Today’s poll was suggested by Jaimie, who wants to know what you would smell in amortentia. Amortentia is a love potion introduced in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and purportedly everyone who smells it smells what they are most attracted to. Hermione smells freshly mown grass and new parchment; Harry smells broomstick handle and treacle tart.
What would you smell?
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I’d smell a bed freshly-made with clean sheets. Either that or onions being sauteed in butter.
How to choose? I think I’d smell a lavender field, almond extract, bread baking, or a new cedar fence.
I’d love to smell a real lavender field. I bet that’s amazing!
I’d smell a chocolate doberge cake. I’ve never seen these outside of my home state of Louisiana, but they are the bomb!
Or a Chia Lin-my favorite catteleya. they smell so lovely! If only a perfume smelled like one of those!
Coppertone and the salt air of the Barnegat Bay marshes of New Jersey.
ooh, Coppertone is a good one!
Instead of regular hand lotion, I use Coppertone at the office. It induces passersby to start warbling “Aruba, Jamaica, ooh I wanna take you to Bermuda, Bahama…”
Very cute.
I enjoy just sniffing my vial of Bond No. 9 Fire Island now and then, though it’s nothing like Coppertone, but inspires similar feelings.
Have you ever tried the CBIHP At the Beach 1966 (or whatever year it is)? That one has a Coppertone note.
I do have a great sample of that and also M Hulot’s Holiday, which is similar in feel. I enjoy both.
“Come on pretty mama, key Largo, Montego…..
Mmm, what a wonderful smell for a cold, snowy day!
Hmmm, that’s tough. It’s a toss-up between citrus blossoms, linden, and Kiss My Face Honey and Calendula lotion.
I am attracted to so many aromas! Well, duh, I guess, since I love perfume. But I also like so many general life smells, too – cooking and damp earth and (once again) warm cat, or fresh-in-from-the-rain cat.
But I think my love potion would have to have orange or lemon blossoms, linden, and honey.
LOL! Nothing like a warm kitty…or puppy breath.
I love puppy breath! Also the smell of a baby’s head. My son smelled like heaven to me. Just looking through his baby pictures can conjure up that smell.
The back of my husband’s neck and a sun-warmed meadow.
Hey, the back of my husband’s neck is also one of my most loved, comfort, reassuring smells. His skin has a flowery smell, and well, I love it.
But there are so many beautiful smells, how to choose only one? Well I see know that Amortentia is a blend, so I’ll find in mine:
- flowery husband notes
- pine bark
- Gilda essence (Gilda is my fav leather armchair, surrounded by books)
blend together and I’m in love!!!
Nice!
Thumbs up!
Cool one! I especially like “flowery husband notes”.
Freshly baked croissants with honey or blooming gardenia.
Robert Pattinson and steak :p
Actually I’ve been drawn to nature since I was a child. Plants and aquatic life in particular so probably some mix of country riverside and greenhouse.
Steak would definitely be in mine. Robert Pattison, not so much
Oh, what a fun poll!
I would smell an orange being unpeeled, and that muddy smell in the air when spring is coming. I can’t wait to smell that smell!
Oh, I love those smells! Peeled orange on the subway is one of my favorite little surprises.
Minnie, I’m looking forward to the smell of spring, too! It doesn’t seem to be arriving quickly enough.
I know. Well, it doesn’t help that there is all this snow on the ground where I am outside Washington D.C. I can feel it coming though. I have been thinking of that smell . . . and the trees with their little buds all over them . . . . a lot lately
Love the orange being peeled!
Love both of these! I think mine will need to have mud, too.
Mud in spring: suddenly one day there is a note that smells of life. It’s the smell of seeds sprouting underground before you can see the shoots, or moss growing again or sap rising – I don’t know, really, but it comes from something that is suddenly alive again after the frozen death of winter. There is a note in Hiris always reminds me of that.
Isn’t it wonderful? I”m not sure what causes the smell. Maybe just the ground warming up again after being cold for so long. It is almost making me sad thinking about it now, but I know I will smell it again soon.
I forgot to add my own: southern california beach, lime, sleep. Oh, and chocolate, and the top of my son’s head.
Robin, perhaps you could have had use for John Mayer’s sleep-and-sausages perfume!
Works for me!
Robin – I have to ask – what does sleep smell like? Do you mean the freshly laundered sheets on the bed?
LOL…beats me, I have no idea what I mean by that. I was thinking of smells that attract me and that’s the first thing that popped into my head. Maybe I’m just tired!
If I had to define the smell of sleep, I would say my ancient feather pillow that my great aunt made for me years ago. I no longer use it, but the deep drydown of Misouko also reminds me of that smell.
I was just rechecking this thread and my tired mind read “time”, not “lime”. Whatever time smells like, I want some of that, too!
Yes, time and sleep! Lots more of both.
That’s a fabulous poll question! I’d smell my cat Simon. Slightly musty, slightly sweet…his fur picks up a bit of the perfumes I apply and he smells wonderful to me.
(feel as though I must add that I have two other pets that I adore just as much as Simon…he just smells the best, *g*)
I am so tired of being buried in snow. It’s making me stir-crazy and VERY prone to impulse perfume purchases. After the Chamade review a few days ago, I went and bought a bottle of the extrait unsniffed. ‘Twas a great price on eBay, which makes me worry that something is wrong with it…we’ll see when it arrives.
If you don’t end up liking the Chamade, email me! I’ll be happy to take it off your hands!
Will do!
Oh snap. I did exactly the same thing but without snow as an excuse. My Chamade is an EDT, very cheap, and not in any of the classic Chamade bottles. I was cautious enough to poke around the internet looking for pictures of comparable bottles and at last found one where the writing on the bottle (but not the bottle itself) was identical to the one I was thinking of buying. So I bought it. Maybe I have a rarity, or maybe I have a dead dog. We’ll see. (BTW there is a handy guide in eBay to identifying Guerlain bottles.) Hope yours turns out good!
Really, excuses are optional, right?
Mine *looks* pristine, new, full and exactly like the other bottles of extrait…just was a much lower price and a Buy It Now options. So, naturally I’m suspicious, but when it started snowing again the other day, I caved. Heh.
Let’s hope both of our Chamade purchases are gems!
Puppy fur, old books, Narragansett Bay, new ghillies, hyacinth, church incense, rain.
DSH La Plage smells a bit like Narragansett Bay in the drydown. Joe might try it for Barnegat Bay. And speaking of Barnegat: http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/elinor_wylie/poems/22369
Thanks for that, Aimiliona! I was only aware of this one by Whitman:
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/patroling-barnegat/
Also, one of my own favorite photos, taken from the end of the block where my family’s summer bungalow is:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_WzuKrzEhENE/SMdu6QN4RfI/AAAAAAAAAt0/JnpVt_QJw50/s1600-h/sunset20080714e.JPG
Gorgeous picture, Joe!
well, I know where the perfume addicts meeting should be held this summer….
Great idea! What do you want me to bring Joe?
Heh heh. Cute… it would be a TIGHT squeeze. It’s a cute bungalow, but very small. Sure y’all… pick a week or weekend.
I didn’t know the Whitman. Thanks.
Ooh, beautiful!
Thank you for the rec! I haven’t smelled the bay in years. Or had a Gansett, either!
Jasmine, dark honey, cannabis, Cape Cod ocean air, cinnamon buns, old books, nectarine.
You could make a fragrance out of that!
What a great poll! I think I would smell fresh coffee, cardamom, and Daniel Radcliffe’s black leather jacket. (Not just any black leather jacket, mind you — just Dan’s!)
Daphne blossoms, ocean air, and cat fur. (Not sure what that combination would meld into, but those are my choices.)
Actually, A, I think that combination would work!
Miss Kitty V., I want in on that split! Three of my favorite smells!!!
Lilies of the valley, church incense, and nail polish remover.
I would have two, one would be the smell of riding on a crisp fall morning. The smell of burning leaves in the air, the saddle leather, hay, sweet feed and of course, the warm sweet musk of my horse.
The other would be the beach smell of where I grew up on L.I…. Sea spray, dune grasses, roses and coppertone. Those would be my fave two.
Smokeytoes – that’s so cool that your lists would make swoonworthy [and sniffworthy] perfumes!
I agree! Two great combinations.
I love the smell of horse and all the trappings.
Nice choices!
Fresh lilacs blooming in Spring, a soft and fuzzy lil baby’s head, Italian tomato sauce cooking on the stove, a Balsam Fir Christmas tree, almond cookies baking, an herb garden, nag champa incense – but, I guess if they were all blended together – that would be a weird smell.
[What a difficult list to narrow down, I could SO go on.] Great topic!
Dove – Balsam Fir Christmas trees and almond cookies baking (Spritz) are two deeply ingrained childhood memories for me. Great list.
Oh – neat Rapple! Isn’t it hard to narrow down favorite smells? I also can’t name a favorite song or movie – that’s like imposible. I have to name at least 20 of each.
There was a thread a year or so ago on POL that asked for favorite NON-perfume smells. This has ended up being similar, although that would also make a good poll. You’re right though – hard to narrow down, but it makes us stop and appreciate these things I think.
Spring blooms are wonderful, Lilacs are one of my favorites. We don’t have the hot days we need to grow them in the SF area.
My freesia bloomed last week and has been going gangbusters ever since. I am totally shocked!
Ok, the first that comes to mind is:
Aged Cedarwood, the south atlantic sea spray, hot summer sand (that may include a whiff of coppertone), and in the back a cotton candy smell and linden blossoms with newly mown grass.
This is what my childhood summers in Mar del Plata smelled like
jealous……..
Kitteh bref.
The smell of a horse filled barn.
The smell of my mother’s spaghetti and meatballs. Or her homemade salad dressing.
The smell of the woods behind my house in winter, spring, summer, and fall (the potion, being magical, would regularly transition from one to the other).
GREAT topic!
Oh, horses! How could I forget horses! I love that smell! Hay and horses… I’ve always said, if you smell like horse, expect me to follow you around all day.
Miss Kitty – you really must come and visit me then. I’m in the center of horse country!
Hi Rapple,
You’re sooo lucky! It must be beautiful out there…..
It really is, although snow covered right now like the rest of the country!
Totally agreed! I saw “horse-filled barn” and boy, I was there in an instant…one of the best scent memories in the world!
Oh I love the sound of the potion that magically transforms from season to season! Wish I thought of that
I’m almost on board with you…
For me, it’s sweaty horse, wool, and leather–hands down. There’s nothing like the smell of your horse when you lean down over it’s neck for a hug after a flat run across a meadow. Warm moist horseflesh steaming up from a sweaty saddle pad… YUM!
While I love Winter because it’s basketball season, I’d have to say for me Amortensia would be the smell of the Bluegrass in the late spring or summer: rose bushes, Linden and Catalpa trees blooming, cut grass, and new mown hay.
Clove, warm cat fur, fall leaves, cinnamon, pine trees.
Nice combination! I could go for that.
Bottle that and I’ll buy it.
I’m glad quite a few of us here have an appreciation for warm cat fur!
Thumbs up for this one, too!
I agree! Nummy!
Ditto that!
Nice! Bottle that and I’d buy it.
For me it would be the smell of windy, natural Scandinavian beaches (complete with a lighthouse and seagulls) where only the really brave actually dare to get even their feet wet: the salty sea, the cool wind, the wet rocks and the coarse grains of sand. A big cup of hot chocolate in one hand and a paper bag full of freshly baked Danish pastries in the other.
YUM! You’ve made me very hungry!
Oh, this is just fantastic. You paint such a beautiful sensory picture of it all. I want to be there right now!
The room of totem poles in the Museum of Natural History (which I only today realized are cedar, duh), the road along the beach to Sachuest Point in Rhode Island – wild roses, sea air, cut grass and asphalt, and of course, my boo.
curious mind wants to know who “Boo” is.
Freshly squeezed lime and a big red rose, like when you stick your entire nose into the blossom and inhale.
Jasmine (we had one in our garden, when I was a little girl) or Lavender or really dark chocolate.
Freshly baked ginger bread, ripe fruits, freshly ground coffee, fresh cut red roses.
ohh, and the smell of candies, (children)
Crushed green coriander seeds (NOT dried–that is a completely different smell) .
My garden after a spring rain. Or chocolate chip cookies baking. A Hawaii beach with a plumeria lei around my neck. Walking through a Rocky Mountain pine forest in the summertime.
A nice thread–I feel calmer already.
The sweet, sweet smell of the (only) winning Powerball ticket.
You got that right Dzingnut!!!
That’s akin to the sweet smell of success.
The smell of (paper) money!
Dry fall leaves, apples, fresh-cut grass, black locust blossoms, fresh yellow heirloom roses, and mulled cider. Oh, and toss some rain-after-a-dry-spell in there too (but not Calone).
I forgot, add the smell of my sons’ heads after they’ve been outside playing. (Funny, it doesn’t smell the same if they’ve been playing inside, and my daughter’s head – while just as beloved! – doesn’t smell the same, either.)
For me, it would probably be some combination of the following that would shift from day to day (like Dzingnut said, it’s magical!): the smell of a good spice shop, my mother’s perfume drawer when I was growing up (she passed perfume nuttery on to me), church incense, ancient buildings, honey, vanilla, fresh blooming lilac, old books, pipe tobacco, a stable, roses, apple cider, and the ozone smell you get after spring and summer rains. And maybe dirt.
This would be one funky smell…
I suspect that if Amortentia really did exist, what you actually got out of it would be a fascinating reflection of your personality. I bet we’d all be surprised by what we smelled, and that at least a quarter of us would find ingredients we would never have expected!
Morgan, I think you are right that a love potion perfume would reflect the person who smells it (because what we really want to love is ourselves, and are seduced by the one who can make us feel like the most beautiful person on earth) and that it would surprise. In fact, it would never smell the same, so that the beloved would never become bored and fall out of love.
Yes, exactly! It would morph from time to time. For example, right now because it’s winter, I’m thinking all of the florals of spring sound divine, but if you asked me at the end of summer what sounded appealing, it would be dead leaves on the ground and apple cider. I also think that maybe our TRUE loves are buried deeply in our subconscious, that we might not even be aware of what they really are. For example, it’s all well and good to speculate idly about “What object would you take out of your house if it caught on fire?”, but the real judge is what you actually do if (Heaven forbid) the time comes.
That’s so true!
There are enough wonderful fragrance ideas in this thread to create 50 classics. And none include “the feel of confidence; sensual yet feminine” crappola …:-)
I know – there really are some wonderful evocative lists here. Perfumistas are cool.
you got that right, Dz
a ripe juicy mango, honey, rice, and cream
and a ripe fig.
This one is nice. I love the smell of steaming rice!
A midsummer’s evening; dew accumulating on gras and trees, damp earth and old leaves, hints of people’s fragrances and the smells of summer bonfires. Male skin after a day in the sun, cooling as the sun goes down. Sigh
.
I’ve been missing my trips to China lately so…the spicy smell of Chongqing, China…no where else smells the same! Szechuan peppers, anise, street smells like gasoline, food cooking, and the flowermarket right outside the hotel door! ahhhh…
Hay that’s been drying in the summer sun. Lilies of the valley in the spring, that have a whiff of snow and earth along with the flower. Lilacs in May. Honeysuckle on the vine. The ocean. Pine trees in winter. Pipe tobacco. An old library full of old books. Apricots. A horse stable. The smell following a sudden thunderstorm on a hot summer day. Fresh coffee. Freshly-baked bread. Wet dog. I’d better stop now.
It’s SO hard to stop!
isn’t it? and then you read some more and think of more things….it’s sounding like a gratitude list:)
What a wonderful list. Home grown apricots are the best.
Leave off the wet dog and horse stable and I could go for this.
Hee! I admit that horse stable and wet dog are acquired tastes.
Mmmmm, what a wonderful list.
My nose would be very reassured by your Amortentia, OK except for the horse barn…
I’m rather shocked by all this love for horse barns and wet dogs. The kitty fur I get!
Horses and DRY dogs, yes!
Chainsaw exhuast mixed with the smell of sweat and man and autumn. If there is a chainsaw exhaust frag out there, let me know!
I also have a thing for ball-point pen ink and the smell when a cigarette is first lit… and the smell of contact solution (not together mind you).
I am with you on the ball point pen note and the freshly lit cigarette. I stopped smoking a couple of months ago, and I do realize that the smell is quite disturbing most of the time. But that first whiff of burning tabacco (not lit with a match, mind you – the sulphur ruins it!) – mellow and full of promise. I obviously miss it.
I guess there’s that Garage one, I think it’s Comme des Garcons. Not specific to chainsaws though.
I got a lot of garage with the Breath of God one!
And with the smell of chainsaw exhaust , man and autumn you would get fresh wood, too! Nice!
It would be a journey through my life…
First, jasmine. It surrounded the areas where I grew up.
Then, roses. Cliche, but it always reminds me of my adolescence. I was a hopeless romantic.
Then, my true love. His Kiton mixed with his amazing and alltogether wonderful scent that is his, and his alone.
Last, but not least: bluebells. We both just moved into our first home last year and there is a bluebell bush in the backyard that you can smell all the way down the street. Pure bliss.
Ahhh bluebells are lovely.
Muir Woods. summer rainy north atlantic. my mother’s turkey stuffing. May’s damp garden earth. new car. high quality leather. frangipani lei. fresh squeezed oj. baby head. puppy breath. cedar chest. burning apple wood. bottle that last one and I’ll give you my life savings.
Muir Woods smells so beautiful – great choice!
p.s.: this is an inspired thread.
Isn’t it?! Reading everyone’s ideas is truly a treat.
Yes! I love it.
Roast chicken. A well-made rose perfume (possibly Coty’s La Rose Jacqueminot–I still remember the rush from my first sniff two decades ago). The Outer Banks beaches on a sunny day. Peaches at the peak of ripeness. And a whiff (not too strong) of gasoline.
As a bottled combination this could only be a mess. But each individual component….
Thick boozy vanilla, red cedar, ethyl ethanol, tobacco leaf, rain drying on the pavement, snow, sweat, old books, freshly photocopied paper, campfire, salty beaches, Hawaiian Tropics suntanning oil, a forest – of mixed trees – on a warm summer’s day.
How could I forget tobacco leaf where I live??? The Fall air used to be full of the smell of tobacco drying in the barns. Beautiful smell and I’ve never even been a smoker.
Now … if our cauldrons could reproduce a discontinued, historical, or pre-reformulated scent, what would it be? (And no fair to say: All Of Them!!).
Me: the original Vent Vert, Diorissimo, Je Reviens, and whatever royalty wore in ancient Egypt.
I’d love to try the early versions of Cabochard and Tabac Blond!
Oh fun! [It is magical after all
] Your list, plus Sortilege and Faberge Woodhue is all I can think of off the top of my head…
I’ve always wanted to experience the perfumes of ancient Egypt, Babylon, Rome, etc.! Also, whatever was in all those fabulously beautiful perfume bottles that you see in books and museums.
Coty, original L’Origan, which my mom wore.
Also, what did the air actually smell like during the Jurassic and pre-Cambrian periods? What did the Neanderthals smell like?
Everyone seems to be able to pop out an answer so easily! I’ve been debating forever! The problem is that my Amorentia would change from day to day….possibly hour to hour!! Right this very minute I’d have to say hot Earl Grey tea , fresh mown grass and my flower garden early on a summer morning…then I’d pick up Maxie and snuffle her warm fur (she always smells vaguely of perfume)….but now I’m already changing my mind….
No fear, I kept coming up with things to add until it read a bit like the note list for BPAL’s “drink me” from the Alice in Wonderland collection. So I just didn’t write a list at all.
my sister!
Earl Grey is so comforting! It is hard to narrow down. As I’ve read everyone’s list, I’m reminded the comforting smell of gumbo cooking on the stove on a crisp fall day with the sound of a football game in the background-total comfort!
My most delicious scent experience was Christmas Day last year when, after days of stinking hot weather, the rain finally came early on Christmas morning, just as Father Christmas was heading home. I had all the doors and windows open to let the smell of the rain in while I cooked a ham in the oven, glazing it with lime marmalade, sherry, ginger and cloves. And I was wearing Coco EDP. All so beautiful. It would be great to bottle it, but the memory is pretty good!
I can almost imagine what this smells like, it sounds amazing.
Sounds wonderful!
Hey, just READING about your memory is pretty damn wonderful! Thanks for letting me share in the loveliness for a moment.
Wow!
I’m taking notes on that ham glaze!
Rain on a hot sun parched garden (some now would be great thanks)
and i totally agree with the warm cat fur- why is it that dogs can smell so bad but cats smell good?
Hehe, I haven’t gotten close enough to a cat for a while to find out, (eye-exploding allergies unfortunately
), but our old greyhound who passed away last year smelled WONDERFUL. She was a beautiful red girl who smelled like honey and sunshine. Our current greyhound, a big wonderful guy, smells pretty good too, but not quite as good as Mel.
I’m kind of surprised nobody else has said “spice shop smell” besides me, unless I missed it… I find that heady mess of a scent to be intoxicating.
Where in the world are you Morgan? No spice shops anywhere near where I live, although I’m able to get really good organic spices at my local Co-Op.
Actually, St. Louis, MO of all places, which means that while I can’t run out and try the new Serge Lutens anywhere in the city, I’m apparently lucky in that I have two good spice shops within 20 mins drive from me! They smell so exotic, like what I’d imagine a bazaar in the Middle East would smell like. Heavenly!
Powdered sugar, fracas, B.O., and new shirt.
The smell of the Plateau de Valensole in June. It’s one of the best places in the South of France where they grow lavender. Also the smell of sun baked maquis in France. Think kitchen herbs like Thyme, Rosemary, Sage, Origan, Marjoram etc. + crushed pine needles and the sound of the Cigales.
I spent one year in Provence, and it’s the smells I remember best.
Yes, those smells are absolutely wonderful!
Have you read ‘A Sketch Book from Southern France’ by the miniaturist Sara Midda? She too spent a year in Provence and she sketched *everything* she saw. It’s a little gem.
It is a book I own. ” In and out of the Garden” is another one by her that I love.
Another smell I remember is of the wonderful markets in Aix. A blend of cheese, greens, sausages etc.
Fromage! I remember the smell of the cheese section in a Galeries Lafayette in Berlin – the depth and deliciousness of that combined aroma of many luscious cheeses was freaking amazing!
The scent in the air before warm spring rain, my dad’s old suede jacket, lilies of the valley in April, dewdrops hanging off, old books, opening the barn door and hearing the horses whinny, the treasured smell of a leather saddle, grass just mown, putting on an old sweater with Azuree barely there, baby hair just washed,
sitting in a canoe on the lake up north, leaves crunching under my feet…….what a great poll-so inspiring.
Oh, this thread is making me incredibly nostalgic: there are so many smells that I love and won’t ever be able to smell again. Too many to list – a lot have been mentioned by others.
Bog myrtle. Wild honeysuckle. Cinnamon. Peat Fires. Cut grass. Fresh butter sponge cake (hot out of the oven).
I’d smell honeysuckles vines, magnolia blossoms, humid southern air, and the back of a cat’s neck.
It would be interesting to see what actually happens vs. what I want to happen!
Want to again smell my 2 babies. Both are now men and certainly don’t smell like they used to. What I think I’d experience is the early evening scent that wafts in an open window at dusk at the end of a warm spring day and the air is beginning to cool. Nothing ever comes close to that or touches me in the same way.
true
I don’t know anything about Harry Potter but this is a fun and challenging poll….I’d have to say baking bread, frying bacon, our son’s hair, the sea, Lady of the Night flower (Cestrum nocturnum) and bleach. I know it’s a weird combination!
Why is bacon so intoxicating? (I feel my hips expanding).
For me it would smell of white freesia, a summer forest after a rain and my warm newborn baby’s head still damp after a great nap.
Now where’s my darn avatar?
I don’t know! Did you change anything in your profile?
I haven’t changed anything. I just thought that the ONE time I mention my love of fresh freesia, that my freesia image would appear
I’ve logged in under my son’s name (the one with the great smelling head, as a baby and now) to see if that makes a difference.
Well that’s very odd. Usually that only happens if someone changes their email address in their profile. Have you tried logging in over at gravatar.com to make sure nothing happened over there?
I’ll check it out. Thanks Robin.
My father’s basement, car engine grease, saffron bread baking in the oven, new clothes, church incense, quinces, ferns in the forest, a Cuban rum distillery, ice cream shops, and so many more!
Just had to add the smell of my father extracting honey from his hives in a dusty, sun-warmed shed. A maple-sugaring shack during sugaring season is pretty darn nice, too.
oh, how could I have forgotten the smell of a sugar shack’s boiling sap?! fantastic.
All the smells of my childhood: The smell of the air on a cold snowy winter night – so crisp, my mom’s perfume no matter what she wears, fresh basil, a summer evening when the sun has set and nature seems to exhale, a charcoal grill with German Bratwurst, the smell of a Christmas market in Germany – roasted candied almonds, incense, pine, spiced wine, cotton candy, fresh waffles, roasting chestnuts, and of course more Bratwurst!
Why are there so few perfumes that smell like these things? Urgh.
Very hard to narrow it down, but probably custard, roast chicken, fresh bread, wood smoke on cold days and clove cigarettes. Might work if you left out the chicken….
I used to love clove cigarettes. They smell fantastic.
I love that smell, too; I smoked them for years before I finally quit. Have you smelled AvaLuxe’s Kretek? It really does a good job of capturing them.
Thanks for the suggestion! I haven’t heard of it.
I just ordered a sample of it a couple of days ago, I have high hopes for it!
The salty tang of the ocean, a freshly snapped blade of grass, warm milk, sun-ripened gardenia, the fizz of French lemonade, and the glue binding together the leaves of a very old book. Probably clashes horribly in execution, though.
Lavender love this note especially in mens fragrance.
Hawaiian Tropic Suntan Oil – Reminds me of my trips to Barbados when I was young and had no responsibilities.
the warm cat fur of both my kitty-babies. swimming pools. photographic chemicals (developer, fixer, etc.), christmas trees, burning wood, newly dried lavender and fresh basil from my garden, cigarette smoke wafting through single digit -cold air and wind, sail boat docks, lines, etc., fresh squeezed lime in ice water.
Wow, this poll was just as interesting as I thought it would be when I suggested it after watching Harry Potter! My list would be old library books, warm wooden railroad ties in the sun, sea salt spray, pine forests in the south of france, bed linens dried on a line, freshly mown grass, a hot prairie wind blowing over grass in the summertime, coconut suntan lotion and the little nook on my husband’s neck. Oh, and maybe the smell of moss and freshly budding poplar trees.
I used to really enjoy the smell of gas at the gas station filling up as a kid, but is that a pc thing to like these days? :-p
I like that smell, too. Who cares about PC?
GREAT thread idea, BTW!
Its amazing how many people like the smell of petrol. (me included. In small doses of course)
The smell of gasoline changed forever when they made it unleaded. I loved that old gasoline smell too.
Jaimie, a most EXCELLENT suggestion for a poll! I’m reading through all of these responses and sighing at the memories. And I’m sure it *isn’t* PC to like the smell of gasoline at the pump, but I agree, I loved that smell as kid. Secretly, of course, since you’re not supposed to inhale those fumes…
Thanks for letting me know you liked this suggestion, we’ll have to try chatting about this stuff more often. And I feel MUCH more reassured about my fondness for the smell of gas, I thought I would be the odd one out for sure.
I may be weird but I doubt it-I adore that smell of gas at the old filling stations, like some strange intoxicating memory, how could it not be? It leaves the indelible print on your senses….ditto for everything I’ve read here today.
Ooh, and a related smell that dates me, I’m afraid: that combo of freshly dittoed worksheets and pencil shavings.
Do you mean the ones that produced a sort of lavender print? I loved that smell!
That’s the one! Didn’t you love it when the teacher distributed copies “hot off the press”?
Yes, definitely! Just imagining it transports me back to high school.
And in that category of dated smells, I would add that minty white paste, Elmers glue, Play Doh, gum erasers, cigar boxes, the original Ivory soap, and the original Jergens lotion.
Yes – and real Crayola crayons!
Jergens! Yes!
Oh! Jergens and cigar boxes! My “Mom & Dad” scents.
And mucilage! If you miss that ditto paper smell, try CdG2: Woman, which definitely recalls it, to my mind at least.
Yes! Theres something about that Jergens lotion. Also those big crayons that you used to use as small children.
I’ve recently been enjoying SL Louve, and I swear it smells exactly like Jergens lotion, from the yellow pump bottle my whole family used.
Mine is Zippo lighter fluid – love that stuff.
No lie.. the air would smell like Thierry Mugler Cologne.. Fresh yet subtly sexy, and the earth would smell like Frederic Malle’s Carnal Flower… it would always smell like beautiful summers night =)
mmh, fresh brewed strong, dark coffee preferably sumatra, pumpkin pie, and mysore sandalwood.
This poll is fantastic! Let’s see, my magical potion would be an ever-rotating combo of muddy Hawaiian hiking trail lined with yellow ginger flowers, sweet peppers roasting, Daphne odora blossoms, warm baked custard dusted with freshly grated nutmeg, a grove of eucalyptus trees near the sea on a foggy day, sweet onions being sauteed in butter, and a roof being tarred in the hot sun. Oh, and mine would have sun-basted kitty fur, too!
Another thumbs up!
Hot summer pavement, rain water…and my cat.
bush earth that has just been rained on.. night scented jasmine….beeswax… the sea.
Grapefruit peel….clean dog….almond oil….wet earth….fire-toasted marshmallows….
And also: a combination of rain, car exhaust, and orange blossom that smells like Athens used to in the winter. I spent a few years there after college – a formative time for me, powerfully evoked by that particular combination of smells.
What does David Duchovny smell like? trouble?
Oh my…This is a tricky one. So many smells. I must say that it’s so wonderful to finally feel that I’m not the only one in the world who’s sensory memory is SO doggone tied in with smell! It’s amazing how a particular scent can bring you right back to a place in time… I love my babies heads after baths (Baby Magic yellow bath) Diesel fuel, campfires, most anything being sauteed in butter and garlic, spaghetti sauce simmering on the stove. The smell of a rose when you stick your nose right into the soft petals, the oddly interesting scent of a stargazer lily…puppy paws. Jack Frost candle by Yankee. Wow, Ok, I’ll stop!
Oh and yes, Hawaiian Tropic tanning oil. A cigarette that’s just been lit. A cake baking in the oven…Oops, Sorry I said I’d stop!
in no particular order:
my grandma, the cold box in a flower shop, wood, pencil shavings, exhaust, fuel, (my other half is a “grease monkey” and i love the smells), plastic, a newly opened cd (the booklet and cd), incense, pepper, summer nights when the abundance of crops here in central california are growing – it smells of anticipation: what i remember it smelling of when i was younger, going out and having fun in the country, days long, no school, good times, the possibilities were endless!
wonderful thread!!
here in adelaide south australia, we’re in our last month of a long hot summer which is mostly a dry heat….we HAVE had stretches of very humid weather also & i love the smell in the air just before a summer storm. my other fave smell is brandy custard served up with xmas pudding….havana vanille potently reminds me of this comforting smell
The scent of Clarins Body Shaping Cream !
I’m mostly in reader mode on NST, but I love this tread and would like to share my favourite smells.
So, in no particular order:
- an old-fashioned shoe-repair store (must be the glue)
- gasoline at a petrol station
- the whiff of a cigarette burning (I don’t smoke but for the first few seconds of that smell is magical)
- my skin after being out in the hot sun
- the moments after rain on a summer day and the wet ground
- burning leaves
- my Grandma’s old house with walls made of grounded soil (I’m not sure that’s the proper translation)
- that hard-to-pinpoint smell in the air that signals the arrival of spring
- horse stables
There are so many smells to pick from- but would have to say its a toss up between the smell of a thunderstorm on the wind blowing through the trees in my yard, or the smell of my cat when he’s warm & napping & freshly licked clean. Second runner ups would be a fresh new book and hot, authentic, homemade marinara.
One possibility for my Amortentia – Giacobetti’s Sexy Angelic in a concentration that lasts more than 10 minutes…
I’m late, as usual, and probably not terribly creative at 8 am. But in any case, in order for it to be a love potion for me, it would need to be the essence of night-blooming jasmine, honeysuckle vines and summer lawn, all damp and dewy from a brief evening shower.
That would do it for me, too!
For me it would be newspaper ink, pens, pencils, new notebooks, and the smell of Johnson’s baby shampoo (babies are such a draw!) because I’m a stay-at-home mom/would-be journalist. And maybe a bit of exhaust and motor oil splashed in (my husband’s a mechanic.)
Warm June Smell for me–the scent of honeysuckle and grass and night air on the backroads of New Jersey at midnight in late June. Always a strong scent memory for me.
I suggest the next topic:
What did the perfume smell like which Humbert Humbert bought for Lolita. We only know the name of it: ” Soleil Vert”.
My Dolly, my folly! Her eyes were vair,
And never closed when I kissed her.
Know an old perfume called Soleil Vert?
Are you from Paris, mister?
Rain on pavement, that smell when you open a particularly frosty freezer or crank the air conditioning super high, my mother’s ancient leather handbag (which I suppose would be a mix of leather, Tic-Tacs, and Chanel no. 5), the fur behind my dog’s ears, and the smell of my dad’s closet and all those shoes.
Bandit Parfum. And you have no idea how shocked I am to realise that this may possibly be the scent I most love to smell of. So, I guess this is the scent that I believe smells the most attractive ON ME.
As for a scent I am most attracted to in general……..I love the scent of garlic/tomato pasta sauce, fresh coffee, tobacco/pipe smoke, roaring fires, grated lime peel, frankincense at sunday Mass.
Rain-washed lilacs, freshly opened hyacinths, Madonna lilies at night, post-thunderstorm ozone air and clean horse skin.
Tortilla soup, hot chocolate and a thunderstorm.
Lavender field or garden after the rain ( think demeter really does a good job to imitate this smell!)
For me, the smell of fog in the early morning and the salt off the Pacific ocean. Now only if I could find it in perfume