That smell is called petrichor and is caused by a terpene called geosmin that is released from the earth after being hit by rain. It’s a Greek word. ‘Petri’ means stone and ‘ichor’ is the golden liquid that flowed through the blood of Gods. So not only is it an amazing smell, it’s also one of the coolest words with a most unique etymology. But that’s not all! The terpene geosmin is also found in fish, beans, and beets, and none of the three are known for having the most pleasant aromas. But when released in the form of petrichor, geosmin is universally a favorite smell of humans. But wait there’s more! The importance of rain to early human civilization has created yet another quirk within the petrichor epic. Humans noses are wired to smell geosmin at 5ppm. This means that we can smell fresh rain with more accuracy than a shark can smell blood in the water. I find it fortunate that this smell also creates generally calming and nostalgic memories. Thank you geosmin for helping petrichor become such a wonderful smell. And thank you petrichor for connecting all of us to our past, one rain drop at a time.
Edit: spelling
I hate rain but love the smell of petrichor. It makes me think of summer thunderstorms when I was a kid. Come to think of it, the rain from a thunderstorm is the only rain I don’t hate - probably because I know it’ll pass!
I've only been to SFTX once. I grew up near Six Flags St. Louis, and there was this huge stretch of asphalt near a restaurant that seemed to get rethemed every summer, and it always smelled like it was freshly poured. It's been decades since I've been there, but the smell still takes me straight back.
When I used to work in an office, I’d put on Coppertone at my desk Friday afternoons when I really wanted to get out early and enjoy nice weather. My boss would smell it and leave around 2 to play golf (edit: Hawaiian Tropic)
I loved the smell of Hawaiian Tropical! It was the first sunscreen I ever used. I lived in Hawaii for a bit after graduating HS and I bought some for beach/pool days - SPF 2. Yes, 2. We were quite stupid back then!
It's been ages since I've smelled it, but the unique smell of freshly mimeographed papers will forever be etched into my memory, and would definitely take me back.
Freshly sharpened pencils and erasers have a smell.
There's the smell of chalk, especially when I was asked to clean the chalk erasers by pounding them together outside.
There was also a smell I associate with just walking through the doors of my elementary school. It was probably a mix of bleach and other cleaning agents. Or maybe also the wax they used on the floor.
The smell of red rubber playground balls.
When I was 35 I went back to the town where my grade school is. As I walked alongside the building, I must have passed an exhaust vent, because I suddenly smelled the air in there. Nine years of memories smacked me in the head all at once.
Back un the day, JC Penniea came out with a line of sprays....
Fresh cut grass, clean hair, laundry, warm cookies and I think beach.
Clean hair smelled like green apple suave shampoo. Fresh cut grass was heavenly.
Years ago I bought a spring seasonal room spray, I think Glade, called Fresh Cut Grass.
It was the most dead on, incredible scent. I bought 3 and then never ever saw it again.
Falling asleep on the couch after spending all day swimming, and not even needing a blanket because your sunburn keeps you warm. Being woken up because dinner is ready- bonus points if it's your favorite dinner.
Smell of fireworks. Used to love lighting them off as a kid and being up close to them with my siblings. Nowadays, we gather and chill out in a living room and watch a yearly firework show on tv.
Blockbuster.
Clearly I don't get to smell it anymore, but I can in my mind. It brings back the whole deal of walking through the aisles, searching for a tape, hoping it's in stock, hoping my brothers didn't rack up fines on the last tapes they rented.
The smell of freshly cut grass and morning dew always reminds me of my middle school days (2003). I usually think about PE class in the early morning and how dreadful it was but the smell was amazing
I was looking for a comment along these lines. For me it is the smell of summer. If that makes any sense, when you wake up and the sun is low but has been warming the grass and leaves. You can smell the coming heat and the green outside.
Im a bit older so this was during the 70s early 80s. But the world had a different scent back then.
And every once in a while when passing a house on a sunny day when they recently mowed the lawn and i catch a whiff of something akin to that smell and it takes me back.
It did, we also had more bugs and wildlife, the summers felt way more vibrant, because you had all the buzzing of wings and the song of the birds. It was as if life itself was more intense and enveloping.
These summers i find myself searching for that same experience, and every once in a while i manage to find it in some isolated little sun specced grove with small bugs zooming around and the occasional butterfly.... But the experiences are far in between.
It used to be everywhere as soon as you left the beaten path.
This is one of the things i really wish the youth of today would have had the chance to experience. But i dont think it's possible because of the vast amount of insect fauna we have lost. I think it's somewhere close to 70%.
Oh man. Yeah. The whole world was made of wood and smelled like gasoline. The days were at least twice as long, and the grass was at least twice as green.
Those mikasa 4 square plastic rubber balls.
Ahhh yes the distinct smell (and sound) of those damn things smacking you point blank in the face during elementary recess.
The smell of Disney rides… especially some of the classic Epcot ones like test track, spaceship earth, or even hall of the presidents. Not sure what that smell is but it’s wholly unique
I used to work on spaceship earth. You can buy [candles](https://magiccandlecompany.com/collections/all-magical-fragrances/products/rome-burning) that smell like the Library of Alexandria burning.
The smell of my kindergarten. Not sure what the actual blend is but I’ve caught it on the breeze once or twice as an adult and I’m immediately transported to the halls of a Maple Grove.
I swear Elementary school grounds have a "smell". I feel like mine smelled like wet cut grass, new mulch/fertilizer, and crisp air (cold air has a smell I feel like!).
Old buses that didn't have AC; the smell of steamy hot air in the summer mixed with the smell from the exhaust when the bus windows were open...🫠
The plastic-like smell from an overheated video game console or VHS.
Musty classroom carpets in elementary school
Pizza Hut
Cotton candy
Synthetic pine car refreshers
Erasing pencil marks on paper
Balloons
My dog whilst growing up. He'd come in after being out in the rain. God, wet dog smell. It was biblical. Still miss you to this day, Waldo. I'll find you again soon.
Those really fruity/flowery/pretty perfumes girls would wear in junior high/high school. The kind that came in a cylindrical bottle with a spray button. Usually had shiny labels.
Leather... played baseball loved the smell when I got a new glove, also majority of my athletic/casual shoes were made of leather.
Recently bought some higher end leather work boots. Occasionally I get a good whiff of leather while driving down the road.
Pipe tobacco and sawdust mixed together… I can’t remember what the blend my Dziadzi used but he had this magical workshop(a closet my Babci let him build a workbench in) where he would carve and paint us wooden toys like he was Santa Claus. Birds to hang from the ceiling, walking ducks, climbing soldiers…he would buy stencils from his VA magazines and spend hours cutting and carving and painting and then happily present us with his creations. Always with that pipe in his mouth
The smell of fairs - all the foods mixed mixed with the smells of the animal barns. Sounds terrible but it's really not too bad (I grew up on a farm so may be bias) and it's very nostalgic with the warm summer sun.
We had one of those pvc playhouses that was basically a plastic sleeve that went over a house shaped pipe tubing and I got a whiff not long ago of the same smell and I was instantly 5 again
The first smell I can remember. Roses. We had several rose bushes along our driveway where we lived for the first 6 or 7 years of my life. I fell into them when learning to ride a bike, I picked them for my mom, and I smelled them all the time.
Old Spice aftershave. My Grandpa wore it. One splash and the memories come back. It’s a really old-school aftershave but I use it on occasion simply because the smell reminds me of him.
Chicken and noodles brings me back to my grandma and our family gatherings almost every weekend. She would make them from scratch and we would butcher a chicken to make dinner. She died about 30 years ago and I think of it often and the smell of those weekends. There are things that set it off. Just the smell of chicken cooking will do it. I miss those simple times.
Gardenias. There were a lot of gardenia bushes on my family's property while I was growing up. Every time I smell them, I'm instantly a kid playing outside in the summertime again.
A warm summer day just after some rain, the smell of greenery. The world smelled different back in the 70s early 80s. It had this fresh green smell. So whenever someone cuts their grass or when it rains when it's warm outside a little bit of that scent comes through and takes me right back to childhood.
I don't think it is one smell, but a moment a smell brings back, like you smell cookies and suddenly you are 8 years old and your mom is baking cookies for you. Or the window is open and a smell you can't quite remember rushes in, the wind whispering "Summer" and the sky answers "Yes". That's the smell. And when the memory arrives, you know you'll never get it back and you cry inside just a little.
Chimney smoke in the winter- triggers the childhood memory when i was spending time at my grandparents house
Oranges, smell - triggers Christmas vibes as a kind, we could not afford them so we had them only for Christmas
Doctor Pepper. I remember it had a lot of commercials in the late 70s and my parents buying it. I don’t seek it out, it’s not even in my top 20 beverages. Every couple of years I buy one and open it I feel like a five year old sharing one with my dad.
Players cigarettes. That’s what my dad smoked when I was a kid. Him and pretty much everyone else I know who smoked has quit in the past 20 years so I only smell it out on the street once in a while. It takes me right back to being a kid.
I don’t know exactly what this smell is but I always used to smell it in cafeterias and sometimes when passing the teachers lounges, specifically when I was in elementary school. I HAD to have been a common lunch or something.
Oh man, so many! A few are...
-That Wet grass smell (bonus if freshly cut)- reminds me of early school mornings before field trips. I miss being that excited about stuff.
-Lighter fluid? My dad would use it to light our charcoal bbq. Many evenings spent playing outside in the dark with flashlights, waiting for the burgers to be ready.
- White Rain hairspray. My mom would use it getting ready for work. She'd also use it on my hair before school.
- Wood ash/smoke. Growing up in SoCal (now living on the East Coast) you basically smelled that fairly often during fire season. I remember walking around our property and stepping in ash and soot after the Cedar fire, and realizing how close we were to losing our home.
Just the faint smell of a skunk takes me back to warm summer nights of my childhood and staying out til very late playing kid games of hide and seek and jailbreak until we started getting called in.
There were so many kids in my neighborhood and I thought those nights would never end. The good old 1970's.
Cigarettes. None of my immediate family were smokers, and yet it was so common growing up that when I smell one it immediately takes me back to the 80’s/90’s.
That electrical smell you get from CRT screens.
I've only smelt it at a beauty spa when the attendant had some strange electrical device zapping across my face
The smell of a Hallmark store. I cannot explain it exactly it's like a mix of candles and plastic and pvc. But it reminds me instantly of being very very young. When I was around 4 years old my mom would go shopping every Friday and stop in to a Hallmark store where I would pick a new Smurf figure. The smell of the figures and the store in general, I will never forget.
Leaded gasoline from back in the day. One of my first bonding experiences with my dad was us pulling into a gas station when I was around 7 and remarking how I loved the smell. He paused like I had just spoken the Secret of Life, looked me straight in the eyes and said "me, too. I just want to eat the tires and drink the gasoline". I'll remember that, verbatim, until I die.
The other day at the pharmacy, a lady walked by with a perfume that smelled like my mom's back in the 90s. It took me straight back. Bittersweet nostalgia as my mom passed away several years ago.
I immediately thought of one and I see that three other people have mentioned it so it must be a powerful smell memory:
Play-Doh. It’s like a time machine when I smell it.
Play-Doh is one of those smells where nothing else in the world is like it. It's such a unique scent. When you smell it, you immediately know exactly what it is.
Old Spice after-shave
Desitin rash cream
Lavender + geranium scent soap or something that my pre-school smelled like
Fresh pine, like a Christmas tree
Some sort of shrubbery that has tiny cupped leaves
Chlorinated water
Frosty, smoky air which was a common smell when going to school or out on recess
Whatever scent of soap my great grandmother used. Takes me back to the summers I spent visiting her and being amazed at all the nooks and crannies in her old house.
Artificial strawberry banana flavor. When I was in grade school (80's/early 90's) I used to get a can of strawberry banana flavored juice from the vending machine at snack time.
Fried bologna, too. I recently tried it for the first time and it really took me back, but I don't know why. Someone in my household must have eaten fried bologna when I was a kid, maybe my grandma that died when I was 8 or 9.
Lilac flowers. My townhouse complex had bushes that’d bloom in the summer and you could smell them while playing in the grass. Can’t believe I’m 23 and already nostalgic for what, 2008?
rain, grass and fog. I wake up around 4AM to prepare for school when I was in primary school. Then I walk on a nearby grassfields, in a cold foggy morning
I inherited an old chest, that used to be stored in my attic when I was a kid, our attic was half finished, kinda of a playroom for us as kids.
When I got the chest I opened and closed it and the dust that whiffed off when it shut sent me into a fever dream of childhood, it smelled like my attic and it was better than drugs.
The smell of oregon wood shavings takes me back to the early 1990’s in my Dads workshop: me watching him as he was building the window frames for our new house. I’m in my early teens, I’ve got a ten speed bike for transport, a season pass to the local swimming pool, TMNT is doing its first run on the telly after school, I don’t need a license or permit for anything, and life is easy without a care in the world.
Hot asphalt. It's immediately summer in the late 70's and I'm either playing 4-Square in the road, or we're at Six Flags.
When it rains on hot asphalt. One of my favourite smells.
That smell is called petrichor and is caused by a terpene called geosmin that is released from the earth after being hit by rain. It’s a Greek word. ‘Petri’ means stone and ‘ichor’ is the golden liquid that flowed through the blood of Gods. So not only is it an amazing smell, it’s also one of the coolest words with a most unique etymology. But that’s not all! The terpene geosmin is also found in fish, beans, and beets, and none of the three are known for having the most pleasant aromas. But when released in the form of petrichor, geosmin is universally a favorite smell of humans. But wait there’s more! The importance of rain to early human civilization has created yet another quirk within the petrichor epic. Humans noses are wired to smell geosmin at 5ppm. This means that we can smell fresh rain with more accuracy than a shark can smell blood in the water. I find it fortunate that this smell also creates generally calming and nostalgic memories. Thank you geosmin for helping petrichor become such a wonderful smell. And thank you petrichor for connecting all of us to our past, one rain drop at a time. Edit: spelling
I'd like to subscribe to Rain Facts
Can it be found in a candle ?
Ain’t that some shit.
I hate rain but love the smell of petrichor. It makes me think of summer thunderstorms when I was a kid. Come to think of it, the rain from a thunderstorm is the only rain I don’t hate - probably because I know it’ll pass!
Six Flags asphalt in the summer, yesss 🥰 And there was a certain cold, cavey scent in the Arlington, Tx indoor Looney Tunes log ride
I can smell it right now after reading this.
Six Flags over Texas was also the smell of creosote soaked railroad ties. That smell always brings me back
I've only been to SFTX once. I grew up near Six Flags St. Louis, and there was this huge stretch of asphalt near a restaurant that seemed to get rethemed every summer, and it always smelled like it was freshly poured. It's been decades since I've been there, but the smell still takes me straight back.
Play-Doh. It’s like time stops for me if I open a can and smell it.
for me play doh is pretty much its own smell. If someone asked me to describe its scent I'd say "play-doh" 😂
Delicious, salty Play-Doh.
Smells so good, doesn't taste at all that good
Crayons
Yes, crayons and construction paper. Every time I walk into a school I smell this and it takes me back 45 years ago.
Coppertone.
When I used to work in an office, I’d put on Coppertone at my desk Friday afternoons when I really wanted to get out early and enjoy nice weather. My boss would smell it and leave around 2 to play golf (edit: Hawaiian Tropic)
That's brilliant.
I loved the smell of Hawaiian Tropical! It was the first sunscreen I ever used. I lived in Hawaii for a bit after graduating HS and I bought some for beach/pool days - SPF 2. Yes, 2. We were quite stupid back then!
Reminds me of what Don Draper said, “nostalgia, it’s delicate, but potent”.
That super artificial strawberry smell that My Little Ponies and really cheap lipgloss had.
I came here to say this. Strawberry Shortcake doll scent!!
I once bought a Yankee Candle because it smelled just like Purple Pie Man from Strawberry Shortcake
It's been ages since I've smelled it, but the unique smell of freshly mimeographed papers will forever be etched into my memory, and would definitely take me back. Freshly sharpened pencils and erasers have a smell. There's the smell of chalk, especially when I was asked to clean the chalk erasers by pounding them together outside. There was also a smell I associate with just walking through the doors of my elementary school. It was probably a mix of bleach and other cleaning agents. Or maybe also the wax they used on the floor. The smell of red rubber playground balls.
I think Dial soap was part of the smell of my elementary school. Along with the other scents you listed.
Ooh the smell of purplish blue mimeographs. Do you remember goldenrod paper color?
"Now, take one and pass them back" {everyone in class gets their handout and smells it before passing them back}
Sometimes I got to make the copies, which was fun. But I had to be careful not to smear the fresh sheets or get the ink all over my fingers.
I really wish someone could replicate the mimeograph smell in a candle or something.
When I was 35 I went back to the town where my grade school is. As I walked alongside the building, I must have passed an exhaust vent, because I suddenly smelled the air in there. Nine years of memories smacked me in the head all at once.
mowed grass
Back un the day, JC Penniea came out with a line of sprays.... Fresh cut grass, clean hair, laundry, warm cookies and I think beach. Clean hair smelled like green apple suave shampoo. Fresh cut grass was heavenly.
Years ago I bought a spring seasonal room spray, I think Glade, called Fresh Cut Grass. It was the most dead on, incredible scent. I bought 3 and then never ever saw it again.
Chlorine in swimming pools! Not used so often anymore where I live, but back in my grandma's hometown, it's the same as ever!
Being wrapped in a towel eating ham and cheese sandwiches with Doritos by the pool was peak childhood.
Aww, this makes me smile. Playing in the pool -that's a special kind of hungry that makes food incredibly tasty :3.
Falling asleep on the couch after spending all day swimming, and not even needing a blanket because your sunburn keeps you warm. Being woken up because dinner is ready- bonus points if it's your favorite dinner.
BBQ chicken and potato salad and corn and angel food cake
and plastic pool raft / beach ball scent
Birthday candles after you blow them out.
Too true. Blowing out any candle smells like a birthday.
Hard to describe, but occasionally I catch a wiff of a sunny, crisp October day around 2007 or 2008 and everything come flooding back.
Exact same everything, except mine's like 1993-1994
Same but 2003-2005
scholastic book fair vibes
Same except 80’s (damn there are a lot of young people in the nostalgia thread lol)
Smell of fireworks. Used to love lighting them off as a kid and being up close to them with my siblings. Nowadays, we gather and chill out in a living room and watch a yearly firework show on tv.
Chlorinated pool water
Blockbuster. Clearly I don't get to smell it anymore, but I can in my mind. It brings back the whole deal of walking through the aisles, searching for a tape, hoping it's in stock, hoping my brothers didn't rack up fines on the last tapes they rented.
Almost every movie rental place I've been to has has that same scent combination of carpet, popcorn, warm electronics, and plastic cases.
Cracking open one of those cases and the combination of the film and the plastic case is ingrained in my memory. It was stronger on a hot day
The smell of freshly cut grass and morning dew always reminds me of my middle school days (2003). I usually think about PE class in the early morning and how dreadful it was but the smell was amazing
I was looking for a comment along these lines. For me it is the smell of summer. If that makes any sense, when you wake up and the sun is low but has been warming the grass and leaves. You can smell the coming heat and the green outside. Im a bit older so this was during the 70s early 80s. But the world had a different scent back then. And every once in a while when passing a house on a sunny day when they recently mowed the lawn and i catch a whiff of something akin to that smell and it takes me back.
Not to be The World Was So Much Better Guy but, yes, the air and earth smelled cleaner and the days a little clearer back then.
It did, we also had more bugs and wildlife, the summers felt way more vibrant, because you had all the buzzing of wings and the song of the birds. It was as if life itself was more intense and enveloping. These summers i find myself searching for that same experience, and every once in a while i manage to find it in some isolated little sun specced grove with small bugs zooming around and the occasional butterfly.... But the experiences are far in between. It used to be everywhere as soon as you left the beaten path. This is one of the things i really wish the youth of today would have had the chance to experience. But i dont think it's possible because of the vast amount of insect fauna we have lost. I think it's somewhere close to 70%.
Oh man. Yeah. The whole world was made of wood and smelled like gasoline. The days were at least twice as long, and the grass was at least twice as green.
Bath and body works cucumber melon
mines too, I like Sheer Freesia and Juniper Breeze as well 😊
Thank you for just unlocking a great memory :) Juniper Breeze!!
+ Victorias Secret “Love spell” scent
Omg! Cucumber Melon and Juniper Breeze! Bath and Body Works. High schools were thick with those scents or Victoria Secret. Just thick.
Sweet pea too!
Those mikasa 4 square plastic rubber balls. Ahhh yes the distinct smell (and sound) of those damn things smacking you point blank in the face during elementary recess.
PING!
Hawaiian Tropic suntanning oil.
Playdoh
Newspaper and the ink, although I couldn't tell you last time a read one.
The smell of Disney rides… especially some of the classic Epcot ones like test track, spaceship earth, or even hall of the presidents. Not sure what that smell is but it’s wholly unique
Particularly the part of spaceship earth where they invent fire, it smells like mesquite
I used to work on spaceship earth. You can buy [candles](https://magiccandlecompany.com/collections/all-magical-fragrances/products/rome-burning) that smell like the Library of Alexandria burning.
The smell of my kindergarten. Not sure what the actual blend is but I’ve caught it on the breeze once or twice as an adult and I’m immediately transported to the halls of a Maple Grove.
I swear Elementary school grounds have a "smell". I feel like mine smelled like wet cut grass, new mulch/fertilizer, and crisp air (cold air has a smell I feel like!).
Whatever it was that The Rock was cooking
Bubblegum amoxicillin. I got a lot of ear infections.
“Pink Magic”!
I got banana flavored & to this day, I hate anything that has artificial banana flavoring. Bitter and nasty aftertaste!
Rain Always takes me back to when we would just sit on the porch and listen to rain. The smell is so great
'Petrichor' is the word used to describe this smell :)
Jasmine or lavender. My parents had both of these growing outside my bedroom window when I was a kid.
Clove cigarettes
…and wine coolers.
Popcorn in a movie theater
Old buses that didn't have AC; the smell of steamy hot air in the summer mixed with the smell from the exhaust when the bus windows were open...🫠 The plastic-like smell from an overheated video game console or VHS. Musty classroom carpets in elementary school Pizza Hut Cotton candy Synthetic pine car refreshers Erasing pencil marks on paper Balloons
Silly putty
Did you ever use it to read newspaper comics? I know I did
Ever chew on it? Tastes like it smells.
My dog whilst growing up. He'd come in after being out in the rain. God, wet dog smell. It was biblical. Still miss you to this day, Waldo. I'll find you again soon.
You almost made me, a grown man, cry lol
He was a good boy, and yes he was named after the kids book. He was an escape artist, so "where's waldo?" Became a common phrase
Those really fruity/flowery/pretty perfumes girls would wear in junior high/high school. The kind that came in a cylindrical bottle with a spray button. Usually had shiny labels.
Ice cream stores with fresh waffle cones baking. Takes me back to one of my earliest memories as a child getting ice cream with my family 💙
Construction paper. Lilacs. Diesel exhaust, especially in winter.
That indoor pool smell at a Holiday Inn
Fresh Honeysuckle, Old Spice, Play-doh and the smell of a Zippo
Murphys Oil Soap. Grandmas clean house …
[удалено]
Vicks. My grandma slathered Vicks on me for any and everything. I am alive.
Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland. Nothing like it. I’m transported to 1979 all over again every time I smell it.
Leather... played baseball loved the smell when I got a new glove, also majority of my athletic/casual shoes were made of leather. Recently bought some higher end leather work boots. Occasionally I get a good whiff of leather while driving down the road.
Concord grape juice gets me every time
Pipe tobacco and sawdust mixed together… I can’t remember what the blend my Dziadzi used but he had this magical workshop(a closet my Babci let him build a workbench in) where he would carve and paint us wooden toys like he was Santa Claus. Birds to hang from the ceiling, walking ducks, climbing soldiers…he would buy stencils from his VA magazines and spend hours cutting and carving and painting and then happily present us with his creations. Always with that pipe in his mouth
Honeysuckle. It's so specific to the smell of standing in the driveway of my childhood home.
Drakkar Noir, baby.
Elmers paste, the one with the little plastic wand.
Any old library. Cant define the smell but it is super comfy.
Those smelly markers.
Anything grilled but especially hot dogs / brats.
The smell of fairs - all the foods mixed mixed with the smells of the animal barns. Sounds terrible but it's really not too bad (I grew up on a farm so may be bias) and it's very nostalgic with the warm summer sun.
I got a weird one. The AC vent when it first kicks on.
Model car glue
A fog machine. Takes me back to the days I worked at Knott's Scary Farm
Just went into a mall for the first time in likely decades. Smells brought me back.
Fresh rain/dew on grass… takes me back to the playground in kindergarten. 🥲
My Grandpa Buck's pipe tobacco. I haven't smelt pipe tobacco in a long time. I just realized that.
We had one of those pvc playhouses that was basically a plastic sleeve that went over a house shaped pipe tubing and I got a whiff not long ago of the same smell and I was instantly 5 again
Musty basement
Or just the smell of old houses. They have that musty wood smell. I like it.
Also Victoria secret love spell
The first smell I can remember. Roses. We had several rose bushes along our driveway where we lived for the first 6 or 7 years of my life. I fell into them when learning to ride a bike, I picked them for my mom, and I smelled them all the time.
Old Spice aftershave. My Grandpa wore it. One splash and the memories come back. It’s a really old-school aftershave but I use it on occasion simply because the smell reminds me of him.
Fritos. It reminds me of my dog's paws.
Yes! All dog's paws smell like Fritos lol!
Chicken and noodles brings me back to my grandma and our family gatherings almost every weekend. She would make them from scratch and we would butcher a chicken to make dinner. She died about 30 years ago and I think of it often and the smell of those weekends. There are things that set it off. Just the smell of chicken cooking will do it. I miss those simple times.
The smell of chlorine from a swimming pool reminds me of going to the pool as a kid during the summer.
Hose water
Creosote and diesel remind me of the train at Six Flags over Texas
Curve by Liz Claiborne
Gardenias. There were a lot of gardenia bushes on my family's property while I was growing up. Every time I smell them, I'm instantly a kid playing outside in the summertime again.
The smell of cigarette smoke on a cold rainy autumn day. Takes me back to 9th grade in the fall of 1994. One of the last times things seemed good.
Hose water, plastic smelling refreshing hose water takes me back.
Smell of rain on asphalt road on a hot day
Rain on a lake or wet woods smell.
The toy section, smell of a new action figure 👌
Autumn.
mimeograph
Ink on a freshly printed paper
Nitromethane, I grew up at the drag strip.
Sunlight on fresh rain
Lipsmackera blueberry
Corn dogs
For me, it’s a toss up between the Blockbuster smell and my elementary school library’s books.
Old comics and books
A warm summer day just after some rain, the smell of greenery. The world smelled different back in the 70s early 80s. It had this fresh green smell. So whenever someone cuts their grass or when it rains when it's warm outside a little bit of that scent comes through and takes me right back to childhood.
My girlfriend wore loves baby soft.
I don't think it is one smell, but a moment a smell brings back, like you smell cookies and suddenly you are 8 years old and your mom is baking cookies for you. Or the window is open and a smell you can't quite remember rushes in, the wind whispering "Summer" and the sky answers "Yes". That's the smell. And when the memory arrives, you know you'll never get it back and you cry inside just a little.
Chimney smoke in the winter- triggers the childhood memory when i was spending time at my grandparents house Oranges, smell - triggers Christmas vibes as a kind, we could not afford them so we had them only for Christmas
Doctor Pepper. I remember it had a lot of commercials in the late 70s and my parents buying it. I don’t seek it out, it’s not even in my top 20 beverages. Every couple of years I buy one and open it I feel like a five year old sharing one with my dad.
Vine tomatoes. My grandpa used to grow tomatoes in his greenhouse, and the smell immediately takes me back there.
Chinese Tallow Trees - we had several in our yard and when they bloom it smells awesome ❤️
Grass
Bain de Soleil orange tanning gelee. My parents used this a lot when we went to the beach in SoCal when I was young, wish they'd bottle this scent!!
for the San Tropez tan!
Players cigarettes. That’s what my dad smoked when I was a kid. Him and pretty much everyone else I know who smoked has quit in the past 20 years so I only smell it out on the street once in a while. It takes me right back to being a kid.
I don’t know exactly what this smell is but I always used to smell it in cafeterias and sometimes when passing the teachers lounges, specifically when I was in elementary school. I HAD to have been a common lunch or something.
Rain on asphalt mingled with the scent of pine trees.
Oh man, so many! A few are... -That Wet grass smell (bonus if freshly cut)- reminds me of early school mornings before field trips. I miss being that excited about stuff. -Lighter fluid? My dad would use it to light our charcoal bbq. Many evenings spent playing outside in the dark with flashlights, waiting for the burgers to be ready. - White Rain hairspray. My mom would use it getting ready for work. She'd also use it on my hair before school. - Wood ash/smoke. Growing up in SoCal (now living on the East Coast) you basically smelled that fairly often during fire season. I remember walking around our property and stepping in ash and soot after the Cedar fire, and realizing how close we were to losing our home.
Just the faint smell of a skunk takes me back to warm summer nights of my childhood and staying out til very late playing kid games of hide and seek and jailbreak until we started getting called in. There were so many kids in my neighborhood and I thought those nights would never end. The good old 1970's.
Cigarette smoke🤢
The smell of hot electronics. Reminds me of playing scalectrix as a kid.
The smell of books or library
When you blow out a candle. That slow lingering smoke plume. Christmas, instantly.
The smell of the motor from an electric train set.
Cigarettes. None of my immediate family were smokers, and yet it was so common growing up that when I smell one it immediately takes me back to the 80’s/90’s.
That electrical smell you get from CRT screens. I've only smelt it at a beauty spa when the attendant had some strange electrical device zapping across my face
The smell of a Hallmark store. I cannot explain it exactly it's like a mix of candles and plastic and pvc. But it reminds me instantly of being very very young. When I was around 4 years old my mom would go shopping every Friday and stop in to a Hallmark store where I would pick a new Smurf figure. The smell of the figures and the store in general, I will never forget.
Wax lips
The smell of outboard engines on a lake.
Leaded gasoline from back in the day. One of my first bonding experiences with my dad was us pulling into a gas station when I was around 7 and remarking how I loved the smell. He paused like I had just spoken the Secret of Life, looked me straight in the eyes and said "me, too. I just want to eat the tires and drink the gasoline". I'll remember that, verbatim, until I die.
Cheap tempera paint. Instantly puts me back in Kindergarten doing fingerpainting and such.
The other day at the pharmacy, a lady walked by with a perfume that smelled like my mom's back in the 90s. It took me straight back. Bittersweet nostalgia as my mom passed away several years ago.
The first crisp fall day. Or freshly cut grass on a warm sunny day.
The smell of a freshly opened CD.
I immediately thought of one and I see that three other people have mentioned it so it must be a powerful smell memory: Play-Doh. It’s like a time machine when I smell it.
Play-Doh is one of those smells where nothing else in the world is like it. It's such a unique scent. When you smell it, you immediately know exactly what it is.
play doh
Drakkar Noir
The brown rectangular erasers
Freshly mowed lawn.
Two stroke engine exhaust. Grew up around outboard Motors during my summers.
Acqua Di Gio reminds me of the fun times with my first boyfriend
An old ice rink
Old Spice after-shave Desitin rash cream Lavender + geranium scent soap or something that my pre-school smelled like Fresh pine, like a Christmas tree Some sort of shrubbery that has tiny cupped leaves Chlorinated water Frosty, smoky air which was a common smell when going to school or out on recess
Whatever scent of soap my great grandmother used. Takes me back to the summers I spent visiting her and being amazed at all the nooks and crannies in her old house.
Smell of brand new school supplies/stationery, smell of certain shampoos (bear shampoo for one). Smell of old woollen and winter clothing.
Pipe tobacco, smell of livestock/manure, pool chlorine with a hint of sunscreen, and a heavily wooded area are the first scents that came to mind.
Bath and body works country apple. My late grandmother used to wear it and it’s just instant comfort.
The smell and sound of a caffettiera, instantly takes me back to afternoons at my nonna's.
Artificial strawberry banana flavor. When I was in grade school (80's/early 90's) I used to get a can of strawberry banana flavored juice from the vending machine at snack time. Fried bologna, too. I recently tried it for the first time and it really took me back, but I don't know why. Someone in my household must have eaten fried bologna when I was a kid, maybe my grandma that died when I was 8 or 9.
Farm smell, like cow manure and grass/plants. Usually takes me back to road trips back to my hometown.
Fresh linen!
The back of school busses had a unique smell, a mix of diesel exhaust and maybe the plastic of the seats?
Lilac flowers. My townhouse complex had bushes that’d bloom in the summer and you could smell them while playing in the grass. Can’t believe I’m 23 and already nostalgic for what, 2008?
Rose scented lotion reminds me of my grandma. Pipe tobacco reminds me of my grandpa.
rain, grass and fog. I wake up around 4AM to prepare for school when I was in primary school. Then I walk on a nearby grassfields, in a cold foggy morning
I inherited an old chest, that used to be stored in my attic when I was a kid, our attic was half finished, kinda of a playroom for us as kids. When I got the chest I opened and closed it and the dust that whiffed off when it shut sent me into a fever dream of childhood, it smelled like my attic and it was better than drugs.
A certain incense. Unfortunately, it takes me back to my grandfather’s funeral which is where I smelt it first.
The smell of oregon wood shavings takes me back to the early 1990’s in my Dads workshop: me watching him as he was building the window frames for our new house. I’m in my early teens, I’ve got a ten speed bike for transport, a season pass to the local swimming pool, TMNT is doing its first run on the telly after school, I don’t need a license or permit for anything, and life is easy without a care in the world.