The Powerful Sense of Smell
The Shrine by John William Waterhouse 1895
How powerful the sense of smell is, it can evoke vivid, forgotten memories in seconds, childhood memories, a certain day, people and places.
This must begin at birth, the ability a newborn baby has to identify its mother just by her smell.
I never understand it when people say they have a strong sense of smell, how do they know that?
How do they know what things smell like to others, just as we don’t really know what the colour red looks like to others, I think some of us are just more aware of smells, maybe just generally more aware of our surroundings.
Cigar smoke
Cigar Smoke. Image mancavecigarlounge.com
A thread of cigar smoke, a whiff of Kouros aftershave by Yves Saint Laurent and it is as if my father is in the room with me, I can sense, him I can feel his presence, all this with a smell that may have lasted just a few seconds.
My father’s aftershave: Kouros by YSL
Kouros aftershave. YSL.
My mother’s lipstick
Sometimes the intensity of the memory can cause me to gasp.
The smell of an old-fashioned lipstick brings a picture of my mother into my head, the expression she made putting lipstick on in the mirror and the way it was worn down flat on the top and not the usual slant you see on used lipsticks, the colour was coral red.
Vintage lipsticks. Image Etsy.com
It works both ways because just by looking at the image of these old lipsticks I can smell them, actually smell them.
With some things I can actually taste smells, I don’t like olives and the best way I know to describe how they taste to me is that they taste like acetone smells!
Woodsmoke
Wood smoke from Autumn bonfires brings not only my memories of my Grandmother but a memory of a certain day; walking up the lane to her house with my mother, smoke billowing all over, like walking through a fog and my mother saying: “Oh my goodness, she’s burning the leaves again” and being quite angry, I don’t know why she was angry.
Sir John Everett Millais Autumn Leaves
The smell of an English rose
The smell of roses and here I have to say no rose today smells as good as it did in my childhood, is that a trick our brains are playing on us, everything was better, bigger, smaller when we were children?
With the faintest whiff of a rose, I am back in a English garden collecting rose petals, stuffing as many as possible into a jam jar, adding water, leaving them to steep, trying to be patient until I have scent!
Rose Petal Scent. Image from Instagram com
British Fish and chips
The smell of fish and chips take me back to the sea side at Scarborough, Filey or any other English East coast town.
Walking along the seafront, souvenir shops, amusement arcades, buckets and spades, beach balls hung outside shops in string bags, such sweet memories of childhood summers.
The tray the fish and chips were in, not polystyrene as they are today but a thick, cream-coloured cardboard, like the old egg boxes used to be made of and the tiny wooden fork; I can taste that tiny wooden fork!
Fish & chips in newspaper. Image Food So Good Mall
The smell of freshly cut grass
I love so many smells, most of them from nature, wood smoke, as I mentioned above, the smell of freshly cut grass, I don’t think that there can be anyone who doesn’t love this smell.
Freshly cut grass. Image taken by tina-manthorpe at Easton Gardens
The smell of damp earth
The smell of damp earth when working in my garden , I want to scoop it up and put my face in it!
Earth. Image from Ann Street Studio
Wet earth after the rain
The way the world smells after a long dry hot spell when it rains, it smells different, clean fresh, this smell actually has a name, petrichor.
Wet wooden fences after the rain is another smell that instantly takes me back to my childhood.
The smell of rain- drenched earth. thisivyhouse.tumblr. com
The smell of the sea
The smell of the sea; a sea breeze, the beach, that crisp, salty, sometimes slightly fishy smell, so invigorating, so fresh, and so pure.
Funnily enough the worst sort of scents for me, be it to wear, to clean with or whatever, are the ones named after the sea, ‘Breeze’, ‘Waves’ etc. and they always seem to be blue.
The smells of nature cannot be reproduced and bottled up, no synthetic chemicals, no expensive diptyque candles can ever capture the true essence of nature.
The Sea at Saintes Maries de la Mer by Van Gogh
Random favourite smells
Other random favourite smells of mine are baking bread, clean, freshly ironed bed sheets, leather, old books and so many more.
“Perfume; The Story of A Murderer” by Patrick Suskind
A few years ago, more than a few actually, a book was published, “Perfume.The Story Of A Murderer” by Patrick Suskind, it’s a wonderful book, about the sense of smell and identity.
I loved it so much that I bought lots of copies to give to friends, I even bought Greek copies for Greek friends.
I must say the title in Greek was much more inviting than the English one.
“Aroma”
I was so excited when I discovered that there also existed a film based on the book, a disappointment though but then films based on books usually are.
While you are reading, images of the characters, the places, are being formed in your imagination, then you see the film and think, oh they have her blonde in the film, I imagined her with black hair.
Much better to read.
Perfume by Patrick Suskind. A story of a Murderer
Scent of a woman
A weakness of mine or rather a passion is scent; I wear it all the time, putting on scent is as natural to me as brushing my teeth every morning but it has to be a scent that nobody I know wears, if a friend wears it, I never buy it again…my daughter is an exception!
Here are a few I wear, only a few, not giving my secrets away!
Annick Goutal Ambre Fetiche. Image from Luckyscent
Annick Goutal’s ‘ Ambre Fetiche’, a heavy, oriental, has quite an exotic incense smell about it, no one likes it…I don’t care…I love it!
Annick Goutal Eau d’Hadrien Eau de Parfum
Annick Goutal’s ‘eau d’ Hadrien’, light and lemony, it’s perfect for summer.
Serge Lutens Arabie. Image from Blog- mademoisellec. net
Serge Lutens, ‘Arabie’, slightly medicinal, a favourite.
Acqua di parma, fresh lemony scent..Strong,!
Acqua Di Parma Colonia
I prefer niche scents, little known scents, unfortunately these are usually expensive, when I am without my favourites, and cash is tight, I wear Greek lemon cologne, Myrto,
Eight Euros in the supermarket and it is just fine, so cooling for these hot Greek Summer days.
Cheap enough to splash onto your bed sheets when ironing them, they do a super lavender one too!
Myrto Greek lemon cologne
The best smells: Life smells so good
I left the best smell of all until last, the best smell of all is …home, my daughter’s shampoo, lingering cooking aromas, freshly ironed clothes, an underlying doggy smell, even my son’s over-powering deodorant (Axe) and freshly brewed coffee.
The smell of freshly brewed coffee Image Denise Jackson Tumblr
Smells by Christopher Morley
WHY is it that the poet tells
So little of the sense of smell?
These are the odors I love well:
The smell of coffee freshly ground;
Or rich plum pudding,Holly crowned;
Or onions fried and deeply browned.
The fragrance of a fumy pipe;
The smell of apples, newly ripe;
And printer’s ink on leaden type.
Woods by moonlight in September
Breathe most sweet,
and I remember Many a smoky camp-fire ember.
Camphor, turpentine, and tea,
The balsam of a Christmas tree,
These are whiffs of gramarye. . .
A ship smells best of all to me!
Life smells good!
