Smells of yesteryear.....

[Linenspots]

My most prominent ones are:

The delicious smell of the bottle of Coppertone that Mum used to plaster us in for our annual holiday at one of the many Pontin's sites. Does anyone else remember Coppertone?

I also have really vivid memories of the smell of the turkey cooking at the crack of dawn on Christmas Day, right after we opened our presents, and being excited for the arrival of various family members. Am I imagining it, or does the aroma of turkey cooking these days not seem as strong as I remember?

Mum's perfumes - for best, she wore Estee Lauder's Youth Dew or White Linen (although she always called it Dirty Sheets). For everyday, it was Coty L'Aimant. My first bottle of perfume was Smitty...I felt so grown up!

Those smells...treasured memories.

Max Factor Creme Puff compact powder. My mum used to wear it along with virtually every woman around at the time.

Carbolic soap, nan used it for everything and I think was a darkish green colour.

Clove balls, aniseed balls and winter mixture sweets

I've just gone into our shed for something - not a place I venture into very often (on account of the spiders), and I spotted my Dad's spade (which was his Dad's before him - and both used it almost regularly for about a combined total of 120 years - so there's not much left of the actual diggy bit). I lost Dad last year, and seeing his beloved spade gave me leaky eyes for a few minutes again.

So true. Such a heady, intoxicating smell and vibe back then, but quite agree, it sounds dreadful now!

@Myblueclematis all of those!

Also, like PP have said, Dettol in the bath.

Timotei shampoo

Linoleum

The smell of the pavement tarmac melting in the summer heat

And the school glue that had to be picked off your fingers

I remember the smell of creosote. It's banned now as it turned out to be rather too toxic.

Pond's Cold Cream. Late DM used it religiously twice a day. She also used some sort of setting lotion on her hair, but I can't remember what it was called.

Ma Griffe perfume.

Tangerine jelly. Tangerines in general really, you don't see them any more.

The smell of old Christmas decorations, particularly the tinsel.

I'd forgotten all about this. I'd use so much mousse that my hair was the texture of onion bhajis! I can't remember what it smelt like though?

And Bristow's hairspray - it smelt amazing in 1980 but rubbish now.

Matey Bubble Bath
Crème Silk Conditioner
window putty
grass being cut with a petrol mower
sun oil, idk what it was called but was very thick and oily brown, late 70s.

Mum & Dad told me that TCP was an acronym for Tom Cat Pee. And it was a good 40 years later that I discovered this 'fact' to be bullshit!

Just remembered vosene shampoo, hair washed with this whilst in our Dettol baths 😂

I used to love the smell of Play-Doh, it was like marzipan. Probably because we weren't priviliged enought to own any - Mum made us her own version with flour, water and food colouring 😂

I'm right with you on the dewberry stuff - ugggh. Did you know they've just re-released it?

And perm solution in a hot, sweaty hairdresser's, whilst waiting for your Mum to have her hair done!

Yes! The shampoo that had a round green lid? I was going to say the same thing.

Also - matey, blue nivea, hot bovril, and that strange smell sandwiches always had when they’d been left out in the sun after a picnics.

Is it a bit wrong to fess up to this....

If I have cause to use the white Copydex type glue (which I do quite often, as I like a bit of craft), I sometimes can't resist painting some on the back of my hand, for the sheer pleasure of waiting for it to dry and peeling it off.....

New records & that dusty smell as the cathode-ray tube got hot.

Interesting...I love Clinique Happy and it's always one I have in the drawer as an every day perfume!

I still maintain pubs smelt a lot better when it was beer and fags than the odour of a fusty-food ridden 'Spoons nowadays!

Linco Beer shampoo! Was that the one in a beer keg shaped bottle, and the shampoo itself was really gloopy and creamy?!

Yep, that was the one.

Revlon Flex, yes! Had a corrugated top in a big, tube shaped bottle - yellow stuff?

I was honestly going to put Aqua Manda on my original post, but I though nobody would have a clue what I was on about!

We used to have tins of talc, usually gifted by Aunty Doris at Christmas (I suspect it was re-gifted!) and I love the exotic smell. Slightly citrus-y and what I always thought Spain and Italy would smell like! I loved the meditteranean orange design too.

Olbas Oil smells of my grandad.
Tomato plants take me back to childhood summers in the greenhouse.
Walking past a pub can transport me back to my misspent youth. I don’t drink any more, but sometimes that beery smell can make me very nostalgic.
Dry ice - the moment at a gig just before th band appeared.

Body Shop relaunched dewberry scent recently and that's the smell of the 80s/ early 90s!

My best friend's (primary school) house always smelt of warmth and mince and onions to me. It was oddly comforting.

Yes to the OP who said Lucozade when it was in the crinkly cellophane.

Also Bodyshop Dewberry or White Musk.

The exhaust fumes of the Mr Whippy icecream van.

Outspan oranges rings a bell....what were they, just oranges but a particular type?

I remember if the Ajax hadn't been rinsed off thoroughly, you ended up with a gritty bum on Friday night bath night!

We lived in Cologne for a few years recently, and if I had to cause to walk by the 4711 flagship shop there, I could never resist stopping and having a hand rinse at the Eau de Cologne running tap outside. One of several things I miss about the beautiful city.

Oh wow! I missed this when I was posting about it. That's excellent news. I'm going to get myself a bottle.