Comments on: Do we ever smell for leisure?

Question: Do we ever smell for leisure?

white light — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 14:52:03 -0800

Are there any ways in which people focus on enjoying the sense of smell, by itself, solely for the leisure/pleasure aspect of the sensation? If not.. why?

Sorry if that sounds a bit vague or abstract, but I don't know how else to phrase it. To explain a little more, all other senses are sometimes consciously focused on for pleasure : listening to music, looking at pretty pictures, eating candy and other things for the taste of it and not just the essential nourishment, and feeling a massage, for instance. But do people ever sit around and smell something just for the pleasure of it?

I know scented air fresheners and candles are popular, but they are often used like deodorants and perfumes -- which do provide pleasant odors, but are mainly used as cover-ups of other smells.

I thought maybe a fragrant bath additive might qualify, but you would never draw the bath then lie next to it and sniff it - you get in, and the bath mainly provides for the sense of touch, with scent as a bonus.

Those Glade "Scent Story" air fresheners also came to mind, which provide a rotating series of smells. Forrest Breeze, to Calming Stream, to Lilac Field, for instance. But I don't know that anyone "plays" one of these and then sits and just smells it for a while. Perhaps it does happen?

Is there anything I am missing?

If not, why is this sense not indulged in like the others? Why don't we have nasal inserts to enjoy on a train ride if we don't feel like listening to the ipod?

By: occhiblu

occhiblu — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 14:55:35 -0800

Stop and smell the roses, kind sir.

By: ikkyu2

ikkyu2 — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 14:57:19 -0800

Sure, I do it myself with coffee, tea, wine, bourbon, brandy, all the time.

I'm not even going to mention those folks who purchase used ladies' undergarments over the internet. Because that's too yucky to mention.

By: spaceman_spiff

spaceman_spiff — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 14:59:42 -0800

Oxygen bars, sort of.

By: peep

peep — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:02:27 -0800

My friend had a mousepad that smelled like a brand new tire, and when I would use her computer I would take breaks and sniff the mousepad. I kind of thought that made me a freak, though. I can't get enough of that new tire smell.

By: white light

white light — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:04:06 -0800

Ahh! I can't believe I didn't include "more than a whiff". I should have said, smell solely focused on for a prolonged period of time. With drinks, you don't ever hold a cup in your hand at a cocktail party and just smell it over and over again. The smell is secondary to the taste. Which is secondary to the alcohol, I suppose..

By: staggernation

staggernation — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:04:08 -0800

Puppies!

By: muddgirl

muddgirl — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:06:01 -0800

There is something about the printed page - not in every book, mind you - that is absolutely delightful to my nose. If I'm waffling about buying a book, a quick sniff of the page will often decide it for me. On preview, I will smell a particularly nice-smelling book multiple times, although if something is smelled continuously the nose becomes attenuated to it. Breaks must be taken.

It's not just me, either. I've caught other bibliophiles sniffing the new edition of some book in the aisles of Barnes & Noble.

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:06:04 -0800

Good red wine. The bouquet of a good red is positively symphonic.

By: cebailey

cebailey — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:06:54 -0800

Actually, the main reason I smoke cigars is I love the smell of cigar smoke floating around in the air. The main reason I even take occasional puffs is to produce more smoke to smell.

By: ikkyu2

ikkyu2 — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:07:48 -0800

Well first of all, white light, there are other perspectives than what you're mentioning; people do indeed go to tastings and cuppings where they swirl and discuss the nose of these various beverages. Sometimes they even spit them out so that the alcohol doesn't confound their senses.

Secondly, your tongue can detect sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and glutamate. Everything else that you are dismissing as "the taste" is actually olfaction.

By: contraption

contraption — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:13:32 -0800

Smell is additive, and you can't really cover up one smell with another. Someone using your nasal inserts, besides looking silly, would still be able to smell stinky subway through whatever godawful air-freshener oil they were infused with. Also, people acclimate to smell, so that after wearing the inserts for a while they wouldn't be noticeable anymore, except for the weird stares and the headache. Taste, by contrast, is more isolated from the outside environment. While smell is a component of taste, you could eat a piece of candy just about anywhere and it'll still taste like candy. Taste is also more persistent than smell.

As for looking at pictures/listening to music: those things take more concentration because there's more sensory bandwidth available. Your nose only has a few types of receptor for smell, and you can really only perceive one smell at a time. Imagine if every painting was just a flat field of one color, or if every piece of music was a slowly changing sequence of single notes that changed in sequence with your breathing.

That's not to say smell can't be appreciated. It just doesn't demand as much attention.

By: Seamus

Seamus — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:18:21 -0800

As a child, my mother made each of us a "smell jar." Inside were spices, including cardamom, cinnamon sticks, star anise, and cloves. We kept them in our rooms. Whenever the desire arose, we would open them and sniff away. Sometimes until olfactory fatigue set in. I think thoughtfully appreciating smells may not be as common as doing the same for other sensory inputs, but it definitely happens.

By: Dee Xtrovert

Dee Xtrovert — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:19:44 -0800

Smell is a large part of what one perceives as taste. I like mint hot chocolate for instance, but when I think about it, a lot of the reason I like it is for the smell, not the taste. Because it's something I ingest via my mouth, not nose, it gets classified as a taste pleasure, not a smell pleasure.

By: web-goddess

web-goddess — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:20:25 -0800

I used to love, love, LOVE the smell of "Aspen for Men" (a cologne that is sadly discontinued, I believe). I even bought some and used to wear it myself as a perfume. It wasn't as a cover-up for stink, or because I bought into the branding or the image of the marketing (like a lot of women's scents); I just liked it a lot.

(Similarly, as a kid I used to love going to the gas station with my parents because I loved the smell of gasoline. That probably shaved off a couple IQ points right there.)

By: croutonsupafreak

croutonsupafreak — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:21:18 -0800

aromatherapy

By: jamjam

jamjam — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:23:48 -0800

In one of his letters from Reading gaol (you know-- where he said, supposedly, after falling or being pushed down a flight of stone stairs "if this is the way Her Majesty treats her prisoners, she doesn't deserve to have any.") Oscar Wilde longs to be reunited with his beloved set of silver scent vials.

By: hincandenza

hincandenza — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:25:33 -0800

What, really? I don't think I even understand the question. Why do you think some people- such as me- buy incense, scented candles, and fancy soaps? Sure, in some cases it's to mask other odors- but even then, it's because the "bad" odor experience is being replaced by a "good" odor experience, so I don't see how that doesn't fit your criteria. Often it's just about enjoying the pleasing scent, or to create a meditative environment, or because "pumpkin" or "cinnamon" evoke strong, good homey memories. When I buy vanilla bean and coffee soap, or clove and mint shampoo/conditioner, or mulled wine-smelling candles, it's because these scents make me feel good- happy, alert, relaxed, etc.

It's purely about the smell of it, it's not because I'm thinking it masks some other scent. There are times I'll lean in close to a candle with my eyes closed just to smell it. So yeah, of course it happens. It happens with everyone: the scent of smell, for fairly understandable reasons, is a surprisingly powerful one, and can have a strong effect on people. They most certainly do seek out scents for scents sake. It's just not as portable and mass-produced as, say, music or movies.

Heck, there's a whole industry towards aromatherapy, including machines that produce smells, and a variety of products which are sold solely for their smell, and the presumed mood it will evoke. I think the reason we don't have nasal inserts is principally this: sound and light can be converted/stored as energy, and transported and reproduced effortlessly. Taste is more concrete and eminently transportable, and for obvious reasons has a pretty central place in our world. But touch and smell are the hardest to mass-produce and transport. You can't really make smell-inserts the way you can make an iPod, and the sense of touch is, as a commerce, heavily regulated. Legal massage therapy is one of the only places you can commoditize touch.

People satiate all their senses, in different proportions for different people. I don't think you can say people don't seek out scents for their own sake, because many do, and in ways you may even take for granted.

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:30:49 -0800

Ikkyu2 and Dee are right: most of flavor is smell, not taste. We have the ability to distinguish between 4 and 6 things (number is disputed; some also think there's a sensor for presence of fat, and some don't believe in umami) with our tongues, but estimates are that we can distinguish over a thousand different things with our noses.

When we swallow, vapors from food or drink drift upwards into our noses, and that's where most of the subjective experience of "flavor" comes from.

So any time anyone eats or drinks anything for the pleasure of good flavor, they're primarily concentrating on their sense of smell.

By: CrazyLemonade

CrazyLemonade — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:36:08 -0800

Are there any ways in which people focus on enjoying the sense of smell, by itself, solely for the leisure/pleasure aspect of the sensation?

Yes. I do this myself sometimes. I get real pleasure from some smells, and not just from a whiff, but from a prolongued focus on the smell. For example, I can't get enough of the scent in the air when "you just know" it's about to rain.

Unfortunately, it is really easy to become accustomed to a smell (sorry, can't remember from my psychology class, but there is a name for this) unless you continually increase the magnitude of the smell. So unlike looking at something pretty for a long time, smelling something for a long time will eventually lead to you not perceiving that scent anymore.

Googling tells me it might me called olfactory adaptation

By: CrazyLemonade

CrazyLemonade — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:37:15 -0800

Upps

"might me called..." should be "might be called"

By: magikker

magikker — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:38:10 -0800

cigars...

By: milarepa

milarepa — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:42:18 -0800

People smell flowers for the fun of it all the time.

What I think you're getting at is that there doesn't seem to be any art form built around the sense of smell, whereas all the others have something pretty well developed, like music, paintings, etc. (I am thinking massage for touch.)

In the book, Against Nature (A Rebours) by Joris-Karl Huysmans, I believe) a process of smelling something is attempted to be turned into an art form by the main character.

By: lekvar

lekvar — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:42:38 -0800

Well, there's potporri, scratch & sniff books...
Myself, I can sit and sniff jasmin blooms forever. I'll walk blocks out of my way for a good jasmin bush.

By: The God Complex

The God Complex — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:45:40 -0800

Ikkyu2 and Dee are right: most of flavor is smell, not taste. We have the ability to distinguish between 4 and 6 things (number is disputed; some also think there's a sensor for presence of fat, and some don't believe in umami) with our tongues, but estimates are that we can distinguish over a thousand different things with our noses.

Exactly. This is why, as a child, you're prompted to plug your nose when you have to swallow something particularly nasty (cough medicine, etc.).

By: ottereroticist

ottereroticist — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:49:32 -0800

You clearly don't know any perfume geeks. Perfume is an ancient and complex art form, and its enthusiasts ardently pursue, savor, discuss, and compare olfactory experiences.

In fact, for my birthday yesterday, my partner made me a Monclin, which is a device designed to enhance the experience of smelling perfume.

By: andraste

andraste — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:49:43 -0800

I'm a fairly smell-focused person. There are certain things I will smell just for the pleasure of it. For instance, I'm a knitter and I like the sheepy smell of wool. Often I'll get a skein of wool and bring it to my nose just to inhale deeply. The wool is not bought purely for the smell, but there's no reason for me to purposely sniff it other than pleasure. There are other things I sniff for enjoyment, like my cat's paws, or stone fruit (I'm not mad keen on eating it but I love the smell).

I also often put on an aromatherapy vaporiser just for the pleasure rather than to mask smells or for the therapeutic effect.

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:51:02 -0800

But do people ever sit around and smell something just for the pleasure of it?

Yes. Perfumes come to mind and creating them is as much Art as Science. I highly recommend the book Emperor of Scent

Also I got one of these for my birthday - Le Nez du Vin. I highly recommend it as a great gift too.

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:55:13 -0800

It probably hasn't been true for 20 years or more, but when I was in elementary school, instead of xerox handouts, the teachers used mimeograph machines, which produced copies using a chemical process. All the kids would huff the handouts because the papers still contained some of the chemical odor.

And then there were magic markers, too.

But huffing is bad, kids. Don't huff. And stay in school.

By: eunoia

eunoia — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:57:35 -0800

I burn incense to smell it and not to cover up other smells. There are times when I do use it for that purpose, but usually I'm just jonesing for scent. I crave Nag Champa nonstop. Sigh.

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:58:12 -0800

Oh, and there was more to buidling model airplanes than learning about fuselage construction, iykwIm, aItyd.

By: The God Complex

The God Complex — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 16:02:06 -0800

I always enjoyed the smell of old books, though that may in fact be a sense memory more than anything else (it reminds me places I loved as a child).

Many people enjoy the smell of leather (jackets, wallets, etc.). As andraste points out with wool, these are things that aren't necessarily purchased for the express purpose of smelling, but the act of smelling them is, in fact, a direct impulse.

What I think you're getting at is that there doesn't seem to be any art form built around the sense of smell, whereas all the others have something pretty well developed, like music, paintings, etc. (I am thinking massage for touch.)

Massage is not an artform, really. We have visual arts and aural arts, as you pointed out, and those that fuse the two (specifically film and television). One could, I suppose, make an argument that something like a theme park is in some way a "feel" art; that is, the manipulation of the subject experiencing the "performance" for a desired outcome--but something like that lacks the seriousness that art is usually known for.

Taste in art would probably be covered by food. There is definitely an art to a well constructed meal; it just doesn't necessarily strike us as art because it's a necessity (and, likely, because we rarely eat a meal that's constructed with such a coherent synergy purpose in mind). And, as was mentioned, smell is actually the most vital part of our "taste" experience.

By: thehmsbeagle

thehmsbeagle — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 16:05:23 -0800

I don't use perfume or home scents because my pulse points or my house smell gross without them, but because I derive physical and emotional pleasure from odors I think are nice.

I also like to smell clothes that were dried outside. And hot asphalt that just got rained on. One of my favorite smells is the way a (clean) freezer smells. The way I experience the pleasure of smelling these things (OKAY THEY'RE WEIRD, particularly the freezer-air thing) is pretty close to the way it's pleasurable for me to listen to a favorite song.

Also. I'm trying to think how to word this, but: there's a certain combination of a man's natural scent and cologne that is Very Very Good. And I will happily sniff it for quite some time. I think this is vaguely analogous to a more visually-oriented person - say, a dude - happily looking at nekkid pictures of a cute girl. (Sorry if that's gross.)

Finally, I find that when I'm trying to pinpoint a smell - "Is something burning?" or "Whose perfume is that?" - I need to minimize other sensory input. Uh, I'll close my eyes and cover my ears. (Is that weird? OKAY. It's weird.) So I think maybe we tend to be less consciously aware of our sense of smell, but I think it's something you can develop, perhaps?

By: ottereroticist

ottereroticist — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 16:06:23 -0800

And then there's incense, the making and appreciation of which has a long history in Japanese culture.

By: TorontoSandy

TorontoSandy — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 16:07:14 -0800

Hey Dave Faris - do you remember the scene from Fast Times at Ridgemont High where the teacher hands out a mimeographed test and the first thing everyone in the class does is pick it up and smell it? So true. I remember dong the same thing as a kid.

By: The God Complex

The God Complex — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 16:09:03 -0800

Oh, I forgot something on the theme park front. There's actually a ride at California Adventure that utilizes smell. You're sitting on a row of seats that are lifted about thirty to forty feet in the air in front of a giant Imax-esque screen. The seats throughout the video of California's landscape. In addition to the sight, sound, and touch involved with the ride, they also pump in several smells through the show. I can't rightly recall what they were, but one of them was a forest smell (pine trees, perhaps?). Either way, it was a clear attempt to appeal to all the senses of the subject.

By: hincandenza

hincandenza — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 16:11:56 -0800

Oh- and anyone who's ever walked through a Vegas Strip casino, especially the Venetian, knows that the sense of smell is played to quite a great deal- perhaps because it is simultaneously so powerful, and so subversive/subconscious.

By: Araucaria

Araucaria — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 16:13:15 -0800

I'm eagerly awaiting the release of the new Apple nosePod, which will play OP3s (olfactory protocol version 3).

By: Araucaria

Araucaria — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 16:14:00 -0800

Shades of Citizen Kane ... would you hook into a nosePod using noseBuds?

By: Araucaria

Araucaria — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 16:19:59 -0800

To answer the question more seriously, I think the main reason we don't have single-sense olfactory options is that it is very difficult to isolate one person's olfactory experience from another's. Haven't you ever had the experience of being overpowered by a co-worker's bad and overpowering choice of perfume? And just today, one part of the building reeked of wintergreen because someone put on some muscle rub. You can put on an eye mask to screen out unwanted light, earplugs to screen out unwanted noise, gloves and clothing to avoid unwelcome touch, but if you plug your nose, you have problems breathing.

By: theora55

theora55 — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 16:43:46 -0800

I just bought fresh cardamom (as opposed to the stale cardamom in the cupboard, ground cardamom, from Wild Oats, not a plant) because I love the way it smells, and use it as my own aromatherapy.

I choose some garden plants for aroma - Lily of the valley, rosa rugosa & lilac, plus lots of different mints, thyme, scented geraniums, rosemary & sages. I cook with some of them, but grow them primarily for their scent.

Seamus, your Mom sounds really cool.

By: Paragon

Paragon — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 16:47:46 -0800

Look for sensory gardens, also known as blind gardens or scented gardens. These gardens focus primarily on smell and texture, and are an absolute delight to walk through.

By: magicbus

magicbus — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 16:58:06 -0800

I've got a large box of crayons in my desk drawer at work that I bought just so I'd be able to take them out and smell them. My officemate will peel and eat citrus fruits, then leave the peels sitting out on his desk for a while just because they smell good. I think that many people do this sort of thing.

Several people have mentioned valid-sounding reasons for the lack of more elaborate scent-based experiences: olfactory fatigue and the difficulty of finding aromas that are pleasant or evocative for everyone.

By: oflinkey

oflinkey — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 17:42:46 -0800

Do anecdotes help? I used to sit in my parents old attic for extended time (maybe 15-30 minutes) when I was helping them move from the house. The attic was where we kept holiday stuff (Christmas, Halloween, Easter) and the smell of the attic is the smell of festivities, anticipation, love and holiday all put together. I knew I would never smell it again, so I tried to get up there a few times to enjoy the smell while I could. The attic was empty, so I was not going up there to look at anything at all.

I would not imagine I am alone in this sort of thing.

By: DarkForest

DarkForest — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 18:24:27 -0800

Ferrets! (really!)

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 18:26:02 -0800

I'm a bit of a perfume geek, and I spent half hour with four good candles I bought picking apart all the notes and reading the labels. It's a perfectly legitimate way for me to spend my time, trying to pin down smells and then taking another whiff and changing my mind - that instead of being orange and vetiver, it's tangerine and amber or whatever. I sniff random objects to so this sometimes too. they're very hard to deconstruct beause of being chemically, usually.

In my town, we have a place called The Perfumer's Apprentice where you can go for $15 and sip tea, eat cookies, and compose perfume to take away. I love it. Of course, you have to cleanse your olfactory palate (by sniffing coffee beans or wool). I also won a baby shower contest once successfully identifying unlabeled baby food by being the only person able to pinpoint that one was plum and pear, not just pear. I cannot pass a datura or jasmine plant without stopping. It's like looking at a pretty girl.

By: Listener

Listener — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 18:27:23 -0800

The Glade thing is so incredibly crude and repulsively solventy that I doubt anyone at all attuned to scents would be interested in focussing on it. Complex scents are not very controllable over time. The chemicals change constantly. It would be my nightmare if there were yet more sources of man-made scent activities invading my space. It would be toxic, I have no doubt.

I doubt human scent-engineers could really capture the moss and lichen smells wafting from dripping cliffs out over the saltwater, nor could they capture the experience of paddling that ocean and being hit with gusts of that delicious complex. Compared with that of other animals our sense of smell is crude, and we consider smells as an often subliminal part of a bigger picture or mostly focus it towards food, rather than getting into the intricacies of the homemade monclin and really paying attention. (That was cool!) We have more important (grosser) things to pay attention to.

By: misozaki

misozaki — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 18:39:03 -0800

But do people ever sit around and smell something just for the pleasure of it?

Yes. ottereroticist mentioned it above, but it's called koudou in Japan.

By: MadamM

MadamM — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 19:28:55 -0800

If I remember my psychology correctly, scent is the only sense routed directly through to the brain. For many people, scents are strongly related to memory, more strongly than other senses. I absolutely smell things for pleasure, and the particular scents of people are one of my favorite things (yeah, I know that sounds weird). I've experienced deja vu about something that I smelled in a dream.

By: tastybrains

tastybrains — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 19:32:37 -0800

Hand lotion - I buy hand lotion that smells good not because it's better than less delightfully scented lotions (because the best lotion is that udder cream stuff and that I don't recall having any scent at all). But I love to slather myself with a heavenly smelling lotion before bed so I can drift off to sleep smelling like a million bucks.

Same thing with shampoo - I will buy a shampoo because of the way it makes my hair smell. And then I will sniff my own hair when no one is looking.

By: paddingtonb

paddingtonb — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 19:39:56 -0800

The Jews have a special celebration to awaken the senses after Shabbat, called havdalah. In addition to a lit candle and a glass of wine, a metal box with small holes in the sides is filled with spices and passed around. The box has a couple bells on the outside which ring as it gets passed, so you have all the senses covered. The cinnamon sticks and nutmeg are there specifically for the scent factor. When it gets to you, you shake it for the ringing and take a big whiff. This was one of my favorite holidays growing up.

By: phoenixc

phoenixc — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 20:35:45 -0800

Might I suggest picking up a copy of Diane Ackerman's A Natural History of the Senses? It's a fantastic study of the five senses using biology, psychology, and a whole bunch of other -ologies. Ch. 19 in her An Alchemy of Mind also references smell and memory.

By: truenorth

truenorth — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 20:37:37 -0800

It's been on hiatus for a little while, but there's a site called Smell of the Day that you might be interested in reading.

By: ranchgirl7

ranchgirl7 — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 20:53:24 -0800

I will go out of my way to drive by a freshly cut alfalfa field, stop, get out & just inhale that amazing scent. That creates a form of ecstasy & euphoria for me. Ditto with rain.

By: crinklebat

crinklebat — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 21:18:37 -0800

My mom literally never bakes without taking a huge whiff of the vanilla extract. She loves that smell.

And, hey, just last night I worked myself up into total euphoria due to the great combination of smelling fog and playing with a new slinky. I walked in the door grinning, with numb hands.

By: barmaljova

barmaljova — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 22:35:47 -0800

it sounds like the novel "Perfume" would be an absolutely perfect read for you - I just finished it and I highly recommend it!

see the Amazon page here

By: misteraitch

misteraitch — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 03:35:47 -0800

As milarepa mentions above, you should check out chapter 10 of Huysmans' À Rebours (there's a project Gutenberg edition of an old English translation here). In a similar vein is Piesse's Smell Organ8230;

By: Scoo

Scoo — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 07:08:11 -0800

I'm a book smeller myself. Visiting The Million Year Picnic in Harvard Square was a regular thing for me me all through my teens and twenties, the smell of new comics was intoxicating.

Also: New Car Smell! I believe this can now be purchased in aerosol form to keep your car smell factory fresh.

Also: This may not be unique to Apple, but when opening the box of a new Mac you get that plastics aroma. Mmmmm, new Mac smell.

By: koudelka

koudelka — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 07:15:27 -0800

The trick to using your sense of smell is not to try.

Don't think about a white elephant!

By: freshwater_pr0n

freshwater_pr0n — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 08:14:58 -0800

This is fictional, of course, but in the movie "Harold and Maude," Maude shows Harold a machine she invented that puts scents in sort of a narrative framework.

By: vytae

vytae — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 08:48:41 -0800

Ooh, freshwater_pr0n beat me to the Harold and Maude reference.

I will point you to this blog posting about Piesse's Smell Organ, "a contraption that may or may not have actually been constructed, consisted of a row of perfume atomizers actuated by piano keys. The odors were projected towards the listener/smeller by a steady stream of compressed air."

By: booksandlibretti

booksandlibretti — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 20:51:16 -0800

I use an electric tart warmer, and put it on not to cover up anything else, but just to enjoy the scent of the tart. I don't sit in front of it with my eyes closed just to smell it, but I am very mindful of it.

I can never pass a Yankee Candle shop without going in and sampling as many scents as possible. I have trouble passing Bath & Body Works stores for the same reason (and I do go in specifically to smell, not to apply samples).

And like everyone else, when I'm doing anything involving good-smelling stuff, I stick my face in it -- I take a hit of vanilla whenever I'm baking, I bury my face in laundry whenever I get it out of the dryer, and I break a few leaves from a mint plant whenever I pass it.

As for all the "we can't have nasal inserts because we'd still smell subway," I'm not so sure. Your earbuds do a pretty good job of blocking out the subway, and if it's not perfect, it's still an improvement. The real trouble is that sounds are made of waves, while scents are made of molecules.