It has always been my favorite smell and recently I found out it is called petrichor. This is the one smell I would love to have around me always - to remind me of childhood and the home I have left far behind - favorite smells can trigger the most pleasurable nostalgia.
Like Mrs de Winter said to her husband in Rebecca: “I wish there could have been an invention that bottled up a memory, like perfume, and it never faded, never got stale. Then whenever I wanted to, I could uncork the bottle and live the memory all over again.”
That wish can now come true thanks to Demeter Fragrances that wish can possibly come true. Earthworm is a close approximation of petrichor. Then there is New Zealand to bottle the essence of the country itself.
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4 comments:
Ah, fascinating, I wasn't aware there was an English word for it. The Tamil word for it is as beautiful as the smell itself: mann vasanai
Literally, earth fragrance.
I don't know what it is about smell, it seems to evoke a much stronger sense of nostalgia. The whiff of a familiar fragrance or odor even. Maybe because it's not as much tangible as an object that we can see and feel.
Quite a coincidence.
That is my all time favourite smell too, but I never even dreamt it could have a name.
Thanks for introducing me to a new word, and rekindling the memories associated with that gorgeous smell.
Thanks for reminding me the word...! When I read the meaning, the word 'mann vasanai' came to my mind (like Suchi has said)!
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