Petrichor

I just Love it.

Sunscreen and fresh cut grass. Reminds me of carefree days as a kid where everything was possible

coffee because it is the best thing in the world

Orange blossoms. Everything “Orange blossom” scented just smells like perfumey oranges, nothing like actual orange blossoms. You can only smell them on the tree, this time of year.

I’m Indigenous Canadian from northern Ontario so the strongest memories for me have to do with being out on the land with my family.

My favourite smell is a combination of a campfire inside my family’s teepee in the wilderness of northern Ontario in the early spring with snow still around and the mushkeg in the middle of melting and warming. The combination of fresh cut pine wood, pine boughs next to a new camp fire, fresh goose being roasted over the flames, the musky smell of the land, smoke from the fire and the cool damp scent of the snow and ice. It all brings me back to being a kid with my family. I wish I were there now.

A core memory unlock scent for me is any time I smell honeysuckle. We had some where I grew up, and it just instantly takes me back.

Others are a spray from Lush called sleepy time. It’s Lavender and Tonka, and it is the most calming scent I’ve ever been around.
Dark chocolate. Good roasted coffee. Wife’s body spray Tea and Bergamont from bath and bodyworks.

My weird ones are lumber and gasoline

When I was little my mom had an electric cookie press that made jet-puffed cookies. Why it was electric, and had to be plugged in, I have no idea. It was almost exclusively used to make Christmas cookies (trees, presents, snowmen, etc.) and the smell of the dough and the finished cookies was so unmistakable and unique that I cannot describe it exactly but can immediately recognize it decades later.

Another smell is the combination of coffee brewing and a classic American breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast being made by my grandparents. The kind of smell that instantly wakes you up and makes you stumble down the stairs half awake. I don’t ever drink coffee but the combined smell is intoxicating and always reminds me of them.

Vanilla and cinnamon. I love both those flavours as well

Gardenia flowers. Not the terrible candle or soap scents that try and fail to imitate it, but the actual live flowers.

Almond scented pink public bathroom soap

Pinyon juniper woodland after a violent hailstorm. The pulverized vegetation filling the clean mountain air with their volatile compounds. Tart resiny smells mingling with sweet floral sages combined with the earthy aroma of hummus and wet soil. It is petrichor turned up to eleven-thousand.

Wood fires, as in campfires and fireplaces. Reminds me of warmth and comfort.

Dawn in early Summer, in Nature. It is a mix of Petrichor, really fresh coldish air, wet grass and a hint of flowers.

That’s a really nice memory. I also remember how the bushes would smell from when I was a kid in the garden.

Now my favourite smell is my wife, and I bet some of yours will now also be, “this guys wife”.

Barbecue (like sizzling steak) or campfire.