People that know me well know that my favorite addiction is my love of fragrance, or 'scents' if you will. I maintain at least 100 bottles or more at a time and cherish each one of them. I belong to several online boards where all we discuss is fragrance, or our love of scent. We consider it a true gift to be able to detect the right notes in fragrance and appreciate our olfactory sense more than any other.
Recently on one of the threads we discussed our favorite smells, not only perfume interests us. I love how my friends describe the scents they love and appreciate. Without naming anyone, I am going to list some of the scents that we all love and appreciate:
Tobacco curing in the barns in the fall...
Catalpa trees in bloom, and why has no one used that bloom in perfume?
The original Coppertone lotion, the smell of summer and the beach...
The smell of jet exhaust mixed with the brewing coffee in the forward cabin of an aircraft. This is especially loved by those who travel and is so calming when one is boarding a plane.
Certain hotels (especially if they have a pool). The mixture of chlorine with the 'standard issue' smell a hotel environment gives off. This creates a sense of 'crispness' in one.....
Department stores. The smell of new merchandise mixed with the environment in general of the store is captivating. Stores such as Lord & Taylor or Marshall Field's store in New York City. This could be related to the fact that the makeup/skincare/fragrance counters are near the entry points in these stores, making a good impression on a hot and humid day. You can detect the smell better than because it is amplified with the air conditioning.
Libraries, old paper, new paper, so many books, such richness! No place smells as good as the library.
From long ago, freshly inked paper from the old ditto machines, those slick white pages with the purple writing. Takes one immediately back to childhood...
The fresh smell of country roads on a summer evening.
The smell when it first starts raining in spring, summer or fall in New Orleans. Sitting out on the covered deck when one has lit a fresh cigar and sips good wine. In early spring the rain would gently type upon the roses and tea olive trees in bloom. Many of these roses wer heavily fragranced old rose varieties such as Souvenier de Malmaison. One enjoyed the smells of soft rain, palm trees, osmanthus, various herbs and mint, roses and fresh tobacco. In winter, one could smell the smoky bald cypress tree scent. The air around New Orleans wasn't brisk and salty as sea air but there was a slight wafting of oceanic salt air off Lake Ponchartrain. In the background there was a soft smell from wet Spanish moss........
The smell of walking into an indoor swimming pool environment, clean chlorine.
The smell of the air before a springtime rain shower/thunderstorm, I love this smell...
The smell of the earth on a sod farm on a warm Florida morning. I have literally stopped the car and just sniffed this gorgeous fragrance.....
Freshly fallen rain on concrete......
A greenhouse, with freshly watered geraniums. I smelled this every morning on my walk to school as a young child and it is my favorite memory, ever..........
Freshly line-dried, crisp bed sheets.....
The smell of a newborn babie's head/hair, or skin.....
The smell of burning leaves in the fall........
The smell of a campfire in a pine forest. Variation: add the smell of coffee made on that campfire and maybe bacon too....
The Atlantic ocean. Brine and seaweed and fish and moist, fresh air....
The melange of scents wafting from a hippie head shop, patchouli, etc........
Smell from childhood of the inside of a purse: mint gum, lipstick, perfume.
The smell of fresh orange blossoms from an orange grove...
Freshly mown grass in the early morning....
The smell of night blooming jasmine in the early evening...
The smell of a brand new leather jacket, or a leather store that sells leather....
The smell of creosote. When no one is looking, I sniff telephone poles.....
Canvas in the sun..
Beeswax
A kerosene lamp
Popcorn-infused smell of an air-conditioned movie theatre....
A certain mechanical/grease smell of train wheels.....
Lit charcoal or a freshly lit cigarette....
A rarity now.....burning cigars and a lit Meershaum pipe....
The smell of a pine-needle path through the woods, especially on a crisp, cool morning....
Chapstick and Pacquin's hand creme....
Hot parafin...
Cat's tummy fur and salty paws...
Hot tar when a stree is being paved.
Earth covered roots of plants just pulled out of the earth...
Woodsmoke, peat smoke and coal smoke.....
What I like to call "the breath of the earth" My term for the living scent of moist earth, blackberry vines, green leaves, moss and humus that emanates from ground with mature trees and lots of undergrowth. This is truly the most beautiful fragrance ever.......... The earth is breathing free here, no concrete foundation or driveway or controlled landscaping to mute it's exhalations.
The combination of the beach in summer, straw hat and coconut oil and the drying sea water on summer skin....
The inside of old suitcases, rarely opened...
Clothes being ironed..........
The distinct smell of winter......a walk through the forest sniffing the crisp air, the pine fragrance, the fragrance of the earth and the cold.....
The smell of gasoline...
The gorgeous fragrance of old book or antique stores, fruit cellars, old basements.......
These are just a few of olfactory scents that most people take for granted, but not us with 'scents and sensibilities'.......
