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!

Swarfega and cigarillos, my dad 😢

I remember this! What a nice memory.

@minipie a young lad walked past me wearing CK One today! Took me back 20 years.

The smell of tinsel.
I’m transported back to the amazing Christmases we had as a kid. Our tacky but fun foil 80s/90s decorations, Mum dishing out presents, dad making Christmas dinner, my siblings and I being giddy and silly together - it makes me smile.

Burberry Weekend perfume.
The smell reminds me of when dh and I first met and of our first holiday abroad together.
I wore this perfume a lot back then, so when I get a rare whiff of it now, it really takes me back. I keep meaning to buy a bottle!

The smell of inside a tent. It’s like a plastic sort of smell, kind of a warm earthy smell too. A little musty but weirdly not unpleasant.
It reminds me of camping holidays me & my family used to take when we were younger.
I loved those holidays and have lots of happy memories.

I’ll probably get called strange but one of my favourite smells is my dog when she’s asleep, it’s so relaxing and warm.

And when I’m not with her, I only have to inhale deep inside a bag of cheese Doritos to get close to the smell 😂 (if you’re a dog owner… you know!)

The smell of valve oil takes me mentally straight to the brass band rehearsal room.

Sometimes I go round to my bf's flat and there's a smell in the communal hallway that just takes me back to the hotel I used to stay in as a kid on the Isle of Wight. I don't even know what the smell is, probably some kind of cleaning product. The first time it happened it was so bizarre, as it wasn't something I had ever thought about, it was a bit like having a flashback. It's not an overpowering smell either, just a tiny whiff, but it's enough to send me back to the 80s.

Chip pan oil.

Makes me think of cosy winter evenings at my grandparents

Getting lost in so many of these!

The smell of crush rose petals slightly rotting. To make "perfume" that my friend Mandy and I would sell on my front wall aged about 6.

Vick vapour rub!
Takes me back to my childhood and my mum rubbing it on us when we had colds. It literally creates an ache and longing for my mum. Loved her so much.

What a nice thread, they say that your sense of smell is most closely tied to memories.

Yes, that autumn smell of leaves on the forest floor, or even on the pavement.

Driving by a freshly mown hay field.

Low tide musty/seaweed smell.

Fresh tobacco - my dad would roll a cigarette after dinner.

Walking into the house after school and smelling crepes - it didn't happen very often! After I hit my early teens, my mum started to work, so didn't have time to make crepes as often. It was a use-up-the-eggs-and-milk meal.

Pantene. It just reminds me of being young and my Mum smelling all clean in her dressing gown after her bath (not that she was ever unclean!). We used to cosy on the sofa together. Pantene just takes me back to a simpler time.

A turf fire reminds me of my Granmother and brings so much comfort.
i live the smell of cut grass and rain on a hot pavement also.

Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche perfume.

I wouldn't choose to wear it now, but about a decade ago I saw it in Boots and sprayed it on my wrist, and was transported back to the Christmas at age 12 or so when I got it as a present. I still remember the itchy green wool turtleneck I was wearing that seemed to absorb it forever.

Christmas was usually just my parents and sister, but we always had a big Boxing Day do with friends and neighbours over. They were always magical - my parents both died in 2022 and this is how I always like to remember them.

Reading this has made me quite emotional. I've too many to list but thank you for the thread.

Terry's Chocolate Orange. Takes me right back to Christmasses as a child in the 1970s as my mum used to put one in the toe of my stocking every year.

Ok so my one's a little sad, I was full term pregnant when I washed all my baby boys clothes in Fairy non bio liquid and comfort pure fabric conditioner....aww they smelled divine ❤️ unfortunately he was stillborn and 3 yrs on I still have them bottles in the storage, i occasionally go and have a smell and it just takes me back to them days, if i ever come across that scent from someone elses laundry immediately i think of my boy 😞

Oh love

So sorry for your loss 💐

Aaarrgh - Poison perfume!!

I do not know how this became the success it did - it was absolutely vile! I think they were competing with Opium perfume at the time, a far nicer smell.

Didn't want to derail your post btw, I just had a thing about Poison!

The "perfume" 4711. I'm right back in my grandma's house.

Beetroots cooking = my mum

Porridge on the hob. My dad worked shifts, and when I was very little he would make me porridge after he came in from a 6am finish - we would have our porridge (him with salt in his and me with golden syrup) and then he would go off to bed and my mum would be up for us. I’m sure this must be wrong, he’s dead now so I can’t ask, but I also seem to remember him giving me a little cup of milky coffee (late 70s - surely not?) with it.

Likewise, the smell of milk burning in a pan. My dad and I used to take turns making hot chocolate for bed when I was in my teens. My dad would always wander off and let the pan boil over.

I can’t stand milky drinks now, the thought of a latte makes me want to puke.

Smoke? 🤣

Petrichor for me. It always takes me back to being a young teen, although I don't know why and I can't pinpoint a particular memory.

The powdery smell Hartnell's "In Love" perfume mixed with cigarette smoke reminds me of my Mum getting ready.
Oil of Ulay reminds me of my Aunty in her curlers and house coat.
To this day I find the smell of fireworks in the cold night air thrilling because bonfire night was so exciting as a child.
The waft of stuffing from the kitchen at Christmas - wherever I've lived it's been a comfort for the last 50 years.
The smell of Anna Sui Dreams reminds me of a hot summer in my 20s when I had a huge crush on a man at work. I remember getting ready in the morning thinking "maybe today?!"