As I traversed the diagonal pattern of blocks to my destination, I walked past various hotels and restaurants, crossing paths with dark alleyways had the heavy, sticky, putrid smell of rotting produce and meat parts. Past hair salons with open doors that smelled like shampoo hair and hot hair being blown dry. Past upscale clothing stores that smelled of eucalyptus and lavender. Past coffee shops with their doors constantly opening and closing, the warm and bittersweet smell of coffee drinks and baking cookies escaping.

Past tulips, lilacs and hydrangeas lining the black iron gated homes and apartment buildings along the side streets. And through clouds of cigarette smoke from clusters of cleaners, doormen, and medical technicians taking their cigarette breaks. When I arrived, I stepped into the lobby of the building and walked through patches of air that smelled like Windex and floor cleaner on my way to the elevator. This is just a very short outline of everything I sniffed along the way. To document every single scent noticed during every square foot of my travels on any given day would take a lot of time and consume many pages.

Scent has the practical function of keeping us safe. An example of that would be smelling smoke or gas in your home, taking action and getting out of harm’s way. However, there are many that enjoy perfume and aromatherapy. There is even a event based perfume fan club called Sniffapalooza. Kate McClean, an artist in the United Kingdom, even created a “smell map” of various cities based on her study. She has created “sensory maps” of various cities.  

She has even created “a smellwalking guide” on how to take your own “smell walk” which also has a glossary of smell terms. If you do a simple internet search, you might come across many more articles and studies on scent. 

I find that scent also serves as a vehicle of time travel for me. Going to a drug store and smelling the various soaps and shampoos can be an opportunity to take a mental trip back in time or provide an inspiration to an anticipated future event. For example, the original smell of Agree shampoo is redolent of simpler and hopeful times.

Michael Papas, master designer of household scents, puts a great deal of thought into creating such scent types. He equates the process to “composing a symphony…” which refers to the “...harmonious mixing and matching of potentially hundreds of individual aroma chemicals.” He goes on to explain, “Composers have their musical notes, and we actually use what are called ‘fragrance notes’ ― three of them ― that unfold over time to the nose like stanzas of a symphony to the ear.”

Papas, in a presentation to the American Chemical Society in the article "Secrets of Scents: Designing the the smells that sell household products" states “Fragrances are part of what has been called ‘nasal nostalgia,’ bringing back long-forgotten memories of pleasant experiences for people to enjoy once again,” he added. “We strive to connect with an emotion that makes the consumer feel good and could be perhaps a little nostalgic.”

For example, when Papas went on vacation to Aruba one year, he purposefully used his nose to find to find new tropical scents for a house cleaning product line he was working on. According to Papas, consumer’s tastes and expectations change, "At one time everyone wanted these clean, traditional scents, but now consumers want a whole experience when they're doing their laundry or washing their floors.” You may find more details on how Papas develops the scent in household cleaning products in this Wall Street Journal article by Ellen Byron: "Does This Smell Clean to You? Products Bring Aromatherapy To Household Chores; Don't Say 'Banana'." A couple of other organizations that dedicated to creating household scents include The International Fragrance Association of North America and International Flavors and Fragrances (IFF).

Not all scents or scent combinations directly emanate from plants, nor are they created in labs. Some scents or scent combinations just come together and occur in a once-in-a-lifetime, like a music jam or instrumental improvisation. Good, bad or neutral, they are forever in the neural landscape, never to be forgotten. Such scent combinations may be from childhood, such as smell of my old junior high school cafeteria, metallic and redolent of sweat, stale corn chips, with faint hints of frozen pizza and hot dogs. Or the smell of the dirty patch of red patterned carpet located next to the kitchen in the dining room of a hotel I once worked in; greasy, with a hint of celery and wet umbrella. Or the humid, wet wooled, wet foot dirt and raw chicken-like smell of a crowded city bus on a snowy day, crawling through traffic. Or, the smell of the inside of one’s hand after using a dish sponge past its prime.

It can also be the succulent, indescribable scent of a hug from a loved one. The wet, familiar hello and goodbye cheek kisses from cool and powdery relatives. Studies show that humans and animals have their own ‘scent-print’ and pheromones. An article in TIME Magazine provides a brief overview of curious tidbits about pheromones. “Smell Dating” is even becoming a new trend according to this ABC News article.

Start your own smell journey. Let us various books on smell and scent keep you company.

Aromatherapy for Life Empowerment: Using Essential Oils to Enhance Body, Mind, Spirit Well-Being 
By David Schiller and Carol Schille

Aromatherapy has become more and more popular over the years. Find out more about the mental, physical and spiritual benefits of aromatherapy. For more books on aromatherapy, browse our catalog.

Navigating Smell and Taste Disorders
By Ronald DeVere, Marjorie Calvert and DeVere, Ronald

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
By Patrick Süskind

The Perfume Lover: A Personal History of Scent
By Denyse Beaulieu

Check out this biography about a perfurmer. Read about his childhood and his scent memories and his mysterious and emotional process of creating scents and perfumes. 

 

Remembering Smell 
By Bonnie Blodgett

Bonnie Blodgett, a professional food writer, destroyed her olfactory nerve after using nasal spray trying to battle a cold. After that, her sense of smell disappeared. Blodgett describes the different stages she went through after that happened. This include phantosmia, the brain attempt to compensate for the loss by generating a non-stop smell of “every disgusting thing you can think of tossed into a blender and pureed.” This book is dedicated to exploring the scientific, medical, psychological and gustatory effects the sense of smell has, as well as the lack of it.

Season to Taste: How I Lost My Sense of Smell and Found My Way
By Molly Birnbaum

Sometimes you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. Find out how an aspiring chef copes with losing her sense of smell after an accident. 

The Scent of Desire: Discovering our Enigmatic Sense of Smell
By Rachel Herz

If you are curious about the psychological importance of being able to smell, and how scent affects our emotional, physical and romantic lives in unexpected ways, you may enjoy this book. 

What the Nose Knows: The Science of Scent in Everyday Life
By Avery Gilbert

Although smell is interesting to many people, it is also the least understood among our senses. 
Olfaction expert Avery Gilbert provides interesting eccentric tidbits such as museums using smells in exhibits, the innovations of a Dutch “aroma jockey,” and how the human sense of smell is more on par with animals than previously thought. Gilbert also talks about the latest scientific discoveries and smells effect on emotion and memory. 

Do you have any favorite book titles that have vivid scent descriptions? Please let us know.