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Hey Pandas, What Is Your Favorite Scent Or Smell That Makes You Relive A Memory?

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So for example, the smell of honeysuckle reminds me of being outside at my grandmother's house. Doesn't matter the source of the smell - could be a candle or in cologne - but I get this instant transportation back to being young and happy outside in the sunshine.

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#1

My boyfriend's cologne. Since we are in a long distance relationship, the smell of his cologne reminds of the happy times we were together.

Final score:

5points

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#2

Peppermint and tobacco snuff remind me of my grandfather who died in 1991. Miss him to this very day. 😢

Final score:

5points

D20 Games 2 years ago

My grandfather smoked a pipe and he always had a dish of those little mint puffs next to his recliner.

0points

#3

The way the Earth smells after it just starts to sprinkle rain after a long, dry spell. It smells like “Ahhhhhh”.

Final score:

5points

OneHappyPuppy 2 years ago

Yes! It's called petrichora

0points

#4

Lilacs remind me of every spring I had

Final score:

3points

Titas Burinskas

D20 Games 2 years ago

Lilacs remind me of my childhood. We had lilac bushes all over the front of our house. In spring when they bloomed, we would smell lilacs all through the house.

0points

#5

Fresh cut grass — reminds me of being a kid, waking up on a summer morning, no school, total freedom

Final score:

3points

jilldrake@live.com

ThisIsMe 2 years ago

I envy that. Grass makes me itch, and the smell of fresh cut grass actually makes me a little nauseous.

1point

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#6

Clean linen....reminds me of summer months hanging out the washing on the line, and deeply breathing the scent in....nicest smell ever!

Final score:

3points

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#7

There was a smell that I used to love as a young child that I never knew what it was. My dad and his friends would go into the garage where I wasn't allowed to go and I would smell that smell and just think oh my God I love it. When I was a bit older maybe 13 I was walking through a campground with my aunt when I smelled the smell again. I asked her what it was and she answered disgustedly marijuana. It turns out that was the smell I had loved all those years and reminded me of my father. Now I use medical marijuana and I still love the smell. It's definitely a love it or hate it smell.

Final score:

3points

ThisIsMe 2 years ago

Love it. Don't partake anymore, but on the rare occasions I come across the scent it always makes me laugh.

0points

#8

Mint.
My mom used to have a peppermint plant outside her house when I was really young. I remember she'd make mint tea with it for special occasions. It's my favorite kind of tea now

Final score:

3points

Victoria Anderson 2 years ago (edited)

I envy you. Spearmint is called SPEARmint for a reason; it feels like a bajillion sharp ice crystals not melting in my mouth.

0points

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#9

Wood, reminds me of Home Depot and stressful trips with my fam there when I was little

Final score:

3points

#10

Bath & Body. moonlight path. It was my moms favorite. Bittersweet.

Final score:

2points

#11

Honeysuckle and Ivory Soap. My Great Grandmother (b. 1881) lived at the bottom of a bluff. The whole hillside was covered in honeysuckle. She always used Ivory Soap.
Really good memories.

Final score:

2points

jolie laide 2 years ago

I've actually heard of "Honeysuckle rain", is that a real thing...?

1point

#12

Beef and tomato pot noodle. I open the pot and I sniff and it’s 1993 and I earn £2.50 an hour, I’m young and carefree and my t1ts are 3 inches higher up than they are now and I’m 2 stone lighter and I live off pot noodles as they’re 29p a pot from Safeway…

(Sings) those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end, la la la…

Final score:

2points

Aunt Riarch 2 years ago

We'd sing and dance, forever and a day 🎶

1point

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#13

The smell of freedom. It makes me relive the times before school started, when we were free and wild at the hours before 7.30a.m.

Final score:

2points

#14

A mix of Big Red gum and cigarettes. My mom kept both in her purse and the two smells comingled. She died when I was a teen and I used to keep a stick of gum and a few cigarettes around just to remind me of her.

Final score:

2points

#15

Smell of lemon leaves, reminds me of the gleaming sun of the winters.

Final score:

1point

#16

A newly opened can of Play-doh. We only had it once in my whole childhood. It must have made a big impression on me.

Final score:

1point

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#17

We lived on a dairy farm and this huge bulk tank truck came to pick up our milk. The driver was fun and paid attention to us kids. His truck burned diesel - I did not know that then - but I loved the smell and associated it with him coming to our place. I still get nostalgic every time I get a whiff! (Yuck, I know, but can’t help what comes to mind when you remember a happy memory.)

Final score:

1point

#18

The smell of an empty theater. I don’t don’t if it’s the musty seats and curtains, the dust being heated up by the stage lights, or the smell of the paint that’s often used on the sets or the stage floor, but an empty theater will throw me back and make me so nostalgic for my performing days.

Final score:

1point

#19

the smell of leather. reminds me of the chairs in my family’s library, i spend hours reading there.

also plastic fall leaf strand things: i always push my face in them when they appear in michael’s

Final score:

1point

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#20

the smell of grass, sweat, and those friday night lights: they have a specific smell to them. even though i still play it, reminds me of football

Final score:

1point

#21

potatoes in gravy ,reminds me of my nursery and the people who took care of me

Final score:

0points

By Deleted User

#22

Lemon Grass scented soap and very strongly scented flowers reminds me of my grandparents’ bathrooms at their houses

Final score:

0points

Metediz Beachet

#23

Balsam you get the wood's and christmas

Final score:

0points

#24

The smell of fertiliser and manure. It reminds me of the time when I could take vacations away from our urban cities and I could got to a farm stay in Australia

Final score:

0points

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#25

Old Spice.

My mind is instantly cast back to 10 year old me being questioned by the police (the detective wore it).

I was being asked about the activities that occurred while I spent time at my friends house across the street during the summer holidays, and the type of "Games" that we played. My friends dad was arrested the night before.

Final score:

0points

#26

a box of crayons
a new book
and my moms purfume

Final score:

0points

OneHappyPuppy 2 years ago

Mmm a new book...

0points

#27

Guamúchil. It's a kind of tree with fruity pods with a very strong and distinctively smell to it.

When I was a kid, my fathe ruzed to take my brothers and I to a field filled with those trees to play soccer. Then he started a new job, and my brothers grew older and no one seemed to have more time for it, but I for me, those were some of the happiest days of my life, so, whenever I smell guamúchil, i remember those times.

Final score:

0points

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#28

The smell of blown out matches. My family always used matches to light the candles on the Christmas Advent wreath. Every time I smell a match, it takes me back to Christmas as a child and memories of my Mother.

Final score:

0points

TheBadHalfofHel

Toolkit 2 years ago

Matches take me back to birthdays, candles and firecrackers being lit when I was younger.

0points

#29

Russian chocolate has a specific smell, whenever I open a wrapper it takes me back to my childhood , when my baba would visit, her suitcase full of different types of chocolate, she died before covid, I miss her so much ❤

Final score:

0points

#30

Egyptian Lotus, my friend would wear the scent. When I would come through the city we would try to meet. After coffee we would share a long warm healing hug. Her scent would transfer onto my work sweater, I could still smell the soothing scent days after in the truck.

Final score:

0points

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#31

Egyptian Lotus, my friend would wear the scent. When I would come through the city we would try to meet. After coffee we would share a long warm healing hug. Her scent would transfer onto my work sweater, I could still smell the soothing scent days after in the truck.

Final score:

0points

#32

Diesel and grease. My grandfather worked in a tractor shop his whole adult life, and my dad has been a mechanic who worked on semis since I was a toddler. They always came home smelling like a garage, and those were the hugs I waited all day for.

Final score:

0points

Occam's Chainsaw

#33

Apple butter. My grandfather makes apple butter every fall for as long as I can remember.. And every time I smell it, it brings me back to when I was little and used to stand on a stool next to him while he peeled the apples. I would always eat the peelings, and he would always pretend to not see when I snuck an apple slice here and there...

Final score:

0points

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#34

Drying hay!

Final score:

0points

#35

Drying hay on our farm- hardly get to smell it anymore but when I do oh man oh man!

Final score:

0points

#36

Canteloupe, especially when it's a bit soft and slimy around the seeds. Reminds me of childhood, which I'm about to lose.

Final score:

0points

Victoria Anderson

#37

Probably very strange, but I used to be able to "smell" spring, when it was officially here.

Where I used to live, no one really had flowers, or enough of them to carry on a breeze. My bed was set horizontal to my window and when I was in middle school (11 years old and on wards) with my window open, I always smelled this... scent. I can't describe it. To this day I can't identify it. It was strong though, to me, and I just KNEW "spring was here".

My detection of it has faded in recent years to maybe 1 - 3 times instead of all the time (when spring/winter are fighting), but I still smell it and I'll NEVER forget it. If I could make a perfume or cologne out of it, I definitely would but I don't know how. I LIVE for that scent.

Final score:

0points

OneHappyPuppy 2 years ago

I get you. I have a very strong sense of smell and I can always smell winter. Can't really put into words what the smell is, but it's like cold moist air, the smell of snow and I know winter is around the corner

0points

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#38

Tide laundry detergent. I moved away from my best friend and it always reminds me of the way she smells.

Final score:

0points

#39

Outside,reminds me of when people would go outside and not play Fortnite or Robolx or watch TikTok all day (TikTok I'm guilty of)

Final score:

0points

#40

Cellophane tape. The good, not cheap kind. My mom would put me to work wrapping all the Christmas presents for the entire family (except my own) while she was at work. I spent a long time putting a lot of creative effort into it. Now days when I wrap presents I stick a piece of the tape right under my nose because I love it so much.

Final score:

0points

Toolkit 2 years ago

Cellophane tape reminds me of moving houses as we always had to pack lots of boxes. We're planning on moving in this year too *sigh*

0points

#41

The smell of my moms Halloween decorations. Ever since I was little I can remember the smell and it's even better around Halloween when I get to help decorate. It's a very comforting smell for me and sometime the scent will just be in the air at no particular time during the year and it's just amazing.

Final score:

0points

Amber Kaul (Submission author) 2 years ago

I've been on this Earth for 16 years and this is literally the only smell I describe by saying "it smells like Halloween"

1point

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#42

Old spice aftershave makes me miss my dad.

Final score:

0points

OneHappyPuppy 2 years ago

One million by Paco Rabanne is my dad's smell. I live very far from home and if I get a whiff of it on the street it reminds me of him instantly

0points

ThisIsMe

Not much to tell - I work for money, I foster and volunteer with feline rescue, foster failed too many times. Love my husband and love this site!

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Titas Burinskas

This dude right here? He works as a Community Manager at Bored Panda. Has no back-story, cause his spine works just fine. He writes about himself in third-person, and in first-person about others. Fell in love with storytelling and cannot let that love go. Now, he's here to help you make your own story simply beautiful. Secretly makes cute music samples and writes stories in the dark that nobody has ever heard of before.

This dude right here? He works as a Community Manager at Bored Panda. Has no back-story, cause his spine works just fine. He writes about himself in third-person, and in first-person about others. Fell in love with storytelling and cannot let that love go. Now, he's here to help you make your own story simply beautiful. Secretly makes cute music samples and writes stories in the dark that nobody has ever heard of before.

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