We have a linen closet that for a time in my childhood was emptied out and made to serve as the “Nintendo room”, containing an NES hooked up to an old Commodore 64 monitor. I still associate that fabric/crafty smell with 8-bit gaming.
I also love the smell of sun soaked dog fur.
Sagebrush after a summer rain
Skin after the swimming pool (gentle chlorine smell), flourine, curry, my wife’s hair, freshly baked bread, roast chicken, clothes that have been dried outside.
My favorite smells are the few that nearly transport me back in time, maybe like some form of déjà vu but I can’t quite pinpoint what exactly those scents are. I’d never be able to recreate them intentionally. Two different soap scents bring me to two different familiar childhood places. Sometimes when I come back in through the back door I get a rather neutral smell but also very intense feeling like I’m suddenly at an old friend’s rental house from decades ago. There’s one smell that instantly brings me back to a childhood scratch n’ sniff book. As a side note, I find that nostalgic textures bring back strong memories too.
When I was a kid, my friends and I thought it was funny when an older woman mentioned to us that she loved the smell of crayons and that they brought her back to her childhood. Now I understand!
Water. Whether it’s ocean water, creek water, water on trees in the woods, spring rain, summer rain, fall rain (they all have different scents), or the smell of rain from miles away mixed with ozone from summer storms, even lightly chlorinated pool water can smell good in the right circumstances.
That and my cats fur. He always either smells like clean laundry, even if he’s been nowhere near any laundry, or if it’s a windy day and he’s been sitting at the window he smells like fresh air.
The smell of firing up a brand new toaster. It’s a very particular smell and an extremely rare one. I think I’ve only smelled it 3 times in my entire life. That’s less than once a decade.
Tomato plants. Pet fur. Orange blossom. Generic institution bathroom cleaner. Seaweed. My partner’s clean breath
Taking a hit out of my cats fur after a long stressful day is the best relaxation technique I’ve found
fuel rich exhaust from an old truck with cigarette smoke.
if I’m lucky I’ll smell it once every few years and it sends me back to the handful of good memories I had with my father.
otherwise it’s fresh cut pine lumber from a construction site with early morning dew and dirt.
Ah yes, those god awful smells that your brain tells you are nice because of nostalgia. So funny how the brain works. 🥰
Although I used to like the smell of car exhaust when I was a kid, without nostalgia. That’s a bit weird.
Cardamom rich coffee
Night blooming cereus
The smell of my best friend from back at uni - patchouli, henna and well-cared-for dreds.
Burning Xanthorrhea trunk - the australian grass tree that acts like a firelighter.
There’s a soecific air freshener that my parents use at their house. They only use it during winter mainly so everytime I smell that, paired with the warm lighting of their lamps, and the quietness of the snow outside. It always gives me a sense of calm that I can’t explain.
CK1. Had some when I was a teenager, forgot about it for 20 years, now whenever I smell it I am instantly transported (sadly not literally) back to a more simple time before I completely fucked my life up.
Weed. And sometimes dead skunk (becsuse it smells like weed).
Rain. Gasoline. This Vanilla Bean hand soap my brothers baby mama bought.
My grandfather’s basement, pine trees that remind me of childhood and last but certainly not least garlic and onion sauteeing in olive oil
We have some similar memories :)
Smell from rain is very nice. And oranges.
My favorite smell is also my favorite word; Petrichor. It’s the smell of the earth when it rains after an extended dry period.
From Wikipedia “from Ancient Greek πέτρα (pétra) ‘rock’; or πέτρος (pétros) ‘stone’ and ἰχώρ (ikhṓr) ‘ichor’, the ethereal fluid that is the blood of the gods in Greek mythology.”
I like that smell, or that smell that comes right before a rain where you can smell its coming or lilacs when they first start to bud and its not too heavy yet
Man one of my most fivid memories is me sitting in the window of my crappy room, smelling the petrichor and smoking a cig while it’s raining. I’m no longer a smoker but thinking back it really hit different
