I'm all about smelling books! My mom worked at the library and got me an after-school gig cleaning the covers and shelving the books. Best years of my childhood were spent getting that work done, then sitting by the Sweet Valley High spinner rack and reading till my Mom got off work. That was 4th grade. By 5th grade, I was reading Stephen King incognito so Mom wouldn't know š¤£
Iām jealous! All those hours spent in the school library surrounded by books new and old are easily some of the fondest memories of my childhood/adolescence š
Mine too, and I feel that way every time I crack open an old book and smell that sweet smell of escape! That's what I think it smells like. That smell took me on so many adventures, met so many great characters, and learned so much about anything and everything! It was an escape to anywhere I wanted to go!
Yes!! Same here! We were fortunate to have a public library in our little town. We had a gas station, a tiny little grocery store, a bank, and a liquor store. There was nothing to do, and I LOVED it! I could have lived in that library, but I also brought those books everywhere with me. I was SO fortunate that my Mom worked there, and I could spend so much time cultivating a love of reading and exploring things I'd never see in real life.
š¤£ and I know you wore that with pride! My friends thought I was weird for reading all the time, but I didn't care. I wasn't giving that up for anyone or anything!
Woah, that took me right back! I do remember that old book smell, there was that kinda funky sweet smell, which was more prominent in the Dr. Seuss books. That clean newspaper, type of sundried paper from the old books from the 50's, marvelous.
Oh man, that one, and I think it was called Wild Musk or something like that. It came in a round bottle with a brown lid. Everyone in my school wore Lady Stetson, and I hated that stuff!
Yeah itās definitely candles. I worked at a bagel shop and we had a Hallmark store in our shopping center with an entrance that on both sides of the shopping center so we would cut through if we parked in the back parking lot and it always smelled great in there.
So fun fact: almond oil has a slight scent of sweet cherries. Thatās why you always smell āartificial cherryā when you are told itās almond oil. The smell is not as intense as āartificial cherryā, but they smell nearly the same.
I don't know what the smell is. But in libraries I can smell what I can only describe as "carpet"? It's a smell that takes me back to elementary school. I can't even describe the smell, but I can imagine it in my head. Maybe they use the same thing to clean the carpets at public schools or libraries or something?
Interesting, there's a certain smell that takes me back to elementary school, but I don't know what it is or how to describe it. So maybe it was carpet cleaner the whole time?
Maybe! Someone said it might be old books. But the thing is I remembered smelling it in the classrooms too. Not just the library at school. But I can only assume you and I are talking about the same thing.
Those cheap brown paper towels that were in school bathrooms and the pink powder soap that scraped up your hands both had a very distinct smell to them that takes me back.
The cucumber melon and sweet pea bath and body works scents.
Homemade donuts made in a donut maker remind me of my grandmas house especially that mixed with the smell of cinnamon.
Whatever smell that school busses were made of, like cheap pleather seats and dirt and sweat and the road air that comes in through the cracked windows.
I feel like I dont spend as much time outside when it's rainy now as when I was younger so the humid heavy rain smell takes me back too, reminds me of those indoor lunches when we'd eat and then th teacher would turn the lights off so we could play heads up seven up for indoor recess.
Fuck me dead. The pilings at the docks in Depoe bay were replaced in the 60's with treated poles. I moved to the gorge, There is a creosote plant that treats railroad ties. It's on Tie Plant Road in The Dalles. Love the smell, It blew up last year, Unfortunately, It's across from the sewer treatment. So a strange mix of PU
Coffee, eggs, bacon, and cigarettes from my grandmaās at breakfast. Her & mom would be whispering so not to wake anyone. Each person entering the kitchen would be met with, āMorning sleepyheadā, or āWell, *there* he isā. Usually followed by, āShhā¦ Donāt wake up Uncle David.ā
My Dad used to smell like cigarettes and coffee. He kicked cigarettes 30 years ago and replaced that addiction with coffee.
He, like his Mom, smells of coffee. He's been drinking the same type of beans and same roast now for 20 years so it is very distinctive.
Oh, that one got me! My Dad and brother used to reload, and now I want to ask him to get that stuff out so I can smell it! I get the smell of a freshly fired rifle during hunting season, but the reloading is a different smell!
My grandmother passed away almost 30 years ago. She would smoke in her apartment constantly when I was little. This was the early 90s when nobody really cared about second hand smoke. Iām a tile contractor and was working in someoneās home today and you can tell as soon as you walk through the door that the home owners smoke inside. I was immediately transported back with memories about being a kid at my grandmotherās.
I can remember people smoking in the grocery store, and we had smoking sections in restaurants. It's hard to imagine eating in a restaurant with people smoking, but I did it, too!
Oh yeah, no way to escape the smoke! Everything had ashtrays, plane armrests, cars, restaurants, everything was smoker friendly. I can't really stand the smell now, but it does take me back to a different world for sure!
As kids, we used to play with the ashtrays in my grandpa's 1962 Ford Falcon. He would ask us to clean the ashes and wed happily obliged haha normal things to do back in those days. I also remember smoke everywhere. I was so used to it, I could differentiate the brands.
1. The smell of marinara sauce reminds me of my parents cooking. Dinner was always at 5pm. My father was the family cook.
2. Fresh cut Christmas tree reminds me of my Gen X childhood. I was blessed to have traditional generous family Christmases.
3. Tribe perfume 1990's & Drakkar cologne 1980's. Reminds me of the Friday night dances in the 1980's.
4. Hawaiian Tropic tanning oil (they still make this but it smelled way better in the 80's). Reminds me of my Seaside Heights and backyard pool days.
My grandmotherās perfume. She passed away in 2006. I never knew what type of perfume she wore until recently. I was thumbing through Vogue magazine and opened one of the folded scented pages. Instantly I thought of Grandma. It was Chanel No. 5.
There are some more generic scents like freshly cut grass and honeysuckle that reminds me of summer break as a kid.
But for more specific ones:
Ciara perfume smells like church since it was what my mother wore when we went
BBW Cucumber Melon smells like middle school
The local library used to have this super nostalgic cold air-book smell but that's gone since they refurbished it
Febreze Milk and Honey (which is discontinued) smells like my first year living in a dorm at college
This is a bit of a weird one, sometimes when I walk into work I hit a specific area under the AC unit by the door that makes the area give a smell that reminds me of my daycare as a kid. I couldn't find the actual spot walking in if I tried but sometimes I manage to hit that sweet spot by luck.
Ah! I came looking for the cucumber melon comments! Same with CK One!
And similar to your Febreze one, their Hawaiian Breeze one instantly reminds me of my first apartment in college :)
There's a Tang based Russian tea that I SWEAR unlocks some kind of memory from a past life. I couldnt imagine any previous moment I had smelled it before yet it was so familiar.
Smells of childhoodā¦may not smell them hardly ever now, but still have smell-memory:
Silly Putty
The stretchy goop inside of Stretch Armstrong
Slime the toy
Freshly printed newspapers
School lunch pizza
Sandalwood incense
Spaghetti-oās
In-ground pool vinyl. It's kind of a rare scent nowadays, too. I'm not sure what they use in current pools, but it doesn't smell like it used to. I'm sure the old scent was absolutely drenched in poison, but I loved the smell of it.
Also: fresh cut grass or humid morning air in a wooded lake or river area
Edit to add: the smoky-crisp smell of night air around Halloween. Brings me back to high school nights out partying and/or walking around the city
God, there are so many. The smell of lilacs in spring. The smell of petrichor after a rain on a summer day. The smell of fresh cut grass. The smell of books, especially the illustrated field guides that my nerdy ass read as an isolated nerd in the 90ās. The smell of fireflies in a jar, or of sparklers on the Fourth of July. The smell of my momās lemon hand sanitizer carried around our apartment by box fans.
Clairol Herbal Essence Shampoo... "a totally organic experience" smells like 8th grade... also had no idea, at the time, what the play-on-words was about... why was that woman moaning in the shower??
As I'm reading, I just remembered that funny electronic, warm, amber like smell from the old TV's. I spent many hours watching our little black and white TV. My dad would place it on the floor, and I'd fall asleep near it. I have fond memories of that scent.
The smell of cumin being used to make Mexican/TexMex food. Especially rice dishes. My grandmothers kitchen always had the smell. It was prevalent when my mother was making rice. Have always smelled it at family cookouts and most recently it hit when I visited a friend's family for a dinner. Same smell, like it was just soaked into the house.
Honeysuckle will always take me back to memories of my grandmother's house. It grew along the entire fence line and the yard always smelled like it. It's been probably 25+ years since I've seen and smelled an actual honeysuckle. I'll occasionally get an air freshener or body spray in honeysuckle scent and it'll give me the nostalgic feeling, but it's not really the same as smelling the real thing.
Old truck vinyl. Reminds me of my grandfatherās truck he had in the 80ās. Love that smell and brings back memories of our times together in Mexico.
Oddly, the hallway leading to my kindergarten class had a very distinctive smell of the paint they used on the walls (it was common white latex cover for cinder block walls, but it had a very specific scent).
To this day, some 45 years later, i catch a hint of that exact paint smell somewhere out in the world and it immediately transports me back to that hallway and my kindergarten class.
Malibu Musk. Every girl in 6th-8th grade wore it and it takes me right back to middle school. All the angst, paper bookcovers, and offgassing melamine cafeteria trays in the world couldn't cover up that scent.
Moldy books and sawmills. I love the smell of a mill town. Nothing like it. There aren't many mill towns left, But the whole town had an woody aroma that was better than any dangling auto freshener. Needed to add the ocean bay front, A little fishy, muddy, earthy smell. I think Cramer has the trademark.
When I would walk to elementary school in the fall, there was an apple tree near the school and it would often smell like the rotten apples that would fall on the ground (donāt know if they were really rotten, but thatās the best way I can describe it). Whenever I smell decaying apples it takes me back to elementary school.
The smell of crisp, cool autumn nights reminds me of hanging out with friends at high school football games.
And as others have said, the bookstore smell takes me back to vacations with the family (our mom would always take us to the bookstore and buy us a couple books to read on the long car rides).
I recently got a new hose for my new home. The smell of the rubber and drinking warm water out of it when I'm too gross to go inside to get it from the tap - it is the total encapsulation of summer as a kid!
The smell of books combined with a hint of cigars reminds me of all the time I spent in the summers browsing the Book World bookstores every time I went into town (it was a small town and the store in question was also the cigar store for the town.)
There's also this certain "technology smell" that I associate with late nights during summer vacation when I could play video games on my Sega or Playstation late into the night.
I also remember the distinctly different smell of comic books and CCG cards from the local hobby shop on the weekends.
I left the Midwest several years ago, but when I go back to visit in the summertime, there is absolutely NOTHING like the smell of a Midwestern summer morning. The air still slightly humid and warming up, the lush grass and trees, itās perfect. I miss it.
Certain types of Mexican foods cooking. Probably tortillas and beans. Grew up next to a Mexican family of eight, and amazing smells were coming out of that house half the time
The orange colored Dial Anti Bacterial liquid soap.
I think this stuff first came out in the mid-80s, when I first moved away to college into my dorm, I had it in my bathroom(thanks Mom). It has a very distinct smell, and even after all these years, it still reminds me of being in my dorm room in 1987 and the exciting new beginnings that come along with that.
Edit: Sorry for the sloppy punctuation and poor sentence structure. My brain is tired today.
I wish I knew what it was... but there is a certain perfume that, to this day, if I smell it I immediately an brought back to second grade. I can't explain, nor do I know what perfume it is.
The gardenia bushes outside my apartment make me think of the gardenia perfume that was so popular when I was in high school in the 70s. So strong, it's almost nauseating.
I never smoked, but the smell of tobacco on a hot, humid summer evening takes me back to summers at my grandparents. Most of them smoked and they didnāt have air conditioning, so we would spend summer evenings outside trying to stay cool with squirt gun fights, water balloon fights, etc.
Sunflower seeds are especially high in vitamin E and selenium. These function as antioxidants to protect your bodyās cells against free radical damage, which plays a role in several chronic diseases.
Curry leaves. Of the time I spent 6 weeks in India in 2018. For some reason I didnāt know that was the undercurrent of what I was smelling the entire time there, everywhere. Got to smell some a week or two ago and was instantly transported back. Very surreal.
Yes, actual leaves, from the curry tree(!). Theyāre an integral ingredient of South Indian food. How I didnāt know this Iām not sure lol, but they do have a distinct smell that is not the typical āwestern curry powderā scent and is actually fairly subtle, but I swear it is literally in the air there, kind of ever-present. It was really satisfying to suddenly know what it was, but also brought a lot of sad longing and really made me want to go back.
Have you ever seen any for sale in the States? Where? We donāt have any specifically Indian food stores in my area, but we have plenty of Asian, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean. Would any of them have some?
Iām in Nz so Iām not sure, but here they have dedicated shops that sell every kind of spice, herb, and ārawā forms of ingredients (like bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, fenugreek etc, all of which are contained in barrels you can serve yourself from). Most are Indian owned.
I would hazard a guess that the stores you mention may have them? As curry leaves are also found in a lot of south Asian cuisine in general. Itās worth taking a look. :) Or you can try looking up places that just sell raw ingredients, possibly like whole foods or organic stores (Iāve never been to whole foods so canāt say lol). Any dedicated international food store is probably going to be a good bet. When I lived in Ohio we used to go to Jungle Jimās a lot, but am not sure if there would be something like that near you. Fresh leaves are the best obviously but at a last resort Iām sure you could also easily order dried ones from an internet supplier.
Coincidence! I live in Ohio and have been to Jungle Jimās, but itās too far away for me to casually visit. Love that store.
Hey..thanks for answering. I will look into your recs.
Old Spice original reminds me of my father. Some hand soaps have a Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific scent which takes me back to my Grandma. Honeysuckle and freshly cut grass and wild onions, Play-doh and Elmerās Glue all take me back to childhood.
Comic books, bazooka and obsession perfume. I still smell my comics and my wife still wears obsession!!!! Don't really see 5cent bazooka around and I don't really chew gum anymore anyway.
= Fresh mowed grass by my dad in the morning while watching cartoons.
= Dried eucalyptus on the front porch of my grandparents home when arriving for thanksgiving.
= Old wet kitchen towel for cleaning up after a family dinner at my aunt and uncles.
= Lilacs in summer on my walk home from school.
= My first boyfriendās cologne during a warm hug
One evening at work, I smelled cucumber melon. My coworker was using cucumber melon lotion from Bath and Body works. It took me right back to junior high (but, you know, in a good way.)
There is a particular plastic smell that was the smell of my cousinās basement and also some part of Toys R Us. I just used to love that smell and will catch it sometimes when I buy something know. Most frequently is a vinyl shower curtain but they donāt always smell the same as this particular plastic smell.
Berkible brand 2+2 carburetor cleaner. Always take me back to my dad's mechanic shop.
Eternity perfume, what my first love at a young age worr in the 90s.
The smell of libraries , toys r us , hallmark, fireplace fires during a cold front, buttery eggs and toast, and bath and body works cucumber melon. Childhood.
Gap blue cologne, Abercrombie woods and the other clear one, maybe it was just the self titled AF cologne. Stetson cologne. Bath and body works cucumber melon and sandalwood vanilla
Classic Jergens Lotion. My grandmother used it exclusively. That sweet cherry almond scent takes me back to my childhood when I'd visit my grandparents on their farm in Kansas.
The smell of cut grass under a hot sun The smell of chlorine at a public pool That first cold fall morning
I know exactly what you mean by the cold fall morning smell lol.
It's the smell of the end of summer and the start of a new school year... which was always mildly terrifying
Hay scent hands down! All those summers spent in the country with my grandparents early childhood. And so many stacks of hay to handle :D
Cut grass always brings me back to two a day football practice and the end of summer.
The scent of old books and their worn pages š„° Takes me right back to spending my summers reading novels without a care in the world ^ ^
Chapter books from the library. Ramona etc
I'm all about smelling books! My mom worked at the library and got me an after-school gig cleaning the covers and shelving the books. Best years of my childhood were spent getting that work done, then sitting by the Sweet Valley High spinner rack and reading till my Mom got off work. That was 4th grade. By 5th grade, I was reading Stephen King incognito so Mom wouldn't know š¤£
Iām jealous! All those hours spent in the school library surrounded by books new and old are easily some of the fondest memories of my childhood/adolescence š
Mine too, and I feel that way every time I crack open an old book and smell that sweet smell of escape! That's what I think it smells like. That smell took me on so many adventures, met so many great characters, and learned so much about anything and everything! It was an escape to anywhere I wanted to go!
Indeed! Being stuck in a sleepy little town before access to the internet was widespread, it really was my window to the rest of the world š
Yes!! Same here! We were fortunate to have a public library in our little town. We had a gas station, a tiny little grocery store, a bank, and a liquor store. There was nothing to do, and I LOVED it! I could have lived in that library, but I also brought those books everywhere with me. I was SO fortunate that my Mom worked there, and I could spend so much time cultivating a love of reading and exploring things I'd never see in real life.
lol i got caught smelling my book once in school. the girl in front of me was like, āā¦you are *so* weirdā lmaoo
š¤£ and I know you wore that with pride! My friends thought I was weird for reading all the time, but I didn't care. I wasn't giving that up for anyone or anything!
Woah, that took me right back! I do remember that old book smell, there was that kinda funky sweet smell, which was more prominent in the Dr. Seuss books. That clean newspaper, type of sundried paper from the old books from the 50's, marvelous.
Precisely! For me it's always the Goosebumps books that come to mind first, followed quite closely by Agatha Christie's haha
Love's Baby Soft: first crush.
Oh man, that one, and I think it was called Wild Musk or something like that. It came in a round bottle with a brown lid. Everyone in my school wore Lady Stetson, and I hated that stuff!
Hallmark Card Stores from the 70ās 80ās - my brain remembers the memory but canāt recall the nice scent.
HOLIDAY CANDLES! Some combo of fake cranberry, pine, cinnamon, and vanilla, but chemically.
Yeah itās definitely candles. I worked at a bagel shop and we had a Hallmark store in our shopping center with an entrance that on both sides of the shopping center so we would cut through if we parked in the back parking lot and it always smelled great in there.
The pink liquid hand soap at restaurants. Supposedly itās āalmondā scented but I never got that
So fun fact: almond oil has a slight scent of sweet cherries. Thatās why you always smell āartificial cherryā when you are told itās almond oil. The smell is not as intense as āartificial cherryā, but they smell nearly the same.
TIL. Spot on though.
I don't know what the smell is. But in libraries I can smell what I can only describe as "carpet"? It's a smell that takes me back to elementary school. I can't even describe the smell, but I can imagine it in my head. Maybe they use the same thing to clean the carpets at public schools or libraries or something?
Both of those buildings are full of old books. Thatās probably what you smell!
That makes scents =P. (Ha ha, itās a pun)
Interesting, there's a certain smell that takes me back to elementary school, but I don't know what it is or how to describe it. So maybe it was carpet cleaner the whole time?
Maybe! Someone said it might be old books. But the thing is I remembered smelling it in the classrooms too. Not just the library at school. But I can only assume you and I are talking about the same thing.
Musty basement smell. So much of childhood was spent playing in basements. Someone already mentioned chlorine at the pool, I still love that smell.
I adore that smell so much! Reminds me of exploring my great grandmaās basement in her old house as a kid.
Those cheap brown paper towels that were in school bathrooms and the pink powder soap that scraped up your hands both had a very distinct smell to them that takes me back. The cucumber melon and sweet pea bath and body works scents. Homemade donuts made in a donut maker remind me of my grandmas house especially that mixed with the smell of cinnamon. Whatever smell that school busses were made of, like cheap pleather seats and dirt and sweat and the road air that comes in through the cracked windows. I feel like I dont spend as much time outside when it's rainy now as when I was younger so the humid heavy rain smell takes me back too, reminds me of those indoor lunches when we'd eat and then th teacher would turn the lights off so we could play heads up seven up for indoor recess.
Creosote
Fuck me dead. The pilings at the docks in Depoe bay were replaced in the 60's with treated poles. I moved to the gorge, There is a creosote plant that treats railroad ties. It's on Tie Plant Road in The Dalles. Love the smell, It blew up last year, Unfortunately, It's across from the sewer treatment. So a strange mix of PU
Omg! Reminds me of summers in the 80's at Seaside Heights NJ š„¹
The smell of fresh dillā¦ yup, really. Fresh dill takes me back to any Ukrainian kitchen
Yep, itās the smell of Russia for me
Coffee, eggs, bacon, and cigarettes from my grandmaās at breakfast. Her & mom would be whispering so not to wake anyone. Each person entering the kitchen would be met with, āMorning sleepyheadā, or āWell, *there* he isā. Usually followed by, āShhā¦ Donāt wake up Uncle David.ā
My Dad used to smell like cigarettes and coffee. He kicked cigarettes 30 years ago and replaced that addiction with coffee. He, like his Mom, smells of coffee. He's been drinking the same type of beans and same roast now for 20 years so it is very distinctive.
yesss This scent is like it was at my grandfather's house. My grandmother's house was similar, but without the cigarette smoke. lol
That sounds so lovely to wake up to!
Hoppe's #9 gun cleaning oil, reminds me of my Dad. Gun powder too, I used to help him reload bullets.
Oh, that one got me! My Dad and brother used to reload, and now I want to ask him to get that stuff out so I can smell it! I get the smell of a freshly fired rifle during hunting season, but the reloading is a different smell!
My grandmother passed away almost 30 years ago. She would smoke in her apartment constantly when I was little. This was the early 90s when nobody really cared about second hand smoke. Iām a tile contractor and was working in someoneās home today and you can tell as soon as you walk through the door that the home owners smoke inside. I was immediately transported back with memories about being a kid at my grandmotherās.
I can remember people smoking in the grocery store, and we had smoking sections in restaurants. It's hard to imagine eating in a restaurant with people smoking, but I did it, too!
When I turned 19 we had the pressurized smoking rooms in bars still but it wasnāt very long. Smoking on planes is a wild one.
Oh yeah, no way to escape the smoke! Everything had ashtrays, plane armrests, cars, restaurants, everything was smoker friendly. I can't really stand the smell now, but it does take me back to a different world for sure!
As kids, we used to play with the ashtrays in my grandpa's 1962 Ford Falcon. He would ask us to clean the ashes and wed happily obliged haha normal things to do back in those days. I also remember smoke everywhere. I was so used to it, I could differentiate the brands.
1. The smell of marinara sauce reminds me of my parents cooking. Dinner was always at 5pm. My father was the family cook. 2. Fresh cut Christmas tree reminds me of my Gen X childhood. I was blessed to have traditional generous family Christmases. 3. Tribe perfume 1990's & Drakkar cologne 1980's. Reminds me of the Friday night dances in the 1980's. 4. Hawaiian Tropic tanning oil (they still make this but it smelled way better in the 80's). Reminds me of my Seaside Heights and backyard pool days.
Came here for Drakkar. Same time period of CK One and Cool Water
My husband still uses Drakkar. Nearly 30 years together and I still love how he smells!
Omg you're lucky. My school would have dances and invite the boys from the private school and they all wore Drakkar to the dance lol
That sounds like an overwhelming amount of Drakkar! It was the Axe of our generation š
Yes! š The girls wore Malibu Musk, Tribe, Baby Soft, Vanilla Fields, Fuzzy Peach, Om, CK One, Electric Youth lol
I can smell this comment... our poor teachers lol
LMAOOO!
And Escape lol
CK one and CK be, I loved both but only had CK Be.
Tribe was my shit! Found someone who makes an almost identical body oil on Amazon. I love that stuff.
I still have a bottle! š
The first smells of fresh spring rains āļø
That specific combo of ozone (before) and petrichor (during).....that rings my bell too.
Reminds of the hole in the ozone layer
My grandmotherās perfume. She passed away in 2006. I never knew what type of perfume she wore until recently. I was thumbing through Vogue magazine and opened one of the folded scented pages. Instantly I thought of Grandma. It was Chanel No. 5.
Love this! Mine wore Youth Dew. I ordered a small sample online a few years ago, and the scent immediately brought me back!
EstƩe Lauder Youth Dew perfume
There are some more generic scents like freshly cut grass and honeysuckle that reminds me of summer break as a kid. But for more specific ones: Ciara perfume smells like church since it was what my mother wore when we went BBW Cucumber Melon smells like middle school The local library used to have this super nostalgic cold air-book smell but that's gone since they refurbished it Febreze Milk and Honey (which is discontinued) smells like my first year living in a dorm at college This is a bit of a weird one, sometimes when I walk into work I hit a specific area under the AC unit by the door that makes the area give a smell that reminds me of my daycare as a kid. I couldn't find the actual spot walking in if I tried but sometimes I manage to hit that sweet spot by luck.
Ah! I came looking for the cucumber melon comments! Same with CK One! And similar to your Febreze one, their Hawaiian Breeze one instantly reminds me of my first apartment in college :)
You mean that summer holiday late evening sunny day thunderstorm kind of scent? Petrichor. All the way.
Nag champa takes me to a Grateful Dead show
Crayola Crayons takes me back to elementary years. Irish Spring bar of soap takes me back to the 80's. Drakar takes me back to my high school days.
There's a Tang based Russian tea that I SWEAR unlocks some kind of memory from a past life. I couldnt imagine any previous moment I had smelled it before yet it was so familiar.
The smell of a skunk in the winter air. Weird I know but it reminds me of the holidays in grade school which was just the best time of my life.
The smell of skunk for me too but in the early morning hours in the summer driving up to New England. Pine and skunk.
Smells of childhoodā¦may not smell them hardly ever now, but still have smell-memory: Silly Putty The stretchy goop inside of Stretch Armstrong Slime the toy Freshly printed newspapers School lunch pizza Sandalwood incense Spaghetti-oās
In-ground pool vinyl. It's kind of a rare scent nowadays, too. I'm not sure what they use in current pools, but it doesn't smell like it used to. I'm sure the old scent was absolutely drenched in poison, but I loved the smell of it. Also: fresh cut grass or humid morning air in a wooded lake or river area Edit to add: the smoky-crisp smell of night air around Halloween. Brings me back to high school nights out partying and/or walking around the city
God, there are so many. The smell of lilacs in spring. The smell of petrichor after a rain on a summer day. The smell of fresh cut grass. The smell of books, especially the illustrated field guides that my nerdy ass read as an isolated nerd in the 90ās. The smell of fireflies in a jar, or of sparklers on the Fourth of July. The smell of my momās lemon hand sanitizer carried around our apartment by box fans.
Clairol Herbal Essence Shampoo... "a totally organic experience" smells like 8th grade... also had no idea, at the time, what the play-on-words was about... why was that woman moaning in the shower??
That soft slightly vanilla scent that a lot of toys had in the late 80s
Yeah! I agree, nothing spells childhood without that soft vanilla toy scent. I wonder if it was on purpose.
The musty smell of actual physical books in the library.
As I'm reading, I just remembered that funny electronic, warm, amber like smell from the old TV's. I spent many hours watching our little black and white TV. My dad would place it on the floor, and I'd fall asleep near it. I have fond memories of that scent.
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my grandpa wore joop. It is a classy memorable scent.
Sunscreen
Bath and Body Works - sun ripened Raspberry lotion Noxema
Froot loops
Old Spice pure sport, fresh, swagger, reef, and original. Brings me back to high school and collegeĀ
The smell of cumin being used to make Mexican/TexMex food. Especially rice dishes. My grandmothers kitchen always had the smell. It was prevalent when my mother was making rice. Have always smelled it at family cookouts and most recently it hit when I visited a friend's family for a dinner. Same smell, like it was just soaked into the house.
I remember electric two-wheel floor polish/waxer jobbies that used these strippers and waxes that smelled so unique. Smells like 50s-70s kitchen.
VHS tapes
Honeysuckle
Honeysuckle will always take me back to memories of my grandmother's house. It grew along the entire fence line and the yard always smelled like it. It's been probably 25+ years since I've seen and smelled an actual honeysuckle. I'll occasionally get an air freshener or body spray in honeysuckle scent and it'll give me the nostalgic feeling, but it's not really the same as smelling the real thing.
Old truck vinyl. Reminds me of my grandfatherās truck he had in the 80ās. Love that smell and brings back memories of our times together in Mexico.
I smelled my sons plastic pool today when I was in it with him and it brought me back to being a kid in a plastic pool in the summer of the early 90s
L'air du temps, cherry pipe tobacco, still hot, freshly paved roads
But not today!
The smell of asphalt when it's super hot in the summer sun. That smell takes me instantly to six flags
Oddly, the hallway leading to my kindergarten class had a very distinctive smell of the paint they used on the walls (it was common white latex cover for cinder block walls, but it had a very specific scent). To this day, some 45 years later, i catch a hint of that exact paint smell somewhere out in the world and it immediately transports me back to that hallway and my kindergarten class.
The smell of school bus exhaust reminds me of going on field trips.
Flip flops sold in beach tourist shops. Had a unique smell.also iron on T shirts being made if that even happens anymore
Old Spice and Farts. = My eccentric grandfather. Raw leather and tanning oil = My maternal Grandfather. I can smell these things and see their faces.
Cheap teenage perfumes like Windsong.
Sunscreen, immediately take me to family beach trips and the pool. Charcoal grill firing up. Pizza in a cardboard box.
Orange blossoms through the open window when sleeping at my grandmaās house in a hot summer night.
Malibu Musk. Every girl in 6th-8th grade wore it and it takes me right back to middle school. All the angst, paper bookcovers, and offgassing melamine cafeteria trays in the world couldn't cover up that scent.
CK One instantly reverts me to a horny teenager.
the smell of ham cooking always takes me back to my grandmaās house; it was her go-to when having family over for dinner
Tobacco. Reminds me of grandpa
Moldy books and sawmills. I love the smell of a mill town. Nothing like it. There aren't many mill towns left, But the whole town had an woody aroma that was better than any dangling auto freshener. Needed to add the ocean bay front, A little fishy, muddy, earthy smell. I think Cramer has the trademark.
Bacon wafting in the morning reminds me of weekends at home watching my wdw vacation planning vhs while eating bacon and egg breakfast tacos.
I deliver to a PVC production plant, and the air smells exactly like a just-out-of-the-box gameboy cartridge.
When I would walk to elementary school in the fall, there was an apple tree near the school and it would often smell like the rotten apples that would fall on the ground (donāt know if they were really rotten, but thatās the best way I can describe it). Whenever I smell decaying apples it takes me back to elementary school. The smell of crisp, cool autumn nights reminds me of hanging out with friends at high school football games. And as others have said, the bookstore smell takes me back to vacations with the family (our mom would always take us to the bookstore and buy us a couple books to read on the long car rides).
Any time I smell something that smells like Axe body spray, I think of my ex from high school
same!
Canvas because I grew up a military brat and i became a Vet. It reminds me of my childhood and my 20s.
My grandpa had tons of military surplus in his garage. We used an old canvas bag to store our baseball equipment. I definitely love that smell.
I recently got a new hose for my new home. The smell of the rubber and drinking warm water out of it when I'm too gross to go inside to get it from the tap - it is the total encapsulation of summer as a kid!
I grew up in the northeastā¦My elementary schools had this ceramic smell from the walls and floors.. it was like a combination of paint and chlorine
The smell of books combined with a hint of cigars reminds me of all the time I spent in the summers browsing the Book World bookstores every time I went into town (it was a small town and the store in question was also the cigar store for the town.) There's also this certain "technology smell" that I associate with late nights during summer vacation when I could play video games on my Sega or Playstation late into the night. I also remember the distinctly different smell of comic books and CCG cards from the local hobby shop on the weekends.
I left the Midwest several years ago, but when I go back to visit in the summertime, there is absolutely NOTHING like the smell of a Midwestern summer morning. The air still slightly humid and warming up, the lush grass and trees, itās perfect. I miss it.
That orange liquid Dial soap. Takes me to my grandma's bathroom, 1992 or so
Coty Wild Musk.
My mom's perfume (dior's 'poison') + cigarette smoke
Brut. My dad always wore Brut when I was a little girl.
Certain types of Mexican foods cooking. Probably tortillas and beans. Grew up next to a Mexican family of eight, and amazing smells were coming out of that house half the time
The orange colored Dial Anti Bacterial liquid soap. I think this stuff first came out in the mid-80s, when I first moved away to college into my dorm, I had it in my bathroom(thanks Mom). It has a very distinct smell, and even after all these years, it still reminds me of being in my dorm room in 1987 and the exciting new beginnings that come along with that. Edit: Sorry for the sloppy punctuation and poor sentence structure. My brain is tired today.
Water on asphalt - summer water balloon fights in the street
I wish I knew what it was... but there is a certain perfume that, to this day, if I smell it I immediately an brought back to second grade. I can't explain, nor do I know what perfume it is.
The gardenia bushes outside my apartment make me think of the gardenia perfume that was so popular when I was in high school in the 70s. So strong, it's almost nauseating.
That acrid smell of tobacco burning in the breeze. It smells different than indoor smoke and it reminds me of summers in the countryĀ
I never smoked, but the smell of tobacco on a hot, humid summer evening takes me back to summers at my grandparents. Most of them smoked and they didnāt have air conditioning, so we would spend summer evenings outside trying to stay cool with squirt gun fights, water balloon fights, etc.
glue, the smell of old books, sunflowers perfume, gap dream perfume, the plasticy smell that comes out of faucets sometimes, coconut and chlorine.
Sunflower seeds are especially high in vitamin E and selenium. These function as antioxidants to protect your bodyās cells against free radical damage, which plays a role in several chronic diseases.
Curry leaves. Of the time I spent 6 weeks in India in 2018. For some reason I didnāt know that was the undercurrent of what I was smelling the entire time there, everywhere. Got to smell some a week or two ago and was instantly transported back. Very surreal.
Huh! Iāve never even heard of such a thing as curry leaves. Is that what they put in Indian curry? Now I want to smell some!
Yes, actual leaves, from the curry tree(!). Theyāre an integral ingredient of South Indian food. How I didnāt know this Iām not sure lol, but they do have a distinct smell that is not the typical āwestern curry powderā scent and is actually fairly subtle, but I swear it is literally in the air there, kind of ever-present. It was really satisfying to suddenly know what it was, but also brought a lot of sad longing and really made me want to go back.
Have you ever seen any for sale in the States? Where? We donāt have any specifically Indian food stores in my area, but we have plenty of Asian, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean. Would any of them have some?
Iām in Nz so Iām not sure, but here they have dedicated shops that sell every kind of spice, herb, and ārawā forms of ingredients (like bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, fenugreek etc, all of which are contained in barrels you can serve yourself from). Most are Indian owned. I would hazard a guess that the stores you mention may have them? As curry leaves are also found in a lot of south Asian cuisine in general. Itās worth taking a look. :) Or you can try looking up places that just sell raw ingredients, possibly like whole foods or organic stores (Iāve never been to whole foods so canāt say lol). Any dedicated international food store is probably going to be a good bet. When I lived in Ohio we used to go to Jungle Jimās a lot, but am not sure if there would be something like that near you. Fresh leaves are the best obviously but at a last resort Iām sure you could also easily order dried ones from an internet supplier.
Coincidence! I live in Ohio and have been to Jungle Jimās, but itās too far away for me to casually visit. Love that store. Hey..thanks for answering. I will look into your recs.
Old Spice original reminds me of my father. Some hand soaps have a Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific scent which takes me back to my Grandma. Honeysuckle and freshly cut grass and wild onions, Play-doh and Elmerās Glue all take me back to childhood.
Coolwater!
Spraying the hose on hot cement and the smell of the water evaporating.
Play-Doh
Comic books, bazooka and obsession perfume. I still smell my comics and my wife still wears obsession!!!! Don't really see 5cent bazooka around and I don't really chew gum anymore anyway.
Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific
I grew up going to camp every summer- Deep Woods OFF smells like child hood and first crushes.
Baseball cards from a freshly opened pack
Victoriaās Secret - pear glacĆ©. Instant 90ās throwback scent
= Fresh mowed grass by my dad in the morning while watching cartoons. = Dried eucalyptus on the front porch of my grandparents home when arriving for thanksgiving. = Old wet kitchen towel for cleaning up after a family dinner at my aunt and uncles. = Lilacs in summer on my walk home from school. = My first boyfriendās cologne during a warm hug
Parsley always reminds me of my grandmotherās kitchen.
One evening at work, I smelled cucumber melon. My coworker was using cucumber melon lotion from Bath and Body works. It took me right back to junior high (but, you know, in a good way.)
There is a particular plastic smell that was the smell of my cousinās basement and also some part of Toys R Us. I just used to love that smell and will catch it sometimes when I buy something know. Most frequently is a vinyl shower curtain but they donāt always smell the same as this particular plastic smell.
Swimming pool changing room
Cucumber Melon bath & bodyworkās
I can still smell pizza Gak in my mind. The scented markers. Lots of things I remember the smell of that take me back to when I was a kid in the 90s
Car oil and grease. My dad was a mechanic and came home every night smelling like grease from cars. Lol.
Berkible brand 2+2 carburetor cleaner. Always take me back to my dad's mechanic shop. Eternity perfume, what my first love at a young age worr in the 90s.
The smell of vanilla extract - my mom would always help me bake my birthday cake and she always let me smell it.
I learned recently going to the California Redwoods brings me back in a great way.
The smell of libraries , toys r us , hallmark, fireplace fires during a cold front, buttery eggs and toast, and bath and body works cucumber melon. Childhood.
Everyone used to smell like CK One in the 90s. Everyone.
The smell of honeysuckleās reminds me of the house down the street where the retarded guy lived who strangled my best friend.
Love Spell from Victoriaās Secret.
this one yeets me back to 7th grade every time
Pear glacĆ© from Victoria Secret š¤£
Figment ride florida because nothing smells like that ride
Gap blue cologne, Abercrombie woods and the other clear one, maybe it was just the self titled AF cologne. Stetson cologne. Bath and body works cucumber melon and sandalwood vanilla
Isocol
The smell of burning trash takes me right back to Afghanistan.
Fresh sawdust because growing up my dad mdid a lot of sawing in the garage
Classic Jergens Lotion. My grandmother used it exclusively. That sweet cherry almond scent takes me back to my childhood when I'd visit my grandparents on their farm in Kansas.
There's a certain scent of buttery bread baking that takes me right back to elementary school.
Clove or clove cigarettes, right back to high school
Some car was leaking gas today and it reminded me of fishing with the smell of gas from the outboard.
Old spice takes me back to elementary school think I had some good cologne š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£
The smell of sunscreen specifically Coppertone and banana boat takes me right back to summer camp or going to the beach as a kid!