I’ve been writing a story for a little while now, and happened to a scene where one character needed to put on a Christmas-y smelling perfume. I’ve already written a few lines here and there about pine tree scent and cranberries and such hackneyed things, but I wondered, okay, what does a Christmas-y perfume smell like?
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Disclaimer here, I have anosmia, which means no sense of smell. Zero. Never have and doubtlessly never will smell a single thing; good or bad. It’s just one of those quirky things that makes us all different.
Actually, since I’ve never smelled anything, I don’t have a clue what I am missing out on, which is okay in my book. On the flip side, I did nearly burn the house down once and did try cooking a bagel in the microwave for five minutes once. Both ended kind of badly since I had my back turned away and did not notice the black smoke directly behind me. So lessons learned. It could have been worse on both counts.
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Yet, on the other hand, I also don’t know how to describe everyday things. Fresh cut grass for example. I’ve heard it smells good, but it’s very hard to research what it really does smell like. I’ve heard flowers and fresh baked goods are pleasant. Again, hard to pinpoint exactly what makes them good. The list is endless.
Same for bad. What makes a fart bad? How come some are bad and some are not even noticed? How long does the scent linger in the air from bad odors? Why do people say a dog smells like a dog? What is it supposed to smell like? If the air outside is smoky and smelly, and you open the windows to air something out, wouldn’t that same smoky and smelly stink get inside? And if so, how do you get it out?
I have so many questions regarding smells, it would literally take days for researching them all or someone to explain this stuff to me. But back to my Christmas-y perfume quandary for the story. I found this place on line that makes oils, candles, and all sorts of things for every scent possible. Literally every scent one could want.
I was in awe. They have Christmas scents, childhood scents, pet scents, (ya know I had to check that one out) masculine scents, Easter scents, spa scents, and on and on and on. Oh my stars! It was like Narnia or something. I kept clicking away, trying to figure out what made these things smell good. Again, not much to work with in the understanding department, but I was trying.
And some of these scents just made no sense. (Yes, pun intended)
Doodlebug. Boogeyman. Bite me. (Vampire) Black tie. Best friends. Bermuda triangle. Elf sweat. Aliens. How in the devil does one know what those things smell like? How can one make a candle, or whatever that smells like that? Yeah, hey, come on over and sniff my new boogeyman candle. What do ya think? Just like the real boogeyman, right?
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But aside from the improbable scents to nail down, they had an impressive array of things that sent me scrambling for a notepad and pen. Coffee scents is a big one that that stumps me. It smelled like coffee. Not good enough. The chocolate page is great, but it made me want to run to the kitchen for some chocolate. Men’s cologne is another one that stumps me. Now I have some names in my arsenal. Not sure what they all are, but I can work with what I now have.
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And the impressive thing is there are other holiday scents I can tap into and even events if need be. And this is just one site I discovered. What if there are other pages like this one, dedicated to describing the scents that go into making sense of the smells? Really?
I am just in awe.
Ryan Jo Summers 