# What makes baby shampoo smell like baby shampoo? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 7, 2008, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-baby-shampoo-smell-like-baby-shampoo/476179 "2008-12-07T23:16:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-baby-shampoo-smell-like-baby-shampoo/476179/1 "2008-12-07T23:16:55Z")
You know, that distinctive scent. Is it just scenting that years of expensive research and focus groups said would make the baby shampoo smell nice and make moms want to cuddle their babies after a bath? I haven’t noticed that smell in other shampoos, just baby shampoo. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-baby-shampoo-smell-like-baby-shampoo/476179/2 "2008-12-07T23:21:27Z")
Concentration. It takes 10 babies to make one bottle. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-baby-shampoo-smell-like-baby-shampoo/476179/3 "2008-12-08T00:21:43Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Concentration. It takes 10 babies to make one bottle. And you gotta boil em down _really good_, or it’s all a waste of time. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-baby-shampoo-smell-like-baby-shampoo/476179/4 "2008-12-08T00:31:30Z")
In the bloody-minded, zero-sum, Jim Beam-fueled hypermasculinist dystopia I’m living in this evening, this thread is making me feel very, _very_ good. Boil the babies. Boil _ALL_ the goddam babies, until we learn to throw aside decadent humanism and rededicate ourselves to the survival of the race. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-baby-shampoo-smell-like-baby-shampoo/476179/5 "2008-12-08T00:33:59Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > In the bloody-minded, zero-sum, Jim Beam-fueled hypermasculinist dystopia I’m living in this evening, this thread is making me feel very, _very_ good. > > Boil the babies. Boil _ALL_ the goddam babies, until we learn to throw aside decadent humanism and rededicate ourselves to the survival of the race. Uuummm…the preservation of the Human race kinda…_requires_…babies. FYI. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-baby-shampoo-smell-like-baby-shampoo/476179/6 "2008-12-08T00:45:29Z")
You seek to sway me with _facts?_ :mad: Facts are nothing more than the pathetic fumblings of the spiritually and morally bankrupt in the presence of Truth. In ancient Sparta, those professing as you do were beaten to a mass of bloody welts and thrown to the vultures. Humans love the odor of baby shampoo because it is the smell of death. The blood of innocents purifies us all. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-baby-shampoo-smell-like-baby-shampoo/476179/7 "2008-12-08T02:04:44Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > You know, that distinctive scent. Is it just scenting that years of expensive research and focus groups said would make the baby shampoo smell nice and make moms want to cuddle their babies after a bath? > > I haven’t noticed that smell in other shampoos, just baby shampoo. Maybe it’s that we’ve been conditioned since birth to like that distinctive scent. ---
**Author:** ![laughingboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9f8e36/32.png) [@laughingboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/laughingboy)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-baby-shampoo-smell-like-baby-shampoo/476179/8 "2008-12-08T02:14:29Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > **What makes baby shampoo smell like baby shampoo?** I think it’s the baby shampoo. ---
**Author:** ![1010011010](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/ea666f/32.png) [@1010011010](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1010011010)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-baby-shampoo-smell-like-baby-shampoo/476179/9 "2008-12-08T02:16:47Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Uuummm…the preservation of the Human race kinda…_requires_…babies. > > FYI. Or formaldehyde. FYI. ---
**Author:** ![seodoa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@seodoa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seodoa)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-baby-shampoo-smell-like-baby-shampoo/476179/10 "2008-12-08T02:24:48Z")
This is a question that is less laughable than many seem to believe. I, too, have often wondered what scent baby soap is supposed to be. I mean, I have bottles of Febreze room odorizer as well as a bottle of Lenor fabric softener/odorizer that purport to be “baby soap” scented. I like this scent and it isn’t too overpowering but I am not sure what it is supposed to be. I mean, baby soap scent? What, it’s scented like a baby-safe alkali? This is along the lines of “bubblegum flavor.” Bubblegum has no intrinsic flavor, but we have formulated a rough idea of what bubblegum is supposed to taste like, so we continue to flavor it that way, and even extend that flavor to other products. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-baby-shampoo-smell-like-baby-shampoo/476179/11 "2008-12-08T02:35:49Z")
Har de har, guys. Very funny. But I’m serious…baby shampoo has its own unique scent, and I’d like to know (if anyone as the answer) what the manufacturers do to make it smell that way. ---
**Author:** ![1010011010](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/ea666f/32.png) [@1010011010](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1010011010)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-baby-shampoo-smell-like-baby-shampoo/476179/12 "2008-12-08T02:38:34Z")
I found this: [Use of odorants to alter blood flow to the vagina.](http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/7108872/description.html) It doesn’t actually answer the question but I couldn’t not share it.