My earliest scent memories are the most powerful and visceral. My mother’s skin in the sunshine, burying my nose in large heady blooms of rose in my Grandmother’s garden while running about barefoot. My grandfather’s wax jacket coming in from the rain and damp, be-dewed forest floors. Also, the steamy, leather, lemony hay scent when a saddle is lifted off a horse and the sea – always the sea; briny, salt, seaweed, rich, earthy and full of mystery.
As a teenager growing up my best friend’s mum was an Avon representative, she always used to give us samples and one of them was Sweet Honesty perfume.Last year I tried to source some of this perfume alas the only place I could find it was on eBay & then only in a 10ml bottle …However when I opened the tiny box it arrived in and sprayed some on my wrist I closed my eyes & I was a teenager once again. Every now & then I take out the little bottle , spray & the memories come flooding back. I am one of a team of Admiral Nurses offering emotional & psychological support to Carers looking after a loved one with Dementia so I am very aware of the powerful memories that our sense of smell can evoke. We take for granted our sense of smell but when our memories fade our sense of smell can be the trigger to re-ignite those memories.
I love the smell of old smokey pipe tobacco and peaty scotch Whisky. It transports me back to my childhood where I would spend weekends in the Scottish countryside with my dear old Grandpa.
I have a number of favourite scent memories. The smell of a fresh pot of Play-doh opening. Instant comfort! I had many happy moments making things out of Play-Doh – and that’s what led me on to making my own models. Have you ever seen those packets of model railway grass? And the bags with lichen and bark in? Those instantly take me back to long hours spent making things in our shed. One whiff and I’m there! It may be a cliché, but I can’t pass a rose bush without checking whether it has a scent. Early evening walks with the dog have us both stopping regularly! And finally – steam trains. I wouldn’t recommend inhaling too much, but I do love the smell of an old-school locomotive.
My scent memory is the woody, vanilla, sweet smell as you’re walking through the perfume markets of Saudi.
My husband and I have been married for 56 years. When we were courting we used to go camping in Cornwall. We slept in a little tent and every morning Gordon would fry eggs and bacon on a mini-stove.So my favourite scent is the smell of eggs and bacon frying – delicious! When I smell eggs and bacon cooking now it brings back so many happy memories.
The smell of freshly cut grass always reminds me of endless summer days in the gardens playing with my sister and parents in the house where I grew up. My dad would always mow the lawn on his “sit-on” lawnmower and then my sister and I would run out into the garden to play with my dog honey who used to roll in the cut grass.
The smell of my dad’s aftershave, Aqua di Selva, always reminds me of journeys down to my grandparents. He use to wake us up in the car just as we were nearly there and turning down the hill and then tell us to brush our hair. Meanwhile my mum would reach into his glove compartment and pull out his aftershave which he would spray far too much of (always making me and my sis feel a little sick!)
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