Let me start by saying i shower every day & am a normal clean person - but recently have been giving some thought to this whole topic
Several years ago i had an ex boyfriend who lived a couple of hundred miles away. I'd work in London & then travel up on a Friday evening to see him (i was hopelessly in love!), fighting through rush hour to make my connection with a big weekend bag, it was hot work even in winter. One night i'd made it to the midlands and was standing in the garden at a party with him, i'd showered in the morning but that was hours before and it had been a long day - i thought oh no i can smell my own underarms! Smelled a lot like weed for some reason (noticed that before and i don't smoke weed). Kept my arms by my side like a penguin (hoping to get deodorant out of my bag) when he grinned and went 'what is that beautiful smell!' and he wasn't joking, he thought someone had weed but it was just my under arms. Pheremones?! I just grinned and kept quiet, it wasn't a bad smell to be honest!
Since lockdown i've had to work from home so have generally given my skin a bit of a break from deodorant / make up every day and have been doing high intensity workouts every day, sans deodorant - sometimes i can really smell myself, which sounds awful but it's not actually bad if that makes sense, just a bit musky and strong. But i certaintly wouldn't go out in public like that (don't wear strong perfume or anything but definitely don't want BO, pass the deodorant please!)
But i thought wow, people in previous centuries must have smelled AWFUL at least by our standards, and looked it too (teeth? Make up? Hair? I can't imagine how they must have actually looked) but i am very much into (subtle, well applied) make up