What are your favorite and least favorite smells?

[ReformedEE]

I just read an article on the olfactory system.  It explained that what we smell links to longer-term memories than any of our other senses.  It got me thinking about the way my grandmother’s house smelled at Christmas when she was baking.

What are your favorite smells?  Least favorite?

My favorite:  baked goods, a good cigar

Least favorite:  the bathroom when I’m gassy, LOL

[SkipNC]

I have never smoked, but when I went to the football in Scotland, I always liked the smell of a cigar or a pipe.  That was when you could smoke in public, so a long time ago.  It may have had something to do with being outside and just being part of the ritual - wrapped up against the cold, a mince pie and a cup of bovril at half-time and the friendly banter between opposing supporters.

Least favorite smell has always been cigarette smoke.  I have no idea why, considering my favorite smells!

[nicoleS39]

My favorite....absolutely the smell of my husband's bare chest...but...lol for general consumers....the smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and the smell of fresh coffee in the morning...they are tied for first. My least favorite....moldy musky odor and horse poop...those are also tied for least favorite...lol.

[ReformedEE]

21 hours ago, SkipNC said:

I have never smoked, but when I went to the football in Scotland, I always liked the smell of a cigar or a pipe.  That was when you could smoke in public, so a long time ago.  It may have had something to do with being outside and just being part of the ritual - wrapped up against the cold, a mince pie and a cup of bovril at half-time and the friendly banter between opposing supporters.

Least favorite smell has always been cigarette smoke.  I have no idea why, considering my favorite smells!

You lucky guy.  What I would give to see football and try the cigars in Scotland!

[ReformedEE]

17 hours ago, nicoleS39 said:

My favorite....absolutely the smell of my husband's bare chest...but...lol for general consumers....the smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and the smell of fresh coffee in the morning...they are tied for first. My least favorite....moldy musky odor and horse poop...those are also tied for least favorite...lol.

Chocolate chip cookies do smell great, and agreed on the coffee.  Is there anyone who doesn’t like the smell of coffee?  It seems universally appealing.  Oh, and I agree big time on disliking horse poop.  Any animal poop for that matter.   **gag**

[nicoleS39]

lol...yeah...horse poop...I shovel that stuff up several times a week. It is worse when horses get diarhea....but...guess that is TMI...lol.

[Chawsee]

My favorite scents include vanilla (my fav!), supper on the stovetop and bread in the oven, a pine forest in the mountains, and horse stables. Laughing, but true, on that last one. To me, hay and horse manure are comforting scents that remind me of home.

Reformed EE, you mentioned your grandmother's holiday baking. I grew up doing a great deal of Christmas baking with my mother. But she's gone now, and these days my time for that is limited. So I make Christmas potpourri. I take a medium stockpot and fill it part-way with water, add some small, fresh clippings of pine branches, then add cranberries, sliced oranges, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. I simmer this gently, which fills the house with the aroma of an authentic old-fashioned Christmas. It's lovely.

My least favorite scent is cigarette smoke. I detest it. Interestingly, I dislike the artificial "chemical" scents of perfumes and colognes, as well. There's nothing pleasant or natural about them. To me, they just reek. 

[ReformedEE]

1 hour ago, Chawsee said:

My favorite scents include vanilla (my fav!), supper on the stovetop and bread in the oven, a pine forest in the mountains, and horse stables. Laughing, but true, on that last one. To me, hay and horse manure are comforting scents that remind me of home.

Reformed EE, you mentioned your grandmother's holiday baking. I grew up doing a great deal of Christmas baking with my mother. But she's gone now, and these days my time for that is limited. So I make Christmas potpourri. I take a medium stockpot and fill it part-way with water, add some small, fresh clippings of pine branches, then add cranberries, sliced oranges, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. I simmer this gently, which fills the house with the aroma of an authentic old-fashioned Christmas. It's lovely.

My least favorite scent is cigarette smoke. I detest it. Interestingly, I dislike the artificial "chemical" scents of perfumes and colognes, as well. There's nothing pleasant or natural about them. To me, they just reek. 

Thanks for answering Ms. Chawsee.  Wish I was there at your home in Montana at Christmas to experience your Christmas potpourri.  There’s just something about a woman’s touch in a home, and maybe the touch of a self-reliant country woman even more so. 

I wore cologne when I was younger, until once when a colleague of mine took me aside and told me that it stunk, LOL.  So you’re not the only one who dislikes artificial fragrances, she wasn’t a fan either.  They say women have keener noses than men.  Is that  true?

[Longtimespanking]

My favorite smells are fresh air (try finding any of that in a major city),  the smell of a lumberyard,  freshly laundered clothes right out of the dryer as long as the detergent used isn't too perfumey, things baking in the oven, and the smell of a naked body right out of the shower.  When I have the opportunity to smell (and hopefully also lick) a woman's clean, unshaved armpits, legs, or bush, I'm ecstatic. 

My least favorites are the smell of coffee (don't ever drink it, was never around it while growing up as no one in the family liked it, it makes me sick to the point where I cannot go into a restaurant at breakfast time), any form of tobacco or similar smoke, perfume, the smell of flowers (reminds me of a funeral parlor or a hospital), and farm/animal smells since I grew up in the city and was never around them. 

[OhRedhead]

I find farmyard smells comforting, having ridden horses until adulthood. My all-time favorite smell is the forest, though, especially an evergreen forest. 

My least favorite smell is body odor related to poor hygiene.

[Chawsee]

17 hours ago, ReformedEE said:

Thanks for answering Ms. Chawsee.  Wish I was there at your home in Montana at Christmas to experience your Christmas potpourri.  There’s just something about a woman’s touch in a home, and maybe the touch of a self-reliant country woman even more so. 

....They say women have keener noses than men.  Is that  true?

Thank you.

I have no idea. Maybe it depends on the person? We've all known both men and women who have particularly keen noses. It is said, however, that women are up to 7x more sensitive to musk odors than are men. There may be some truth to this. I am ultra-sensitive to muskiness and find it off-putting, whereas I've been around guys who seemed completely oblivious to such smells. 

[Chawsee]

5 hours ago, Longtimespanking said:

My favorite smells are fresh air (try finding any of that in a major city),  the smell of a lumberyard,  freshly laundered clothes right out of the dryer as long as the detergent used isn't too perfumey, things baking in the oven...

My least favorites are the smell of coffee (don't ever drink it, was never around it while growing up as no one in the family liked it, it makes me sick to the point where I cannot go into a restaurant at breakfast time), any form of tobacco or similar smoke, perfume, the smell of flowers (reminds me of a funeral parlor or a hospital), and farm/animal smells since I grew up in the city and was never around them. 

I, too, like all the things (which I quoted from you, above) from your first paragraph.

I find your dislike of the smell of coffee particularly interesting, and how it makes you sick to the point that you cannot go into a restaurant at breakfast time. I'd never considered this possibility, so I'm glad you shared that. The affect that flowers have on you is also of interest. I, too, dislike tobacco odors in all forms. And, it's nice to see that I'm not the only one with an aversion to perfumes. 

[Topspanker]

A freshly fired shotgun shell is actually one of my favorites, worst favorites would be broccoli or spinach etc.