What smell hits right to your soul and takes you somewhere else?

[FknOmniShambles]

I know the title probably sounds like I'm on drugs or something! 😂
I've had a truly terrible 13 hours at work, stressed to the max, upsetting all round. I'm sitting on the sofa and just opened the window a crack to get some fresh air, and the smell of a wood burner is creeping in.
I cannot explain it but that smell just calms my very soul. When I breathe that smell in I'm literally outdoors in the middle of nowhere, possibly where I grew up, possibly some imagined fantasy world. I am completely free. When I die, I want to be somewhere breathing that scent!
Does anyone else have a smell that has that effect on them?
Once again, I must stress, I am not. On. Drugs. 😂😂 Just been a very trying day!

Rain on hot pavement. My brain adds eucalyptus and transports me back 4 decades to being in Spain ❤️

Oh, me too. Reminds me of autumn as a kid, the excitement of being out as it got dark, bonfire night. Also love creosote. Takes me back to summers gone.

The smell of the sea, every time, brings me a calm feeling.

Too many to list

for a good while every time away from home I took a different shampoo - just to be assured of an easy ‘transport back’ if wanted in the future

Atrixo hand cream. Takes me back 50 years to my nana’s fireside. Lovely thoughts.

Diesel, grease and oil take me back to my childhood when my Dad came home from work smelling of it. Lavender reminds me of my Granny's pomander in her bedroom and the smell of Crysanthemums remind me of her too, she used to love the huge ball shaped ones which I hardly see anymore. Imperial Leather soap reminds me of my Grandad and the smell of freshly baked scones remind my of Mum. I obviously cant smell it now but I can remember the smell of the room in the SCBU when I had my first daughter and used to sit in there to use the huge breast pump machine.

Weleda Calendula nappy cream - immediately takes me back to the 24 hours after giving birth to my first DC. I was absolutely euphoric/overwhelmed/hormonal and the flood of emotion with that smell is unreal.

The OG ghost perfume. It's like being 14 again.

Dettol. Takes me back to my lovely auntie who was the best person I knew.

Wild garlic. I am transported to holding my lovely dad's hand and skipping down a wooded hill towards a beach. He remembers it too. I would have been about six but it's such a lovely memory.

Another vote for creosote. Reminds me of 80s childhoods.

That very early morning smell in summer always makes me feel excited- probably because I associate it with getting up super early to go on holiday as a kid.

A combination of Carex Original blue liquid hand wash, filter coffee, and a window open on a chilly autumn morning. I’m instantly back in late September 2004 at my first flat in East Dulwich, it’s a Saturday, and I have the hindsight of knowing that the 20 years in front of me then were going to be one hell of an amazing ride - and that gives me a strange but very happy feeling now.

A certain type of coffee (I don't drink it so can't name it) takes me back to working in a Berni Inn in the early 80's. That one smell can recreate the entire old world hotel/bar/restaurant warren. Weird but very comforting.

Rightguard Sport... reminds me of a rather fun night with my karate instructor MANY years ago
J-Lo Live perfume... my lovely DD1. It was her go to as a teenager and she still wears it now as an adult and I have a bottle too and when I wear it it makes me feel like she still lives at home :)

Absolutely amazing memories shared here. Thank you! Just incredible how evocative certain scents can be.

The autumn smell, my dad and I have a competition to see who smells it first, we call it the smell. My mum and sister were always like what are you talking about they couldn't smell it. Now my DD15 gets it and joins in too!

Slightly random, but the smell of old flower water - from when you've had a bunch of flowers in a vase for slightly too long. It transports me back about 35 years to being in church with my Nan. She was on the rota for "doing the flowers" ready for the sunday service, and I used to go with her to help. Instant time warp when I catch that smell.

More conventional, but the smell of cut grass mingled with hot petrol fumes takes me back to my much-missed Dad cutting the grass in our family home. I love it ❤

Firefighters

The smell of a coniferous forest on a hot summer day. The terpenes release in the heat (for the purpose of cloud seeding) and give off an aroma which takes me back to lovely summer holidays in my childhood.

Burning turf.
Youth Dew and Chanel No.5 take me back to being a child drinking tea out of a saucer at the hearth and watching my oh so sophisticated mum and aunt get glammed up for dinner dances.
The sea.

Jasmin takes me back to a holiday in Cyprus with my sister. Tuberoses reminds me of my childhood home.

Love to know people's Proustian Madeleines. Probably calor gas camping stove or slightly musty camping gear

I have three...

Fresh mown grass - I'm lying on the school playing field in summer, with friends, laughing and chatting.

Wood smoke - I'm round the 16th century fire pit with friends from my historical re-creation period, laughing and chatting.

Smell of Rimmel lipstick - I'm in friend's bedroom with several friends all getting ready to go out, yep, laughing and chatting.

Thyme takes me back to my grandparents’ little garden, with its herbs and lucky heather, and the sound of a church clock chiming in the distance.

Body Shop’s Dewberry and White Musk scents takes me back to being at school, aged about 13. We were all paranoid about BO, so used body sprays very generously. Then we’d often buy them as birthday presents for each other (as we knew they were liked), which added to the paranoia. “Does Helen think I smell?”

Never smelt one but wouldn't mind having a go, what do they smell like???