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!

Oh yes that oily smell from garages and workshops. Reminds me of being taken to see where the enormous printing presses were built ( family business now long since defunct) as a little girl

CK1 one wiff and I am transported to 1996 Jon’s 21 in love to be Sheffield. Remember walking in having got off the coach from Manchester and the whole club girls and boys all wearing it.

Good times 🕊️

I got hit by this unexpectedly today, I walked into John Lewis and I have no idea what it actually was but the beauty section smelled exactly like a kids craft class, that PVA glue in little open cups smell. It just flashed me back to play groups when DD was little and was such a lovely little memory moment.

Tiger Balm and biting on a Lime leaf instantly take me back to my honeymoon in Thailand.

Lilies, in a sunny and slightly dusty book-filled room. Takes me back to my honeymoon in a lovely hotel in north Devon. I decided then it was the kind of home I wanted. Shabby chic, loose covers, old country house feel. Sunny and relaxed. I’ll probably achieve it one day, but I haven’t yet. The marriage didn’t last, but the hotel was wonderful. If Martin and Colette Petchey get to read this, thank you for the happy memories and the excellent food.

The smell of hot tarmac and petrol fumes. Walking into town on a blazing sunny Saturday in the mid 80s to meet my friends and buy clothes and makeup. Then the smell of the outdoor pool where we would spend long, lazy afternoons.

Crushed fresh mint reminds me of my Dad making mint sauce for our roast lamb and new mown grass of him mowing our lawn every Saturday.

Fresh coffee beans being ground reminds me of being a schoolgirl and walking the long way round so I could smell it outside a special shop in Tunbridge Wells. Now grind my own beans every morning. Yum.

overpowering spicy youth Dew and stale fag ash reminds me of my DM.

Patchouli oil reminds me of hilarious times with hippy friends at school when our headmaster tried to ban it by saying ‘No more petunia perfume in my school!’😂

Hyacinths and the smell of a sweetshop remind me of my beloved Granny.

Sun warmed cedarwood reminds me of brass band practice hall and making music with my Dad.

Tuscany aftershave by Aramis - a crush when I was 17.

Winter Dew by Body Shop - getting ready to go out when I was in my late teens.

Diesel and slightly damp bloke - my best friend's narrow boat, my safe space a few years ago when life was difficult.

Petrichor

Weird ones like firelighters, the smell of PE mats!

Silage to when I worked with horses!

That smell of crushed grass you get inside a marquee on a hot summer's day. Takes me right back to the Chelsea Flower Show in about 1980.

Yes Tent! Though for me country shows, produce stalls, improbably large veg, delicious cakes

Smells are so evocative aren't they. I have three smells I love, one is my dog, I know non-doggy people say dogs stink, but my old girl has a lovely warm, slightly apple / honey scent, (providing she's not rolled in something deliquescing!).
My mums airing cupboard always had a lovely scent, which I sometimes smell in national trust houses, it's difficult to describe, but it was a subtle gentle fragrance, but lifts my spirit and the world feels so much more bearable.
My husband! Whenever he's away and I'm missing him, I stick my nose in one of his shirts, and find it really comforting (he can be a right grumpy bastard, but he gives the most awesome hugs, and I miss those when he's away!)

The smell of the first satsuma or clementine of each winter takes me straight back to childhood Christmases.

Another fan of woodsmoke, have always loved the smell and theres something strangely comforting about it. As a kid walking outside on bonfire night, all wrapped up and smelling the air thick with smoke, also the smell of sparklers, such great memories! I also loved the smell of the old Kays catalogue, always got excited when my mum got the new one and I used to sit there for hours looking at all the toys. Oh to be a kid again😊

The smell of milk being warmed up in a pan / smell of hot milk. Reminds me of my nannie's house as a child.

Chimney smoke and frosty air. Just takes me back to New Year at my Grans. My grandparents were alive and well, my parents were healthy everyone was fairly happy…now my Grandparents have gone, my Dad died 15 years ago, My mum has dementia, my Uncle is struggling with Parkinson’s and dementia! That smell touches my soul and takes me back to being young and happy.

I wonder if care homes often bring in some of these scents for residents to enjoy as part of reminiscence therapy?

It’s strange how it can take you back to memories from decades ago that you didn’t know you had. I smelled some Lily of the Valley soap in a gift shop and it took me back to being about five and receiving a set of Lily of the Valley soaps with characters from Glo Friends printed on them. I’d forgotten all about that gift and the cartoon Glo Friends for thirty years, but the memory was still there.

It’s a very deep primal part of the brain which is why is elicits such emotional responses. It maybe the deepest with sounds/music being second. I believe that one of the very few good things to come from Covid is more research into smell as so many are now suffering.
The Connections Between Smell, Memory, and Health | Harvard Medicine Magazine

Clinique ‘Happy’ perfume makes me feel anything but happy-if I smell it i experience PTSD flashbacks as it was the perfume I wore at the time in my life where I was extremely abused and violated

Roasted chestnuts- makes me think of cosy winter evenings as a child with my family and my dad would roast chestnuts in the open fire.

Creosote before they removed the bad stuff out of it. It reminds me of my Dad painting the fence on a hot day with a bottle of woodpecker cider

Wet red roses with little stones round the bottom, straight back to my Grans house

Imperial leather soap and brut Aftershave- my Dad

And I've never smelt it since but I can remember the smell of grans pantry and I love it (turned out it was rotten apples but there you go!)

Ah this is a lovely thread!

Youth Dew, my first boyfriend's mum wore it and I thought it was the most sophisticated perfume ever. Also, what a name for a perfume!

Body Shop White Musk reminds me of a girl who was after my boyfriend at the time and wore it

Patchouli, takes me back to biker pubs, leather jackets and smoking weed.

The smell of Hawaiian Tropic sun cream. The smell takes me straight back to holidays in Spain at the beginning of the 1980s.

Candy floss and fried onions take me back to childhood seaside holidays.

Imperial leather takes me back to my grandmas kitchen

Patchouli oil and damp grass transport me back to my teenage years and festivals in the 70s

Do you mean firelighters? I mean, fair play if not.

Weirdly fried onions always make me feel sick as they remind me of throwing up after the Waltzer at the fairground 🤣🤣