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.

4711 cologne that my Nan wore. And Advocaat, Nan had a sherry glass full every night as it helped her sleep. She had no idea it was alcoholic.

The old Banda machine!!! I remember that so well. IIRR the only reason photocopiers took off at my school was because of the H&S risks of inhaling the fumes.

Cow Gum was good for that, too.

Yes ! I remember that smell of hot tar in a vat on the back of a lorry...mum always used to take me down to it, apparently the thinking goes that inhaling it was good for the chest ? Since I was a poorly asthmatic toddler. Not sure if there's any evidence for that ! Also a burner thingy to inhale during the night which smelt much the same (literally over an open flame 🫣🙈)
Mum's perfume was Je Reviens by Worth. And the smell of fresh picked daffs, all that green sap - we had an orchard full of them. Autumn bonfires.

Dust burning on a two-bar electric heater as it warmed up.

Corn silk face powder - loved that stuff.

The morning after bonfire night, was always the lead up to the excitement of winter and Christmas.

Grandads home grown tomatoes in his greenhouse.

Nans Christmas cakes - especially when she used to unwrap them to feed with brandy.

Corona cherryade that the ‘popman’ delivered.

Cheese and tomato pot noodles.

Good - imperial leather bar of soap (smells like my grandmas house) and new fence panel on a warm summers day
bad - that ointment that your mum used to drench your hair in when you had nits and it burnt your eyes and nostrils, similarly- TCP

So appreciating this thread! All My Yesterdays, olfactory version 🤗
On a different note, but still nostalgic for me, the towns we knew & loved in the industrial Midlands (back when we had industries). Towns were permanently infused with the strong pong of whichever industry dominated, except on Boxing Day as they didn't work Christmas and the air had a day to clear:

Marmite and malt - breweries.
Molten rubber - tyres.
Boiling bones - glue. Unpleasant.
Tanneries - much like the glue, but eased by new leather scents.
Metal & furnaces - exciting smell, for some reason.
Hydrogen sulphide - the smell of rotten eggs, horrible. Chemical works.
Sulphur dioxide - sharp, choking. I'm allergic to it now. Chemical works.
New sawdust - Woodyards. Loved this! Still do.
Coal dust - Not a healthy smell, but a homely one.

Our polluted canals were swirls of strange colours that gave off a miasma of all the above plus paint, methylated spirit and whatever other solvents they'd used. I found them fascinating, though we all knew that drowning wasn't your only risk if you fell in. Barges were still being used for goods transport, crewed by tough-looking, grey-faced, wiry men like the boat men in Peaky Blinders (great casting!)

Coal smoke, I really miss that.
And the brewery on cold mornings.

Swarfega. Green gloop to wash your hands with when you’d been doing a particularly dirty greasy job like working under the bonnet of the car.
My dad used to let me ‘help’ him, then I was allowed to wash with it same as him.
I’ll never forget the smell.

The apricot cream / moisturiser from avon
My grandads cigar smoke
tipex
the smell of those little bottles of school milk
crayola crayons

My Grandma always had a bottle of pink Nulon next to her armchair. It was quite thin and watery but today’s hand cream standards, wasn’t it?

I adored Delph Lemon cleanser and toner. My first skincare, along with Anne French Cleansing Milk, which I could still buy up until a few years ago.

Swarfega, 4711, setting lotion in the hairdressers, that blue/pink lipstick from Rimmel in the 80s. Paloma Picasso. Maraschino cherries. That Sara Lee gateau that smelled like glue.
School glue that was see through and you could peel off your fingers.
Body Shop White Musk, Impulse ‘Chic’- everyone at school had those.

I love that smell. It reminds me of my dad and his best friend, smoking their pipes and chatting. And cigar smoke at Christmas, mixed with Old Spice cologne, when all the visitors came.

Creostoe on fences in summer.
Shield soap.
Flex hair conditioner that had this weird smell like wet ash and bananas but everyone adored it. I remember people used to ask to sit next to me just so they could smell my hair. (Not otherwise a popular kid so that was quite a surprise! )

Vicks vaporub.
My dear Grandmother (RIP) used it liberally on my chest whenever I had this lightest sniffle. The smell instantly takes me back 40 years to weekend stays at Grandma and Grandads, in their rambling house overlooking the sea. Happiest days of my life.

My dad's employer made creosote, amongst other things.
The smell of a chemistry laboratory. Dad's workplace had one and it was a special treat to be taken around it. I also went to a school reunion and the school lab. had the same smell I remembered.

Avon Pretty Peach hand cream
The smell of a damp canvas tent warming in the sun
Vinyl as you took a new LP out of the cover
Unwrapping foil covered chocolate Christmas tree decorations or coins

Back in the days of tobacconists shops, going into one with my dad and the smell of different tobaccos. Very distinctive aroma and not unpleasant at all.

Avon "Here's My Heart" perfume, my first grown up scent when I was about 13. A lot of the girls I was at school with bought Avon, it was very popular and best of all it was delivered to your front door.

Many an hour spent perusing the Avon brochure around Christmas time.

Coal fires - my grandparents had them.

Potted herrings. We had a fishmonger’s near us and the aroma of fresh potted herrings wafted out onto the street. I remember begging my mum to buy them and then hating the crunchy little bones. But the savoury, vinegary smell was amazing.

Ewww at crunchy bones 😂

What a great post. It's making me want to visit the Black Country museum again!

'Stomach flips over' - that is exactly how to describe the sensation!

You've dug a few up there that evoked the flip! Zest lemon soap - was it slightly marbled, like Shield?

And Madam Cholet!👏

I had a bottle of that...we must be a similar age!

Yes…Zest was a yellow lemon version of Shield…actually that’s brought the smell of Shield back…another very nice smell of yesteryear!

I loved the smell of the Madame Cholet talc. I didn’t think anyone else would know what I was on about there!