had Parkinson's Disease had a distinctive odour for her. She participated in an experiment which showed she was right 98% of the time. During the trial, it was thought she made a mistake with some people, because they didn't have PD, but she thought they did. It transpired that those people were later diagnosed with the disease. Almost spooky.
It sounds like your girlfriend is one of those people tuned into her olfactory sense. There are jobs which require this uncommon ability, so maybe she could find a career where she spends her days sniffing. There are worse ways of making a living.
If you're really sceptical about her abilities, you could ask her if you can do an experiment: buy five identical new t-shirts, wash them thoroughly with detergent once, then run them through the washing machine cycle without detergent a couple of times to get rid of the detergent's perfume. Get four friends of yours to wear the shirts overnight. Ideally, you should all shower with unscented soap before bed and not put on any sort of scented products after. Put the used shirts in sealed plastic bags numbered to identify who wore which shirt, and ask if she can pick out yours and if she has any idea who might have worn the others. Leave the room while she's doing this, so she can't pick up any subconscious cues you might give her.
Interestingly dogs are able to identify seizures before they happen. It was thought they were picking up on body language and microexpressions, but there are schools of thought that suggests it's likely related to smell. They have also been able to detect cancer.
I'm sure everyone does, though as an ex smoker, i rarely notice. There are people with heightened senses who are more sensitive to things like smell. it must be comforting to receive such a good verdict from a super smeller. At least you don't smell like microwaved fish or cat pee and dumpster fires. Relish your woodsy tropical scent.
I recognise peoples scents all the time. I also notice breathing patterns.
Dogs can smell it. Ive a strong sense of smell but even i cant smell the scent of a person unless they are wearing perfume or something.