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What's that smell? Oh, it's you
As has been mentioned, scent glands produce each person's individual scent, which is something everyone can smell. Post-presentation adult scents are layered and are formed of unique combinations of one to three notes. It is most common to have two or three notes with two being slightly more common, but having only one note is rather rare. Someone's scent could be a combination of anything; aloe, green tea and hints of mint, orange and bergamot, sandalwood and jasmine, or even rubbing alcohol and snow. Based on our own observations, the basis of a person's scent seems to be a combination of nature and nurture. Or put another way, it is influenced by both the core essence of an individual and their surroundings. For example, we had someone join the project who grew up on a lavender farm and their post-presentation scent smelled like the lavender they had always been around and their calm and quiet personality was represented with sandlewood. It's not always clear what note is influenced by environmental or personal factors so there is no reason to fret over it. But this is also why one note scents are rare, as it is a rare event when your environment and your personality match so well that they can be represented by one thing. On the other end of the spectrum, we never had anyone have more than three notes, but I'm sure it's certainly possible! We shall see with the entire world population how rare it might be.
The different combinations of fragrance are mixed with the ever present background aroma of humans which helps to keep even the most recognizable scents from being confused with their expected source. For example, a human emitting an apple scent and an apple will be perceived differently; not because one is a poor imitation, but because one version is produced by a plant and the other is produced by a mammal’s complex set of hormones, pheromones, bacteria and other chemical processes.
Unlike post-presentation adults, pups don’t have their own unique scent. This is one of the most noticeable and unique things about them as a Dynamic. Children from newborn to pre-adolescence, around 8 to 10 years old, mainly smell like milk. This means that milk is the most prominent note in their scent (breast milk, not cow’s milk). As they move into puberty, the milky smell will gradually become less immediately noticeable and something that smells more mild and clean, like tea tree or petricor, will take its place. Teens 14 and older typically only have hints of the milk mixed in with the rest of their scent and it is most noticeable when they are experiencing some type of emotional upset that is likely to pull it forward or even dominate the other layers in their scent entirely. Upset pups tend to smell like sour milk which is to ensure they get the attention necessary to solve the problem as quickly as possible, but is also for defense because who is going to ignore the sudden smell of sour milk anywhere?
While the milky smell makes pups smell similar and they don't have their own individual scent, they do smell like their parents or guardian which helps to keep all kids from smelling exactly alike, although siblings from the same family will smell pretty much the same so usually only their parents or close members of their family or pack can tell them apart by smell. This happens because the parental bond between parent or guardian and child causes a pups scent glands to reproduce their parents scent as a sign of belonging. Parents who have also bonded will have the common bond scent between them represented in their child instead of one of their separate individual notes.
Presented dynamics are identifiable by smell (be who you are for your pride!). This is because when the scent glands produce an individual's scent, pheromones are also released that are specific to each designation. Pheromones, in general, are blood markers attached to blood cells that are processed by the scent glands to produce a particular reaction in others, like knowing someone else's dynamic. Dynamic specific scents are a subtle background note that smells like a musk. Identification of the pheromones someone is producing happens without conscious effort, but it may be hard at first to put a designation name to the information the brain is receiving. Eventually, the brain will sort it all out and make sense of it and Thetas will smell like a Theta and so on and so forth. The only way to prevent others from detecting the pheromones would be to block the production of them, which would cause all kinds of problems in a similar way that not having hormones does, or by blocking the release of them into the air. This can be accomplished safely by clogging the pores near scent glands like an antiperspirant does, blocking them from pushing scent and pheromones out into the air; a “scent block”. But this would also limit non verbal communication as the emotional shifts in a person’s scent would no longer be detectable and the ability to scent others or objects until the block has worn off. There may also be a way to do this by lowering, but not eliminating, the level of blood marks in the body with medication of some kind, but that's something the lab is still working on.
Besides presentation and puberty, we have observed that a person's scent will only change after bonding. When two, or more (polyamory seems to be the rule rather than the exception. I'm predicting some issues with this simply because communication skills in the modern age are a little lacking) adults bond, it produces a chemical reaction that changes the scent to have a note in common with the other person and this becomes the most prominent smell for each of them. With more than two people, it seems that if there is already a couple bonded and they're bonding to a singular person, the new bondmate adopts the bond scent already in place; when it's two bonded couples bonding together, the bond scent will change again to become a common scent between all four people. The same is true with adding even more bondmates. Any pups already born before the new bond will also gradually have their scent change to match the new bond scent of their parents.
Scent glands allow for Scenting, the act of inducing the scent glands to produce a scent trace by rubbing them against something or someone. These scent traces are temporary and how long they last depends on what is being scented. Rubbing the scent gland on anything for a few seconds which will prompt it to produce a scented liquid similar to the density of aerosols and the scent left behind can be detected by anyone. Scenting things is mostly about satisfying the instinct to show possession, and mark territory, but it can also be a protective and comfort thing. It will be instinctual to scent most belongings as a way of communicating that something is yours. Of course, metal, hard plastic and other such materials are less likely to hold a scent for more than a few minutes at best. It's probably best to attach something that can be scented much more easily to those items when needed (scenting stickers? Scent tags? It wasn't really necessary for what we wanted to achieve so we wrote a note and moved on). Scenting others will similarly tell everyone else that they are involved with the other person in some way. Some examples: with people who are dating, consistent scenting indicates that there is intention to move the relationship to a committed status; between friends a light scenting whenever they see each other could mean anything from protection to illustrating how close they are, or just an easy way to find each other again in public. With family, children naturally already smell like their parents so they won't have to scent them for that, but probably will if they smell like a stranger from spending time with one, like bumping into someone or they have been around and in contact with other kids. However, since scenting will likely be a source of comfort for most people, both for the scenter and the scentee, pups will most likely want to be scented by their parents at various times and parents will be driven to scent their pups to at least provide said comfort. Grandparents or other extended family, however, would need to scent grandkids, niblings, cousins, etc to provide them with an extra level of protection in public when the pup’s parents aren't around. Amongst pack members, the leader of the pack will regularly scent their packmates to keep everyone in the group comfortable that they have a place in the pack and able to be identified as part of the pack to others.