Name some signficant scents/smells from childhood-adulthood, and what memories or feelings they trigger for you

I was just reading an article that states that scientists have discovered that scent is even more strongly associated to memories than visual cues (like photographs, etc.)!!

For me:

Earliest scents:

*My mother's perfume--"Windsong" and "Aliage" during my early childhood, "Beautiful" during my teens and early 20s and "Allure" now (I think).

*Ivory soap--I don't like this scent now, too "soapy"

*Cigarette smoke--my parents both smoked

*The smell of freshly mown grass (which also made me sneeze)


Smells associated with positive things:

*Burning leaves: hanging out at HS football games on Friday night, boywatching

*Rain: Sleepy weekend mornings, reading in bed

*Vanilla: baking smells in the kitchen


My history of perfumes:

*Love's Baby Soft
*Anais Anais
*Paloma Picasso
*Cinnabar
*Red
*Poison
*Dazzling (Gold)
*Various vanilla soaps/body sprays

*Current: Marc Jacobs

Scents with negative associations:

*Bad body odor
*Oily/dirty skin
*Tequila (too many shots one night)
*Bacardi 151 (ditto)

Verbena always reminds me of the house where my Grandma and Grandpa lived in Kansas when I was a little boy - it was the perfect rustic farmhouse on a hill with rolling fields and big beautiful trees, and my Grandma always cleaned the kitchen floor with verbena cleanser, and it was such a great smell that I'll only clean the kitchen in my apartment with verbena cleaning stuff.

"Someone" asked me to post this...

Childhood smells:

Powder (scented, used by my mom)
Aftershave worn by my dad. To this day, he loves aftershave and hates cologne.
Smells from my grandmothers' kitchens. Very different -- especially with one who cooked Mexican food so well and so frequently. I miss my Grandma.


Significant/cozy/fill-in-the-blank smells:

Vanilla
Cocoa butter
Samsarra
Sunflowers (by E. Arden)
Sandalwood
Patchouli
Bergamot
Issy Miyake for women worn by a friend of mine. Whoa.

On me:

Pi (today)
Givenchy Pour Homme
Obsession
Truth
Jaiphur
Comme des Garcons 2
Mambo (when I'm slummin')
Herrera for Men (Refreshing Ginger Ltd. Ed.)
or Lagerfeld


.
[Edited 11/10/04 20:02pm]

I forgot gasoline and markers under beloved childhood smells.

This explains my brain cell deficiency.
[Edited 11/10/04 19:54pm]

when i was a kid, we got a scratch and sniff card from the gas company so we could identify the smell of natural gas if we needed to contact them about leaks.

you know i took that damn card to my room and just scratched and sniffed the hell outta that thing.

Natisse said:

Does that mean you don't really taste things, either?

Anxiety said:

They were creating huffers!

Natisse said:

"Someone" asked me to post this..

AnotherLoverToo said:

that's the funny thing...I've always been very fussy with food

AnotherLoverToo said:

AnotherLoverToo said:

9's!!!!!

I've read this as well and totally agree.

Earliest scents:

Chanel no. 5. True story. My grandma always wore this scent. Whenever she'd leave the house she'd spend all this time in the bathroom getting ready and when she'd come out her hair would be all done up and she'd have on lipstick and Chanel no. 5. The funny thing is, whenever I'd smell it, I'd think of her lipstick, cause I'd smell it when she came out of the bathroom from getting ready and the main visual difference I saw was that she now had lipstick on so I always assumed (as a very small child, mind you) that that's what her lipstick smelled like. It was years and years later before I realized it was perfume.

Cedar. My parents have a cedar closet in their house that just smells divine to me. Not sure why. I remember going into that particular closet to get things when I was very young and I just adored the way it smelled. One of my friend's churches smelled exactly like it too. I still love it.

I always remember the smell of burning leaves as when I used to stay with my Grandparents during the holidays.

althom said:

Someone asked me to post this...

althom said:

and now you can remember me!

Anxiety said:

Anxiety said:

Eau D'Anxiety: BANNED.....For Your Inner Moderator

((cue sexxxy muzak))

AnotherLoverToo said:

my grandma wears WHITE LINEN, has for years, i love that perfume..... and i wear it quite a bit myself, but, it always reminds me of her.

coffee.. reminds me of my mom.. i dont drink it myself but, it was always there in the morning.

chlorine... we had a pool most of the time when i was growing up.. i still love that smell.

leather... i just adore a man in a nice big leather coat

POLO... old as fuck, but still my all time favorite cologne on a man my first boyfriend wore that ( that was OMG - 20 years ago )

barns.. my dad owned 27 race horses when i was young... so, that always reminds me of him. we had a farm that we owned out in the country, spent quite a bit of time there

the smell of rain... makes me feel so happy, fresh and renewed.

still adore the smell of mary jane all those days of partying still make me giggle....

i love the smell of puppy breath... unfortunately, they dont stay young long, and most adult dogs have HORRIBLE breath

i dont like the smell of beer.. it makes a persons breath awful

oh, and aqua net hairspray reminds me of junior high

nakedpianoplayer said:

..

nakedpianoplayer said:

This is a really nice collection of scents/memories.

I had some very strong positive as well as negative experiences when I
first started using Calvin Klein's "Escape" about 7 years ago.

Then after that I never used it again and switched to Armani black and
Aqua de Gio for a while. Now I'm stuck on Envy by Gucci.

But the funny thing is that a few months ago I bought another small
bottle of Escape and whenever I put it on now, it's like there's some
click in my head and my mood just changed completely.

It kind of makes me want to go out and leave the house, it also makes
me feel pretty positive. It triggers a lot of memories every time that
I thought I had pushed away into some deep dark crevice in my mind.

The only negative moment I still remember specifically, and very clearly comes back when I smell G0T2B Glued hair glue. When I started high school, when I was 13, I tried to fit in with the "punk" crowd (never succeeded). Whenever I smell hair glue I have a really vivid memory of my freshman year running away from my house after a fight with my parents, crying, walking in the rain for miles, trying to light a cigarette, the rain stinging the self inflicted cuts on my wrists, getting my Converse hi-tops soaked straight through to my feet in a deep puddle, blasting Nirvana- Nevermind through my headphones and the hair glue running down my face getting my skin all sticky. Whenever I smell that hair glue I get that that 'never thought I could be more miserable in my life, painfully depressed uncomfortable' feeling.

Better Memories-
Bonnie Bell Lip Smackers-The first time I wore makeup
Fruity shimmering body lotion-My first concert (Celine Dion-2nd grade)
Chlorine/salt water-Great vacations
Popcorn-falling asleep at the movie theater around midnight when I was younger; I went w/ my parents to see Titanic.
Cookies/Baking- My Grandmother
Sulfur- Swimming in the Delaware River
Chocolate- Hershey Park: Chocolate Factory
Clean Air- Lancaster, PA: The farms/ Amish Country/ Fishing in upstate NY
Vinyl records- Sick days at home going through my parents music
Damp/wet cloth- Snowboarding on the golf course up the block from my house
Sweat/ B.O./ Fish/ Disgusting stuff- Subways/ Chinatown/ South Street seaport
White Diamonds Perfume- My cousins wedding
Carnivals- throwing up behind the Tilt a Whirl after riding in the front row the then 'tallest/fastest roller coaster in the world' 11 times.

Let's see:
Love's Baby Soft perfume - reminds me of my first real kiss at 13
Brut & Canoe men's cologne - remins me of my father - he's now evolved and will no longer use it, though!
Aqua Net Hairspray - I'm instantly transported into my junior high school ugly duckling days - God, did I ever hate anything as bad.
Cheap baby dolls - the plastic smell of them reminds me of Christmas
Pasta sauce - reminds me of my mother cooking our Italian dinners
Navy perfume - reminds me of when i was in college and partying in my 20's
Dry ice - reminds me of a club that I used to go to that had a huge dragon over the dance floor that would periodically shoot smoke and fog out of hs mouth
Suntan lotion - I'm on the beach as soon as I smell it.

Best scent:

-the seashore
-white musk
-"Eden Water" cologne
-sex
-Thierry Mugler's"Angel"
-meadows after the rain
-cats fur (childhood memory)

Worst scents:

-tobacco
-beer
-sweat
-some people's breath
-tripes (worst french dish)

Jergens lotion....reminds me of my mom

I'm getting a faint whiff of boiled Cabbage ..Meekle must have logged on.

Nothing beats the smell of the all-time best shampoo in the world...