Horses. I do like the smell of hot tar in the summer after the rain. Church incense moves me very deeply. And old books. I am not adverse to lab smells, because going to visit my father was very glamorous to me. I saw scientists in white lab coats as heroes.
— Denyse Beaulieu, of the Grain de Musc blog and the upcoming book The Perfume Lover, on the non-perfume smells that turn her on. Read more at Scents and sensibility: The art of the perfumer at the Scotsman.
Hot tar in the summer – with or without rain – has always been a favorite smell of mine. And horses and hay and ripe cornfields. Ahhhh.
I loved the smell when I was a child, but seems like I never smell it now…have they changed the tar they put on the roads?
Yes hot tar! And a put-out cigar. And pencil shaving.
With you on the pencil shavings!
My first big post on MUA (nine years ago) was asking what non-perfume smells people liked: the answers were fascinating. It’s amazing what weird smells we find attractive.
You have a good memory! I know I used to love to start polls on MUA but for the life of me can’t remember any them.
You *always* remember your first big post on MUA. Especially when, being so new, you’re convinced no one else ever thought of asking that particular question. LOL! That’s the only poll I ever did, I think (apart from the Story with Perfume Names – which I should have patented).
Btw, just realised I never wished you a Happy Christmas, R. I’m so sorry. Hope it was fun.
And a belated happy Christmas to you too! I caught a cold at the last moment, so it was quiet but very nice. Almost back to normal now.
Oooh, yes tar is lovely. And freshly grinded coffee. Cut grass. My little sons hair. And my my hubbys neck, when I can still smell that he spritzed L´Artisans Timbuktu on some hours earlier
Cut grass, yum.
You can’t beat the smell of woodsmoke on a chilly day. I have a memory of the smell of used bookstores I used to visit with my dad – they smelled of aged paper and pipe tobacco. Bookstores just don’t smell that way anymore.
Used bookstore — yes, one of the best smells in the world! Most of my favorite used bookstores are gone now.
I’m eagerly looking forward to this book. (But couldn’t the phrase “scents and sensibility” be retired? It’s so overused.)
I laugh every time I see “Scents and Sensibility” — overused is an understatement!
You could say that again. I think I have an article dating from the early ’80s which bears that title (and it can’t have been the first even then).