What are your favorite smells?

What are your favorite smells? And do you have any memories attached to them?

I'm sure we can all relate to a certain smell bringing vivid imagery back to mind and I'm always fascinated by it.

I work in a grocery store and the best part is the bakery will start baking bread and the smell fills up the entire store. I love a lot of smells, but I'd have to say that freshly baking bread is among my favorite.

When I smelled the bread today it reminded me of the downtown of my home because there was a Wonder Bread factory and the smell would absolutely follow you throughout the city. This took me on a slide show of all the store fronts downtown and all the time I spend with my friends down there; all because the familiar smell of bread of was on my mind.

Cinnamon hands down is probably my favorite. Such a nice homey smell.

After that, I love the smell of the woods after rain. Espcially here in Texas where cedar trees are very abundant. So it has this great cedar smell to it.

I love the smell of bread. But my favorite smells... all have to do with fire.

I love the smell of fire places when winter starts and the smell of a bbq pit when summer starts. We just bought a bbq pit this summer for father's day and I go cook stuff on it about once a week or ever other week. I cook stuff that doesn't even need to be cooked on it because I love the smell. But we ran out of propane the other day when I went to make some steaks.. oh no!

The hubby surprised me when he came home from work and he refilled the tank without even cluing me in that he'd grabbed it.

The other smells I like are things like apple pie and vanilla. Just cause they smell nice. There's this Japanese curry we cook pretty often as well that is just yummy! And the smell of it makes my mouth water. When we cook it, we usually let it stew for a few hours and put a teaspoon of cayenne in it cause we like spicy food. Throw in some cubed beef, potatoes and carrots over some jasmine rice..mmmhmm. Now I think I'm going to have to make a trip to the store

Those are all really wonderful smells.

@mlogan I also really love cedar. The smell of woods and trees in general, even dirt, is amazing. I really love the smell of hickory burning in fireplaces. Camp fires, too. 

@Venka Have to agree, a lot of good smells do come off fires.

Vanilla or freshly baked bread.

I really like the smell of...it's really weird. but I love the smell of new plastic. Like especially the inflatable pool toys...there is something about that scent that I have always enjoyed. Weird? Yes. Cares? None.

Freshly backed croissant.

I know that I'm not the only one as I've seen some bakeries put fans to diffuse the smell in the nearby streets and attract customers. :)

I like the smell of fresh bakeries as well. I would also agree on the smell of nature after the rain. It's fantastic. The smell of an early summer morning or late summer night are also awesome.

Other smells I like:

- soaps/shower gels/shampoos.

- books, especially new ones

@ Masteb I spend entirely way too much time shopping for toiletries because not only do I sniff everything I also read the ingredients because I might know a little too much about soap.

@philteredkhaos I like a lot of strange smells like that. When I was little and my parents filled the car with gas I'd always stick my head out the window and take deep breaths. It's not the best thing to take big whiffs of, but I still kind of like it. 

@cabfe and King Danner Seems like we have a lot of bread fans in here!

Baking bread. Heavenly.

I also love the smell of old books: the dry, wooden smell of the paper, the slightly dusty scent of old ink; and if they're hard backs, there's the added layers of leather and glue and old cotton.

New books are great too. The scent is sharper, more "chemical"; the paper even has a cooler, more liquid scent than old paper. And it's not a smell, but I love the way books either haven't been read in a long time or never been read make a sound like a sigh or a yawn when you open them, like they're waking up.

I like the scent of new tires; it reminds me of visiting autobody shops with my dad.

I like the woods after the rain, too. Damp soil, wet maple and cedar and birch--lot of those out here.

Pine Sol and bleach are also very comforting scents. They mean the room is clean and germ-free.

I also like the smell of cinnamon or fresh fruit or chocolate, but these can make me a little sick if they're too strong.

I second that the smell after the rain is so wonderful! Even the smell of the hot asphalt after rain reminds me of summer. I also like the smell of smoke and a bit weirdly gas, cellar or soil too.

Fresh fruits are one of my favourites and birch trees are another.

I friggin love the smell of gasoline at gas stations, It's the benzene into it...it's sweet, very additive and may provoke euphoria quicker than chocoate. I think it's a smell that stimulates some part of the brain, like the smell of varnish (that I like too), that's why a lot of people like it a lot. I'm aware though that can be very dangerous if you smell too much of it, because can cause headaches and nausea after a while (it kills brain cells).

It's...intoxicant but I still like it. *.*

Pizza. Chocolate chip cookies.

I also like the smell of a newly opened video game. That is, the case. It's why I like buying games new (sealed to be specific) and why I like instruction booklets. It's partially because I associate the smell with a new experience. Starting a new game, a new adventure. I always glance through the instruction booklet first to get a general feel of the game, all while taking in that new instruction booklet smell, it's like part of the experience. It's one reason why I don't like buying used games or digital games.

When I smell grapes on a vine, it reminds me vividly of an apartment I lived in when I was very young --- maybe 9 or so.  The apartment had a small grape vine which surrounded a small grass play area.  I don't remember much else but the little grassy play area, and there was a cellar door.  Now that I think about it, I remember the small storage areas which had small doors which were tinted plastic with a wood frame.  Those were magical to me as a kid.

Now that reminds me of how life was like there, going down the road.  Yes, certain scents are incredibly evocative.

Other scents I really like --- so many food smells --- pizza, freshly baked bread, melting cheese, heating chocolate.    Now I'm getting hungry.

In terms of essential oils, sandalwood, frankincense and myrrh.

Ha..well I feel better now cause I always loved the smell of gasoline too and I just thought I was wierd. I also like the smell of leather and horses.. Something about the smell of horses is soothing

Oh wow so many other great smells.

@matseb - Summer nights! Yes, I love that you say this because I've always loved that smell - it's strange, but summer nights do have their own incredible smell.

Books! I love how books smell, and the smell of a library - I could curl up and go to sleep in one. Oh wait, I used to do that in college, nap on the couches in the library, lol!

@Venka - Horses! I used to teach horseback at camp when I was in college and there are many great smells. Besides leather and the animals, the smell of the oats and grain that they eat is lovely. (Of course, they also have some rather unpleasant smells, lol.)

Man, how could I forget Old Books! I love the smell of old books. I am also kind of fond of the smell of tobacco when it is burning. I don't smoke anymore, and I don't like the smell of someone who had been smoking, but the burning tobacco has a different scent that I find pleasant. Yes, really tobacco. Like the stuff they make pesticides and cigarettes out of.

I can't say one in particular but flowers in general smell nice.

If a bakery makes me hungry, a flower shop lifts my mood.

Anything that smells like sweets/food. Somehow they make me either relaxed or energetic, with the disadvantage being it makes you hungry faster. Although I really don't like citrus smells. They make me real dizzy even more if they're perfumes (I could only tolerate so much of the citrus smell inside my mom's car).

Smell of scented candles really gets my attentions every time.