Ask Lemmy

Petrichor.

My favorite smell is also my favorite word; Petrichor. It's the smell of the earth when it rains after an extended dry period.

From Wikipedia "from Ancient Greek πέτρα (pétra) 'rock'; or πέτρος (pétros) 'stone' and ἰχώρ (ikhṓr) 'ichor', the ethereal fluid that is the blood of the gods in Greek mythology."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrichor

Asphalt, kinmokusei (a tree that blooms in autumt in Japan, don't know it in English), the natural body odor of a certain fling I had eight years ago whom I now hate because they didn't want to leave their partner for me and because they made me experience transfuckingcendant sex and now my standards are way too high to enjoy anything else, freshly ground coffee, igusa (the weed of which tatami are made).

Mine is a composite smell of my grandfather's shed: soil, and sawdust, and wood glue, and petrol, and pipe smoke, and whisky. He was a keen gardener and would often spend the afternoon pottering around the garden, tending to his veggies or flowerbeds or mowing the lawn, then wind up for an hour or so in the shed, sitting on a deck chair and smoking his pipe (or occasionally a cigar) and drinking single malt whisky. Sometimes he'd be reading the paper, sometimes looking through the notebooks he filled with plans and notes about the garden, sometimes just looking out across the garden and being content. I never got into gardening, but I did love to find him at the end of a day at school and just hang out with him in the shed. Often we wouldn't talk, he'd read the paper and I'd read The Beano. I learned companionable silence from him.

Sometimes I'll catch one of those smells and it takes me right back, over 50 years ago, to that shed and makes me feel safe and warm and happy.

Smell from rain is very nice. And oranges.

My SO's skin and hair after a shower.

Almond-scented stuff (not almonds themselves - they have no noticeable smell to me).

Pine forests, the sort with lots of dry pine needles on the ground.

That sort of smell of decay when the fallen leaves from autumn get a little soggy from early winter rains. Gosh I could just shove it all up my nose

Tomato plants. Pet fur. Orange blossom. Generic institution bathroom cleaner. Seaweed. My partner's clean breath

Crisp "smell" after first frost.

Oceanic pine forest on hot days

Onion and garlic when heated in oil making food.

I can’t really describe it, but sometimes after sneezing I get this very pleasant smell in my nose for like 2 seconds. It’s what I would imagine the world’s most expensive bedsheets to smell like. It doesn’t happen with every sneeze, but the smell is consistent and has been for many years. Unfortunately it only lasts for like 2 good whiffs.

Campfire

My dog smells absolutely fantastic. I could just sniff her all day.

I've never met another dog that smelled nice to me.

Water. Whether it's ocean water, creek water, water on trees in the woods, spring rain, summer rain, fall rain (they all have different scents), or the smell of rain from miles away mixed with ozone from summer storms, even lightly chlorinated pool water can smell good in the right circumstances.

That and my cats fur. He always either smells like clean laundry, even if he's been nowhere near any laundry, or if it's a windy day and he's been sitting at the window he smells like fresh air.

The scent of nothing. I really dislike artificial scents, like perfume, air "purifiers", and sprays. Natural scents are fine, but I prefer they stay outside the house.

I don't know whether anyone else smells this, because I never hear people talk about it.

Some time in November, no matter the weather, there will be this empty, metallic, crisp, clean burning smell. I usually only catch whiffs of it a few times. It's how I gauge when winter is here.

Maybe this is just how winter smells and I get noseblind to it quickly?

Grapefruit (I always thought the name should be Greatfruit whos with me amirite?)

Smoking meat.

Mountain air is pretty great.

Also a big fan of the smell of allspice. I remember as a child climbing on the kitchen counter to reach the spice cabinet so I could crack that jar and get a good whiff.

A single scent: it's a tossup between mesquite or coffee.

A combination of scents hitting your nose like an olfactory blitzkrieg: that first step into an Indian restaurant when you get hit by a combination of different curries, naan bread, and the rest of their menu that they've been serving to customers over the last several hours.

I went on a road trip through the mountains in central Colorado during the summer ~7ish years ago. I still don't know what the smell actually was but every once in a while we would drive through certain parts of the mountains that had slightly sweet and clean/crisp smelling air. Never forgotten it.

The closest I can think to describe it would be something floral like freesia+ a woodsy Sequoia/evergreen combination.

Cucumber Cilantro Dark Coffee Tea Tree Spearmint Clove Tomatos Pizza Hut Pan Pizza Clean Cotton (no detergent) Fresh Rain Hot summer night 3am Aqua Velva Dragons Blood Nag Champa

And this one is very specific. When you snap a banana off the bunch, the tip of the stem had a very clean, fresh banana smell, love it.

Cat bellies and old books. Oh, and coffee.

The smell of firing up a brand new toaster. It's a very particular smell and an extremely rare one. I think I've only smelled it 3 times in my entire life. That's less than once a decade.

The University of Wisconsin Madison Arboretum has several acres planted with a combination of; magnolias, crab apples, and lilacs.

During April to early May that field smells AMAAAAZING.

fuel rich exhaust from an old truck with cigarette smoke.

if I'm lucky I'll smell it once every few years and it sends me back to the handful of good memories I had with my father.

otherwise it's fresh cut pine lumber from a construction site with early morning dew and dirt.

Napalm in the morning. /s

My favorite smells are the few that nearly transport me back in time, maybe like some form of déjà vu but I can't quite pinpoint what exactly those scents are. I'd never be able to recreate them intentionally. Two different soap scents bring me to two different familiar childhood places. Sometimes when I come back in through the back door I get a rather neutral smell but also very intense feeling like I'm suddenly at an old friend's rental house from decades ago. There's one smell that instantly brings me back to a childhood scratch n' sniff book. As a side note, I find that nostalgic textures bring back strong memories too.

When I was a kid, my friends and I thought it was funny when an older woman mentioned to us that she loved the smell of crayons and that they brought her back to her childhood. Now I understand!

Tom Ford Tuscan Leather

Tom Ford Oud Wood

Parfums de Marly Herod

Le Labo The Noir 29 and Santal 33

Apparently Lemmy has decided for me:

The small space on the back of my bunny’s head, right in between their ears. My first boy smelled so good and he loved when I did that. It smells even better when they have been sitting next to a window, my current boy is a lionhead mix and that spot always smells so good.

My tiny girl is very sassy and doesn’t let me smell her much, but once in a while she will. It’s always the best smell.

Greasy pepperoni pizza with a hint of cardboard, live rosemary, the first few times smelling rain and dirt after winter, cold winter air, green tea, so many things

Garlic, or cedar. I love food though, but cedar just hits differently.