The scents that get people gagging the most are usually bin juice or rotting fish

I can tell you exactly what fear smells like: poo, vomit, urine and sweat. I know because it’s my job to bottle it as a scent. I’m a professional “themed smell consultant”, which means it’s my job to create scents for theme parks and scare attractions. My role is to evoke fear in people, using smells. If I do it right, people will want to gag, cry or run away.

For the past 50 years, the company I work for, AromaPrime, has created hundreds of smells for theme parks, museums, and other businesses. We’ve made historical smells such as a Victorian street for a museum, and fantastical ones like zombies for scare attractions. One of my favourite projects involved creating dinosaur smells for an exhibition. We’ve also worked with Alzheimer’s patients in care homes, and created “scent boxes” that evoke happy memories, such as pear drops.