Vodka and Smell

Many people wonder if you'll still reek of booze if you drink vodka. The logic, I guess, goes that, since vodka is rather odorless (incidentally, the more impurities in the vodka, the more it smells), others won't be able to smell it on you.

This is false!

If you drink vodka, others can smell it on you. They can smell if on your breath, and they can smell it from your pores. Yes, from your pores! Since alcohol gets into your blood—notice I said alcohol, not vodka or rum or beer—it circulates through your body and seeps out your skin. This creates its own alcoholic odor, in addition whatever your mouth may be emitting.

That you can drink vodka without smelling like you've been drinking is a wives tale. It was probably started by some ingenious advertising exec in the Smirnoff factory outside of Detroit to boost sales.

Vodka and smell: it leaves one.