On Scent…
Scent. I’m a big fan of it. Wear some when you come to see me. Better yet, bring me some. 
Scent is part of your personal Experience. and I approve heartily. It’s one of the quickest and most enduring paths to our memory (neurologically speaking) so it may even help me to remember you.
If all I can think about for the rest of the day is coconut, and whether I should spell it “cocoanut” when I blog this, you’ve done yourself no favors in my memory banks.
All things in moderation, okay?
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
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25 October 2008, 9:49 am
@Kellyi
I can’t comment much about this topic. I have no sense of smell.
Ever since I could remember. Turns out it’s a medical condition…something slightly out of whack in the olfactory part of my brain. It’s not serious…it’s a mild medical curiosity.
Coconut, fresh baking, garlic, wood fire smoke, home cooking, fresh cut flowers, perfumes…means nothing to me.
But on the other hand, neither can I smell skunks, road kill, body odor, stinky outhouses or lethal farts.
Makes for some interesting stories.
Like when I was sitting merrily at my desk in the lab at university, working away, when everyone else was running out of the building because of a Hydrogen Sulfide Leak.
Or a girlfriend getting mad at me, because she put on expensive perfume, and thought I was inconsiderate for “not noticing”!
Doesn’t really bother me, though. You can’t miss what you never had.
25 October 2008, 7:26 pm
OH MY GOD, Friar, is this true?! THAT IS AWFUL!! At least, to me. So you’ve never smelled camp fire, really?? Or decaying leaves on a damp fall day? Vanilla-scented laundry? Fresh bread? Rain? A lovely girl? I would die if I couldn’t smell. (Some men’s colognes…man, I don’t care what you look like, you could still bring me to my knees…)(Er, take that as you will, but be nice.)
Like Kelly, I’m very very very big on fragrance (notice I didn’t say odours!). Smell is one of the most significant things to me. It can sell a house, make or break my experience in a store, evoke the best memories. Unlike you, my sense of smell is quite heightened. My friends think I’m a freak because I can smell things from a mile away. Sometimes it is a pain, though, like yes, when C or Lucy lets a lethal one go, or when I need laundry stuff. I can’t do the laundry/air freshener aisle. It’s just too strong! And it’s rare that a woman’s perfume that’s too strong is ever nice.
steph’s last blog post…Reawake
25 October 2008, 9:18 pm
Hmmm….Kelly’s noticeably absent today (Is she taking a time-out?)
@Steph
Oh well. To me, it dosen’t seem so awful, because I never had it in the first place. (But if I had a sense of smell and then LOST it…well, THAT would suck!)
To give you an idea of how bad it is. Years ago, I had played hockey. After I showered and changed, I put my sweat-soaked underwear in my hockey bag, and took it home.
I forgot about it, and found my sweaty clothes a week later, in a plastic bag, with my other junk in the closet. Still soaking wet, and it had been fermenting for all that time.
I tried an experiment…figuring that probably really reeks. Let’s test myself. I put my face over the bag, and inhaled deeply..and…
NOTHING!!! Not a whiff. NADA!
Well, I guess if I couldn’t smell THAT, I certainly can’t detect campfire and oven-fresh cinammon buns.
26 October 2008, 10:05 pm
Kelly, I love scents too. I sniff everything that I buy and it can be a great product but if I don’t like the smell, fuhgeddaboutit! Smells really do activate the other senses and have the ability to calm, energize, inspire and so much more. Just reading the word coconut had me closing my eyes feeling rays of sunshine on my body as I sip a cool drink brought to me by a equally delicious man. Ahhhhh…
Karen Swim’s last blog post…Come on Big Head, Let’s Roll!
27 October 2008, 12:23 am
Where IS Kelly?
She posts something, then takes off!
27 October 2008, 9:14 am
@Steph–
Oh I’m the same way! I wanted to freak out my s/o one day, so when we were in a crowd, I picked people out (without them knowing) and named the fragrances that they were wearing. It was hilarious–the s/o thought that I was a mutant!
My sense of smell is so important to me–it evokes memories, tells me when kitty is frightened, and helps me distinguish foods that look similar.
27 October 2008, 9:30 am
Hi All,
Internet is messed up, trying to deal with it (& with everything that piles up when your Internet is messed up) remotely right now. I promise to be back later to say something more intelligent than this, I just don’t want you thinking I’d fallen off the planet.
Regards,
Kelly
27 October 2008, 11:22 am
Perfumes? Pure poison to me. Instant headache. I can’t go into any store that has scents in it. Fabric softener? Please don’t put it on my linen, I will be quite ill. Enter in an elevator with a someone who bathed in the stuff, I damn near pass out.
That being said, the Lion uses aftershave, and body talc, that is very very subtle, and I love the smell of him.
Everything in moderation? When it comes to perfumes, barely barely there is more than enough for me.
And just out of curiosity, why do we try to cover up natural smells. I don’t mean farts or truly bad b.o. But what is wrong with the scent of a clean human body or clean laundry, or a clean house? Why do we have to add stuff?
28 October 2008, 9:06 am
I hope those internet problems are fixed soon.
Dammit, I need my dose of Comment Discussion on Kelly’s blog!
28 October 2008, 2:35 pm
Dr. Experience is here, finally, and I think the rounds of problems are fixed. Dose of comment discussion on its way:
Friar,
Oh, I can not imagine how my life would be different if I had no sense of smell. I can definitely be brought to my knees by good ones, like Steph, or moved to tears by horrid ones. It used to be a party trick where I worked to stump Kelly with your lunch in the microwave, me two rooms away in my office.
*sniff, sniff* “Tuna on toast.”
*sniff, sniff* “Pasta with Thai basil.”
I’m overly sensitive, no doubt, but except you, poor thing, we’re all heavily, subconsciously influenced by it, so science tells me, whether we notice it or not.
On the other hand, I have no 3D perception because one eye is legally blind, and that doesn’t bother me at all, so you’re right, what you don’t have, you don’t miss.
Still, I wouldn’t trade knowing whether the ball you throw at me is going to hit me in the head for being able to smell the grass in the field. I feel for you.
So I’m curious… you don’t *smell* things per se, but do you get sensations from the scents around you? Like when everyone was evacuating, did you have a bell going off in your head saying “something’s wrong”? In other words, does scent trigger any of the usual responses, even if it doesn’t consciously register?
And food! Oh, what a different thing it must be to eat without input from your proboscis! Don’t they say that 70% of taste is really smell? Ouch!
Steph,
Yes, yes, and yes. I’m with you. Especially about things that are too strong (ack! I hate laundry sheets!). Whatever this new perfume is that smells so strongly of coconut, I wish it would die before another bottle is sold. It’s a crime against noses.
Karen,
What an image! Now I can smell your delicious man. I assure you, coconut-chick did not give me the same warm toasty feelings. Now I smell Coppertone on a dude inside my head, I’m in a whole different mood. LOL!
RLD,
Ha! Now that is a combo of great sense of smell and great memory for fragrance names. I can tell you a few of my faves as I walk around, but mainly I just get my head turned by them. Nice party trick there!
Panther,
Poison? Barely barely? Oh, dear. For me, it’s quality. I like good scent from subtle to a bit strongly applied. Of course too much is… too much. But bad scent just turns my stomach, and there’s far more cheap awful stuff than there is good, complex stuff, so if everyone with awful stuff on their shelf would apply barely, that would work for me.
Of course I should get to decide what’s awful, in my ideal world…
I like a clean human as well as the next person, but I guess to me it’s like a fresh haircut (shh, I need one) or a nice suit. It’s just making the experience a little richer, demonstrating attention to detail, and, if pleasant, it can say something nice about you, too.
Men and women add all sorts of stuff: clothing, shoes, jewelry, ladies’ makeup (except for naturally gorgeous Urban Panthers who don’t need any). Scent is another layer of interest, one that I would miss if it weren’t around.
Glad your Lion is on your scent wavelength. That’s a critical factor when I’m out hunting Big Cats!
Regards and thanks for picking up the slack for me during my Internet nightmare, dear readers,
Kelly
28 October 2008, 3:42 pm
Okay, I soooooo needed this post, Kelly. I am craving a new bottle of scent as we speak. Yep. Hitting Nordy’s real soon. I have to watch out, allergies to a lot, but when it is right, yum. Karen, can I have one of those deliciously scented guys serving me a drink while I shop? And Steph..I Know what you mean. Dated this so wrong for me guy, but honestly, he wore the most wonderfully subtle scent he picked up at Lake Como …sheesh, had me at the get go. I think it was just bottled pheromones.
Panther, I LOVE the smell of clean… just clean, too.
And don’t we notice a place when we walk in if it smells right, and doubly so if it doesn’t?
Friar, too bad scents aren’t colors. You could sense them then.
Phew, all over scent..hm, puts me in a happy place.
Janice Cartier’s last blog post…Ladder on the Right Wall
28 October 2008, 3:57 pm
@Kelly
I still taste food, though probably not as great as the rest of the planet.
Once, my sister-in-law deliberately made me the most pungent-garlic enfused stir fry, to try to titilate my taste buds. The odor was so strong they said you could almost taste it.
My verdict? I found it salty-bland. Meh. (I think she was going to clobber me).
Things like raw broccoli…? Might as well eat styofoam. I rely on lots of salt (and strong tastes…like tomato, as in pasta, etc.)
But like I said…I dont’ know what I’m missing (the same as you and your eye).
Arrr! (Do you have to wear a pirate eye-patch?)
Friar’s last blog post…Friar-O-Lanters (Part IV)
28 October 2008, 6:50 pm
Friar,
OMG I could never cook for you. I am a chef-narcissist, and I require validation. I’m with your sister-in-law—I’d (try to understand but) want to clobber you!
No, when I was a kid they thought it was a lazy eye so I spent a lot of afternoons trying to do homework with a patch on the *good* eye, supposedly to strengthen it (very attractive, I recommend it to all 8-year-olds…), but it turns out that was hogwash. It doesn’t see much but shapes and colors, and if the other one’s not closed it basically doesn’t try to send conflicting info to my brain. No patch, no googly-eye stuff, ha ha, and unless someone sneaks up on me on that side, or wishes I could see a 3D movie, people don’t know.
Though I do get motion sick very, very easily, and I suspect it has to do with having no depth perception. That people notice, in cars, at amusement parks, near water….
Heh, everybody’s got their quirks. That’s (one of) mine.
Later,
Kelly
28 October 2008, 6:58 pm
Oops, oops, hi Janice!
Did you see the Today Show (a few years ago) when Matt Lauer was finding out how fragrances are designed? I don’t remember the whole thing, I think he went to France and hung out with a “nose” (an official smeller) to learn about things, then the kicker was a study some company did to find out what scent would really drive men WILD, so they could bottle it and get ladies to run and buy it. They did some weird I-don’t want-to-know-how-it’s-done arousal tests. They tested everything.
The answer, because I know you want to go buy just the right thing to make those Texans’ blood boil:
The smell of pumpkin pie.
I never forgot it.
Try sticking that behind your ears! Yikes!
Until later,
Kelly
29 October 2008, 2:22 pm
LOL- I heard about that, but had forgotten. And I was thinking some Hermes Caleche this weekend, or cruising Annick Goutal….maybe I should just bake instead of hitting Nordy’s.
Janice Cartier’s last blog post…Ladder on the Right Wall
29 October 2008, 2:33 pm
Janice,
I keep mushing it behind my ears but y’know, then the necking never gets to the neck… munch, munch.
*ahem*
Later,
Kelly
29 October 2008, 6:26 pm
That can be so distracting…and by the time you get the lemon zest rubbed on the espresso cup.. well, it just turns into a whole ‘nother kind of evening…;-)
Janice Cartier’s last blog post…Ladder on the Right Wall
6 November 2008, 11:38 am
It is a treat to folks chatting about my favorite topic on this blog. Our culture is so focused on sight and sound - poor smell, the orphan sense! But people who lose it report depression, decreased enjoyment, inability to concentrate and disconnectedness from others. Rachel Herz writes about this at length in her book, The Scent of Desire.
The politics of scent are challenging. I love perfume but go light out of respect for others. Still, I always enjoy it when someone else has the nerve to apply a massive dose. The majority is not with me on this. Witness the rise of the “right to a scent free environment” movement (BreathFreeorDie.com). We need to respect those with migraines, allergies, multiple chemical sensitivities. Many people enjoy good smells, but only on their own terms!
Famed perfume critic Luca Turin once said of his favorite scent: Guerlain’s Mitsouko, that he doubted many women died form wearing too much of it, while many babies were born as the result…
The power of scent has not escaped marketers and scent branding is the rage in hotels, casinos and retail. Custom combinations of linden, green tea, geranium and cedar, ginger and white tea, bergamot and jasmine, lavender and sage, and hyacinth boost consumer mood, promote loyalty, longer stays in stores and enhanced perception of goods and services. Avery Gilbert covers this brilliantly in his “Zombies at the Mall” chapter of What The Nose, Knows (a pop science book I really enjoyed). Gilbert cautions that scent branding is only effective when the scent is not only pleasant, but also thematically aligned with the product or service it is designed to promote.
Other books on the topic are Whiff! The Revolution of Scent Communication in the Information Age, by C. Russell Brumfield and Brand Sense: Build Powerful Brands Through Touch, Taste, Smell, Sight and Sound by Martin Lindstrom. Scenterprises, run by scent expert Sue Phillips, is an example of a company devoted to environmental scenting.
But you really shouldn’t get me started on smell… I am so into it that I abandoned a good corporate job to teach people the language of scent and help women and men find the perfume that will bring them pleasure.
Laura Donna’s last blog post…For The Pet Who Has Everything
6 November 2008, 9:55 pm
Laura,
Welcome to Maximum Customer Experience!
He he, I seem to have gotten you started. That’s fine, it’s one of my favorite subjects! Glad to have both your opinion and your list of resources here. I agree about BrandSense, it’s a great book.
Thanks very much for your comment.
Regards,
Kelly