There are a couple of scents that almost always make me pause an inhale deeply.
Sawdust/fresh cut wood
This one came immediately to mind when I read the prompt!
The smell of sawdust always makes me feel like a kid again because it was such a familiar smell in my dad’s workshop.
On winter afternoons, he was often in there with the woodstove going, building a variety of things, and the smell of sawdust takes me right back.
Fresh baked yeast bread
I never get tired of this smell, and I definitely have been known to do a deep inhale before I eat a fresh slice.
Smelling it is almost as good as eating it!
Pine
I really love the scent of evergreens.
A fresh Christmas tree is so great, and I also like the smell of a forest filled with evergreens. There’s something really clean and refreshing about a piney scent.
Citrus
Orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit…they just smell happy, fresh, and sunny to me.
Sometimes when I’m peeling an orange, I lift it to my nose just to get a little extra whiff of the orange oils.
Tomato plants
Limes
Baking cookies or cakes
The blooms on a mimosa tree
My babies’ hair (only one left young enough for this 🙁
Hyacinths
Rain in the desert
Wind Song perfume ( reminds me of my mom)
My husband after he works out
Grass, as in the lawn On a summer evening
My kiddos
This amber body spray at Bath and Bodyworks
Pepperoni pizza
Whoa… This is an interesting topic since I have congenital anosmia and have never been able to smell.
Growing up in a wheat-farming family, I love fresh made yeast bread! And I imagine it must smell good too! But I’ve never experienced that or the rush of memories associated with smell. My bread memories tend to be triggered more by actions or textures, i.e. spreading butter on top of a fresh baked loaf and remembering the number of times that my mother and I did that in my youth.
Oh wow, that’s so interesting to think about. Do people ask you, “What’s it like to not smell?” It always cracks me up when something like that happens because…how are you supposed to know what it’s like when it’s all you’ve ever known!
Peonies and lilacs.
When I was a child, my mother’s spaghetti sauce simmering on the stove. Now since I make the sauce, it isn’t quite the same for me but my family loves the aroma so that’s alright.
The backstage areas of theatres.
Horse barns.
Fresh cut grass; yeast when it rising and baking; and hyacinth flowers
rosemary and lemon
I love the smell of:
Cinnamon
Lemon
The pink baby lotion (Johnson & Johnson, I think)
Wood stove/fire place because it brings back great memories of my childhood in New England)
The smell in the air right before it rains
I love the smell of:
fresh brewed coffee
my kids after they are outside all day
newspapers (my husband is a newspaper printer) this is probably my favorite!
I enjoy so many smells!
Definitely baking bread.
Hardware stores.
Indian food cooking. The spices!
All citrusy smells.
Smells from the herb garden: mint, lavender, rosemary, lemon thyme, sage. All good.