that is a material argument.
- Pipe or cigar smoke (but not cigarette smoke)
- Mowed lawn (grass clippings + lawn mower emissions)
- Recently discharged fireworks
- Drugstore smell (I have no idea what to call it, but older drugstores in particular seem to have a very specific odor)
- Sharpie
ETA: I just thought of another distinctive smell I like: tattoo parlors
I personally can’t stand new car smell, it makes me feel a little queasy
- Flipping through the pages of a brand new book. I love that smell.
This one’s difficult to describe, but the smell of a department store with its HVAC system running full blast on a warm day. The air feels crisp and with a strange tinge to it that I struggle to categorize. Whatever it may be, I dig it.
Car wax.
Contact cement.
Shoe polish.
Marine diesel exhaust.
Motor oil.
When I was a child, my favorite scent in the world was the scent of new tennis balls. You know how you can scratch a dog in just the right place to get his leg thumping? That is what the scent of tennis balls did to my brain.
I have to specify “when I was a child,” because I have been sniffing tennis balls on and off for years now, and man, it’s just not the same. They done fucked with the recipe, or something.
This is so silly, but it’s true.
years ago, the old purple ink of memeographed papers at school
Laundry soap.
Certain permanent markers. My boss has one that smells a bit like almonds.
The odors of a machine shop, particularly oil based cutting fluid but also the odor of slightly burnt metal, especially high nickel alloys.
My Dad and Grandfather worked for the same shop when I was young and, to me, it smells like home.
Capt
New carpet.
Haha the drug store smell. I kinda like that one too but impossible to describe.
I like the smell of the engine on a newly overhauled motor as it heats up for the first time. Some of the volaitiles in the paint are burning off as well as the fingerprints etc. Great smell.
Mothballs and turpentine are my favorites.
Just don’t taste it, in case it’s cyanide.
I’m an ex-regular now occasional smoker, but I know exactly what you mean. The smell of someone lighting a cigarette in the next room or the car in front of me is great at first. Just the first few puffs, but it gets stale (and old) very quickly. FTR, that smell has little to do with how it tastes.
That’s ozone. Copy machines do that as well.
It sounds like you like the smell of (petroleum based) solvents. I’m guessing you like the smell of things like WD-40 and nail polish remover/acetone as well.
I know a guy who loves the smell of funeral homes to the point where he uses any excuse he can find to visit one. As a young man he inherited a large amount of money, he was told in advance of the service he would be receiving it. Although he went through it in 10 years it was a time in his life he can never forget, the smell seems to bring that back for him.
I’m a fan of the smell of creosote.
I kinda like the smell of thiols. At least, the less pungent sorts, which just give a whiff of “burning hair”. They smell like new data.
Printer’s ink and “machine shop” are two, dare I say, happy, warm and embracing smells.
Like** Busy Scissors**, I dig that first tingly whiff of methylene chloride, but by the third whiff, it’s done a complete 180 and becomes unbearable.
For the people jonesing for the old grit-free white Gojo, Amazon sells it.
I know someone who is basically addicted to the odor of rubber. He’d spend his waking hours sniffing a Koosh ball, if allowed.
One can get GoJo at any Walmart or auto parts store (Auto Zone, Advance, O’Reilly, etc.).
No love for Hoppe’s 9?