What smells or scents are evocative to you?

[ItWasnaMeGuv]

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary and my DH bought me a perfume he knew was very special to me. In the 80's when I got my first pay packet I spent some of the money on a bottle of Oscar de la Renta. Near where I was working was a posh perfume shop which I would visit and try on different perfumes. I loved the Oscar scent and was thrilled to buy a bottle for myself. Previous to that "Charlie" was my perfume of choice.

Anyway many decades later I was complaining to DH that I could no longer find it, and it was a wonderful surprise that he sourced it online for me. I tried it on and ahhh, I was right back on Dale Street where I worked and in Liverpool of the 80's, complete with long permed hair. Lovely . I'm in my 60's now but was thinking about how memories can be triggered by a scent.

My question is, what are your scents or smells that trigger memories, may be good or bad.

Coal dust (particularly in a chilly room) and freesias remind me of my granny

Pipe smoke reminds me of old Charlie who was in my dad's choir and used to do Stanley Holloway monologues at church socials

Imperial leather reminds me of my dad

Blown-out candles remind me of half a dozen different churches all at once

M & S Christmas scented candle in Frankincense and Myrrh smells exactly like the box we kept the Christmas decorations in when I was a child.

My Father worked in the Midland Bank on Dale St after WW2

The smell of p**s from the bus station on the pier head at Liverpool mixed with the heavy fuel oil from the Isle of Man Steam Packets - and in 1981 they were steam packets.

jeyes fluid (used to clean the floors in the nursery school I went to).

Cigar smoke and the smell of the inside of a box of After Eights (together) - the smell of Christmas Day evening in the lounge with my parents.

Even after many many years (yes I’m quite old!) the smell from a satsuma/tangerine when first peeled , takes me back to my childhood christmases! Presumably they were only available at christmas during the early 60s!

Germolene takes me back to being patched up after falls on the playground and the lovely nursery nurse who looked after us.

A wood fire outdoors in autumn. I grew up on a farm and practically lived outside for 3 seasons of the year. This takes me right back.

TCP
Zambuk
School science corridors.
Buddleia
Pritt Stick

The first perfume I bought was Estée Lauder Youth Dew - in 1970. I still love and buy it. It takes me straight back to my hippy youth - a lot of fun and freedom.

Same and only had them at Christmas time and pomegranates at Halloween!

Coal Tar Soap and its colour too.
TCP
4711
Tarmac
The outdoors after it has rained hard
Youth Dew
Talcum Powder, not used now but reminds me of times past
Freesias, the first time I was a bridesmaid my bouquet was freesias, I had never seen nor smelt before, the scent was delicious
Blue Grass perfume

strangely I smelt samsara on someone this week and it instantly hit me , as I bought an enormous bottle the day my divorce came through 35 years ago ( it was very’in’ then) - it lasted years too

Gorse. It's the smell of early summer.

Scotch broth weirdly takes me back to summer holidays staying with my Gran.

Oil of Ulay evokes one of the very few memories I have of my other Gran.

Tommy Girl perfume takes me straight back to one wild and chaotic weekend when I was 18.

The smell of tomato vines takes me straight back to my Grandad's greenhouse when I was a child in the 1980s ..

You can buy an excellent copy from Perfume Parlour, I have the oil and it's exactly the same 😊. It's currently sold out, but you can set up a notification for when it's back in stock.

https://perfume-parlour.co.uk/products/gorgeous-for-women-0143

Zambuk or savlon - whenever I fell over when I was little
Honeysuckle perfume - my lovely nana
Tweed perfume - my mum
Lynx Tempest (sadly no longer available) - my 1st love
Tommy or Eternity for Men - being a student and walking round Lewis's in Liverpool after lectures

Two stroke engines, oily workshops and epoxy remind me of my childhood.

A certain type of hospital hand wash that takes me right back to being in hospital waiting for dd to be born.

That's taken me right back to my dad's greenhouse in the 80s! ❤️

The smell of pelargoniums reminds me instantly of the ones in my Auntie Ann's porch, especially with the sun on them
I have a pink china pomander that I inherited from my gran, it used to sit on the shelves in the little hall of her small flat. One sniff and I'm back in gran's flat. She died in the 1980s and I think it's amazing that there's any scent left in the pot pourri inside it
Also the smell of the communal areas in blocks of flats mostly inhabited by older people, also takes me back to my gran's flat
Wallflowers used to have a much stronger smell, so sweet and the definitive smell of summer to me. I think modern versions have been bred for different and striking colours of the flowers and the scent has taken a back seat. They do still have a scent but it's so much fainter
And by our first house, the people at the corner of our cul-de-sac grew blue lobelias and white alyssum in alternating blobs. The smell of the alyssum was heavenly. I sniff it now and see that 1970s front garden all over again...

I agree on the tinsel!

Cool Waters perfume reminds me of my first holiday with friends. I used my friends and then bought a bottle from duty free. It was one of the things commented on when I met my first LTR.
Joop was my dad's smell.
The smell of canvas tents/camping/caravanning. Just reminds me of childhood. Like is I see an old caravan I just know what it will smell like!

@Sunbringer Youth Dew reminds me of my mum too! I bought a bottle just to smell it occasionally. In later years she favoured Volupte, but it’s just not as evocative.

When I weaned my first baby, I peeled chopped up and started heating an apple on the hob. The smell of stewed apples was a smell that I recognised so well and am sure that I’d never smelled since my own childhood. .

@Thedisappearingbag

I always think the classic scent Arpege by Lanvin smells very similar to the original pink Oil of Ulay.

Hay and a pony’s mane.

Creosote - takes me back to childhood and helping my dad creosote his chicken houses every spring.

Pond weed - once again a childhood memory, and pond dipping in the derelict canal beside our home.

Steam, burning coal, hot oil and tractor vaporising oil - the unmistakeable smells of traction engine/vintage rallies, which I love attending.

Cow muck, muck spreading, the smell of sheep and the evocative smells of harvest fields - reminds me how fortunate I am to live in the depths of the countryside, as far away from suburbia, urbanisation and the built environment as I can possibly get.

Petrichor - the beautiful smell of summer rain on parched soil.

And many more, in a similar vein.

My dad said it smelt like cats piss
After me drowning myself in it before heading out.