Favorite Things, Life, Soul Homework

Scents I Love

Writer McWriterson

Last week, I discovered a note on my phone.

I had made a list of scents I enjoy.

-freshly popped popcorn

-freshly mown grass

-the smell of the air near the ocean

white popcorns on round white ceramic bowl
Photo by Keegan Evans on Pexels.com

I’ve been doing little things like this since the pandemic began. I keep little notes like this for myself. Notes of joy. Notes for amusement. Not just my shopping or to-do lists. Things in life that make me happy.

-pie baking in the oven

-burning leaves

-the inside of a coffee shop

-freshly cut flowers

-peppermint oil

-cinnamon rolls

person holding yellow and white flowers
Photo by Lisa on Pexels.com

Every home has a signature scent. For example, if I had a blindfold on and someone walked me into my parents’ home, I would know I was in their house by scents alone. However, each house may smell differently to different noses. What do you think your house smells like? What have others told you?

-a donut shop

-coffee brewing

-bacon frying

-a pizza restaurant

tattooed barista making coffee with coffee machine
Photo by Rachel Claire on Pexels.com

-Whole Foods homemade soap section

-cookies baking

-pine trees after a rainstorm

-fennel

-clementine juice all over my hands after eating them

crop person showing fresh ripe tangerine against greenery
Photo by Any Lane on Pexels.com

-the smell of a spice shop

-the smell of an old-fashioned department store

-the smell of the inside of my grandma’s purse

white and blue floral flap sling bag hanging on white steel rack
Photo by flat hito on Pexels.com

Certain retail establishments have their own distinct smell. All Trader Joe’s stores smell alike. So do all Kohl’s, Target’s and Wal-Mart’s. I wonder why this is?

-homemade fried chicken in a cast-iron skillet

-the scent of a vanilla candle

-pumpkin pie baking in the oven

-a leather saddle

brown and black leather horse saddle on white and gray animal
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

What are some of your favorite scents?

45 thoughts on “Scents I Love”

  1. One of my all-time favorite scents is that of my great-grandmother’s Croatian spaghetti cooking. Mine never tastes quite as good as I remember hers tasting, but it’s almost as good and my favorite part of cooking it is the way the scent makes me feel like I am back in my grandparents’ house again. (She lived with my grandparents.)

    As for the store thing: yeah, and why is that? When my daughter’s Swedish boyfriend came for a visit, we went to our local Ikea, and the first thing he said when we entered was, “It smells just like Ikea in Sweden!”

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  3. I love this post and I love all your favorite scents. Oranges. Roses. Ivory soap.
    We stayed at this lovely lodge/resort for Coach’s 50th birthday with our two besties and the place smelled glorious. I finally asked what it was and they use the https://www.thymes.com/Fragrances/Frasier-Fir/. which I consider a Christmas scent (this was in October) but I love it so much and use it around the holidays and it always takes me back to that very special vacation.
    My grandma’s house had a certain smell as did My Mom’s apartment. I don’t know that my home has a smell, but if it does, it’s probably dogs. 😦
    I love the smell of fresh-baked bread or cakes, but I rarely bake, so there’s that.
    I also love the smell of lavender, it makes me feel like I’m at a spa.
    Other scents that I love are the Volcano Blue candles/sprays/lotions. I was wearing the lotion recently and a friend told me I smelled like a candle. https://www.capri-blue.com/fragrances/volcano/?Kenshoo_IDA=curio_capri-blue&ecid=googleSearch&gclid=CjwKCAjwqIiFBhAHEiwANg9szjx3Jgu5sGaqUD7UWW4_Mz7Q8i8fCy4dLiO4G5eChmPBRzqkU6yryxoCEsYQAvD_BwE
    SO funny.

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    1. I love Thymes! They make the best candles AND lotions too!

      I feel like your home smells like flowers. Maybe it’s because of your butterfly whisperer ways. But smelling like dogs is so good too. ❤️

      I love that you smell like that candle! I love that one. Now every time I smell it, I’ll think of you.

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  4. You have mentioned so many of my favorites here– cookies, cinnamon buns, vanilla (what I think of as sweet foods baking) are some of my all time favorites. You have to read the book the Scent Keeper– no joke one of the jobs towards the end of the book talks about helping stores create signature scents and why they do that (obviously to get people to spend more money!).

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  5. Vanilla, hands down is probably one of my favorites. Coconut, the beach, citrus – follow up on the list. Smell memory is such a strong thing – I can still smell my grandparents house when I think of them and I haven’t been there in over twenty years.

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  6. A lot of your favorite smells are mine, too! I also love the smell of Dr Bronner’s lavender soap (the liquid) and my hubby’s neck. 😉 And the smell of neighbor’s grilling wafting through the air in the warm weather.

    You are so right about houses and their distinct smells. Not sure what mine smells like, but hopefully it’s good, lol. I sometimes use essential oils and I leave windows open a lot, so hopefully it smells fresh in here. My grandma’s house always smelled like Fels Naptha soap. One time when I was in a store and saw the soap, I picked it up and sniffed it and it brought me right back to her house. I love how scent triggers emotions and memories.

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    1. I love the smell of my husbands neck on a hot summer day. So I guess after he’s sweating? Yes to a grill!

      I love that story about Fels Naptha. The soap Coast reminds me of my Uncle who passed away many years ago. If I smell it, it’s as if he’s sitting next to me.

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  7. loves- sweat in general but not underarm BO, my wife’s stinky feet 😉, rain, my Mom’s stuffing growing up, wet dog fur, pancakes, Pina colada/coconut, freshly baked chocolate chip/sugar cookies, mint, lasagna/pizza, milk and honey and cocoa butter body wash, strawberry scented shampoo, paper caps and fireworks, honey suckle, my grams house growing up, candied nuts at the ballpark…Loathes- the smell of death. That scent haunts me to this day.

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    1. I love the smell of sweat on a long day but not BO either, so I get what you’re throwing down.

      Omg stuffing. Yes.
      Almost all of these are favorites of mine as well.

      The smell of death isn’t something I’m sure you’d forget. I’m sorry you’ve had that experience.

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  8. Lifetimes ago I sold plants…which meant buying plants, like fragrant herbs! One of my fav vendors grew all kinds of herbs & sold “off the truck”. Every week I walked into a box truck filled with herbs from floor to ceiling…. kitted out with racks to hold bazillions of flats of small fragrant plants with an aisle down the middle to walk… and I pulled whatever I wanted to sell from his truck. Probably over a hundred diff kinds of varieties of herbs. From Lemon Thyme to Pineapple Mint to Tuscan Blue Rosemary to Climbing Spinach. Walking into the truck & going down the aisle was like an olfactory hug from by Mama Nature. Ten million smells…with the scent notes changing as you moved past groups of mints, lavenders, thymes, etc. Glorious. Also *so* much variety! That was a fun job! I miss those scents & that magical truck. I think everyone I worked with loved walking down that intensely fragrant aisle.

    All plant scents rate high for me. In the spring, our meadows smell sweet. It is WILD. The meadows go from dormant winter smells to sweet smelling almost overnight when Spring hits. Or watering a garden at the height of the growing season and releasing all those scents – wet earth, tomato leaves, rosemary, sweet echinacea flower, sharp pennyroyal….I could go on and on.

    Weather – the smell of a storm on the wind or omg! It smells like it is going to SNOW! Snow scent in the wind smells delicious. What is that?

    And of course, horse barns. Heavenly hay, the many smells of horse, yummy feed, warm leather, saddle soap, dust, dog….the list is endless! Plus horse barns also give u weather and plant scents so *bonus* scents!

    What a great question! Love reading everyone’s responses too. I haven’t even touched on the many scents that remind me of grandparents or summer (Avon Skin So Soft & Ban de Soleil with a hint of lake/ocean/pool depending) or …… 🙂

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    1. Those plant scents you describe…are heaven to me. Every spring I say “I smell earth.” It’s like a mix between dirt and grass and plants but it’s this amazing smell especially after a long winter. That’s what I imagine your plants experience smelling like. I also love going to the flower nursery for the first time in the spring. The smell of plants and flowers and potting soil. AHHH.

      I can always tell when it’s going to snow or rain from the smell!! Isn’t that insane? Soul sisters. 😊

      Yes to all the horse smells. It’s funny because my mom got in our car for the first time in a long time on Mother’s Day. I said to her to forgive the smell of horses because Ella’s horse boots were in the backseat. But she said she loved it. Of course she grew up on a farm and rode horses too. ❤️

      I am so happy I wrote this post. I love reading all of these comments and then thinking of even more scents that I love. It’s like a gift that keeps on giving.

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  9. Love this post. I think my favorite smells are outside after a rain (it has a name I can’t remember) and a baby’s hair after a bath and shampoo. Also like cinnamon roles baking, but can’t do that very often because I can polish off a pan by myself when no one else is home.

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  12. This is such a great post! Paperwhite, Macintosh apples, bookstores, my favorite beach, the air when it’s still winter but it’s turning into spring, my godmother’s molasses cookies.

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  13. Crazy busy with high school graduation Monday and visitors from out of state since Friday till yesterday. Here at last . . . This is fun. I think you nailed some of the great smells. I love the smell of coffee even though I don’t drink it. My grandparents house always smelled like Irish spring soap. My brothers and I used to talk at length about our friends’ houses and what they smelled like growing up. The people living in those houses never knew their smell. It wasn’t a candle – but more a mixture of their detergent and their cleaning supplies and their food. I can still imagine the very distinct smell of the house my best friend lived in. We often wondered what our house smelled like. A few of my babysitting families give me really wonderful scented candles as gifts. Maybe they realize I need to hide the constant poop diaper smell. I love the scents they choose and I’m grateful because I could never pick a candle for myself. Too may good smells to choose from. Oh, and I love the smell of spring – especially on the first day of opening all the windows on the first warm-ish day after a long winter.

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    1. I loved coffee for years before I began drinking it!

      Irish Spring Soap…I haven’t smelled that in years. Love.

      I often think of people who live in climates where there is no winter. Do they experience that similar excitement of the smell of spring?

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  14. I recently discovered Bath and Body Works wallflowers and they have changed the smell of my house. I want my house to have a distinct smell and in the past it has had a distinct smell but not a good one, lol.

    I love the smell of health food stores, and I agree that the Whole Foods soap section is dreamy.

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    1. I used to LOVE those wallflowers! But then with my migraines I stopped using them. Now that they’re better I may try them again. I’m sure your distinct smell is better than you think it is. I’ve heard that you can smell your home’s distinct smell when you return from vacation. So if that’s true, our house smell isn’t a good one either. 😂

      I love the smell of health food stores too!

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  16. Water on hot asphalt, plumeria, citrus blossoms, tuberose, my cats, vanilla, coffee, eucalyptus oil (but not the trees), star jasmine, stargazer lilies, baking bread, dark chocolate, salty beach, bonfires at the beach, ….

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