The Top 10 Most Incredible Smells

Scented Treasures: The Top 10 Most Incredible Smells

Every city, let me teach you, has its own smell.” So said E. M. Forster in A Room With A View. As a hobbyist perfumer I am fascinated by smell—particularly the smells of history.It was a precious and rare vial of the 1905 perfume, L’Origan, that decided me on the hobby. I opened the box in which it had been delivered and was immediately enveloped in the scent that led one newspaper reporter to exclaim: “All Paris smells of L’Origan!” The perfume had leaked slightly. It was a moment of ecstasy. I was smelling the world as people long past had smelled it. The men who made this fragrance were now just footnotes on the fading pages of history . . . but this was their legacy and I, now, was a part of it.

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From that day forth perfume and the scent of the world became my absolute obsession. I acquired all of the rarest and most unusual perfumes and ingredients I could and began to make my own fragrances. I even published many of my perfume formulas online. I focussed all of my attention on understanding odor: its psychological effect on us and the intensely powerful control it has over our sense of memory.TOP 10 INCREDIBLE SOUND ILLUSIONSAs a 16 year old, my first vacation to Europe blew my mind. But it wasn’t the Eiffel Tower, Buckingham Palace, or the Venetian canals that stayed with me long after the trip ended—it was the mundane aspects of life: the things that locals take for granted: the color of road markings and signs, the posters in shop windows, the local snack foods, and the sounds and—most-significantly—smells of the place.

And that leads us to this list. Herein is a compilation of ten significant places and things and the smells of them. Please be advised, some of the content in this list is disturbing.Afterword: happily I can report that in 2022 I finally went from hobbyist to professional and launched Frater Perfumes a luxury perfume house.

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10) Space

Space is a vacuum; it shouldn’t have a smell. And yet it does. First off, there is a giant ball of sweet fruity rum smelling gas right in the center of the galaxy (the chemical is called Ethyl Formate). Why is it there? No one knows. From reports of astronauts we know that other odors of space are also food related with some referring to it as sulfurous and meaty. And another astronaut, Thomas Jones, has reported: “When you repressurize the airlock and get out of your suit, there is a distinct odor of ozone, a faint acrid smell, [ . . . ] also similar to burnt gunpowder or the ozone smell of electrical equipment.”[1]International Space Station Science Officer, Don Pettit had his own observations: “The best description I can come up with is metallic; a rather pleasant sweet metallic sensation. It reminded me of my college summers where I labored for many hours with an arc welding torch repairing heavy equipment for a small logging outfit. It reminded me of pleasant sweet smelling welding fumes. That is the smell of space.”[2]Obviously in a vacuum you can’t smell anything directly, but there are millions of particles floating around that do have a scent and it is when they adhere to the suits worn by the astronauts or enter through the airlocks that these observations are made. Interestingly NASA has tried to replicate the scent on earth as part of their training for future astronauts.

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9 ) Sundry Planets

While we are on the subject of outer space: what about the planets? We can guess roughly the odor of the different planets due to the chemical composition of their atmospheres.Venus smells of rotten eggs due to the clouds of sulfuric acid in the atmosphere, and similarly sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide is the cause of Mars and Uranus smelling the same.[3]Jupiter: because each layer of its atmosphere is made up of different chemicals, the scent depends on where you are. In some layers you will smell delightful bitter almonds due to the not-so-delightful hydrogen cyanide, while in other layers (the ones near the top) you’ll smell the foul smell of ammonia (cleaning products). That almond-like smell of cyanide actually occurs naturally in flowers like jasmine in the (basically harmless) form of benzyl cyanide.[4]The rest of the planets are mostly without a distinct scent due to atmospheres of largely odorless gasses.

8) Death

When a person lays dying, one of the most common odors emitted is that of acetone (the very fruity smelling chemical that is used as nail polish remover). In some cases, however, that is combined with unpleasant odors resulting from the particular illness the person is dying from.Once death has arrived, the body begins to decompose and a number of rather appropriately named chemicals emerge: cadaverine and putrescine are the first and, as their names suggest, they smell of rotting flesh and putrescence! Why do our bodies release these chemicals? Some believe that it is an evolutionary trait designed to be a warning beacon to others that danger is near. It is believed to spark off the flight or fight mechanism in humans.[5]Other chemicals are also released: hydrogen sulfide smells like rotten eggs; skatole smells like feces; Methanethiol smells like rotten cabbage; and dimethyl sulfide smells like garlic. A veritable cocktail of vile vapors. Would you be revolted to know that these are all used as food additives and are also used in many perfumes? A little stink adds a lot of beauty to an otherwise sterile combination of ingredients. In nature, these foul additives occur in flowers to attract insects—and similarly they attract us.

7) Versailles Palace

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First off, the grossly maligned Queen Marie Antoinette of France did not say “let them eat cake!”. I hesitate to mention it because every website in the world has now copied our list of historical myths from 2007 in which we taught the internet this little fact, but twelve years later we have a new audience so it bears repeating just in case.Queen Marie, and her husband King Louis XVI, lived in Versailles Palace. It is a magnificent place that I strongly recommend you visit when you are next in France. We all imagine that life was full of delightful perfumes, pastries, princes, and pompadours but what we don’t imagine are the other two ‘p’s: piss, and poop. Plumbing was rather lacking in the 18th century and Versailles Palace had minimal built in facilities (flush toilets were in the royal apartments only). As a consequence when nature called, the main option was a little porcelain pot called a bourdaloue. Women had no underwear so they just hitched up their skirts and went to town (as you see in the image above). But the palace is big and sometimes people would be caught unawares. In those cases a quiet corner would suffice. After all, servants would clean up after you later. Combined with the smoke from failing chimneys and a lack of care from overworked servants, the grand Palace of Versailles was a very smelly place to be.[7]The historic French candle maker (Cire Trudon) actually makes a candle scented like the floors of Versailles, which they describe thus: “this regal perfume radiates vapors of wax, candelabra and palace. A sumptuous trail of incense weaves through a tapestry of coniferous trees, cut with solar rays of citrus fruits.” For that truly authentic palace smell, you will need to add your own ‘p’s. The candle scent is actually quite subtle and extremely elegant. It is available for the rather expensive price of $100 on Amazon.

6) The Roman Colosseum

Spectators at the Roman Colosseum enjoyed an enormous number of varied shows: from gladiator fights to live animal hunts with exotic animals. And, of course, at a later period, Christians were killed in the Christian persecutions by a variety of methods including being torn apart by wild animals.[8]But the Roman people were somewhat delicate and found the scent of blood unpleasant so the Colosseum had a very clever trick for helping out. Above the heads of the paying guests was an awning (called the velarium), the purpose of which was to protect people from the harsh sun and to keep off the rain should any fall. Additionally, cleverly concealed tubes would continually spray perfumed water over the awning in order to partly minimize the odor of death, but also to moisten the heads of the spectators and keep them cool. These were supplemented by fountains in the form of statues which also issued forth fragrant water. The primary ingredients in the perfume were saffron, and verbena which, just recently, was outlawed by the European Union for use in any human skin contact products.

5) Drugs

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Drugs have been used for millennia in their natural form. It is not until the 19th and 20th centuries that we have been convinced to shun them and take medication in a synthesized form by drug companies. Most of us would probably not recognize the smell of a drug if it hit us in the face (except perhaps marijuana as few people have had a chance to not inhale that at least once). Here is a small list of common drugs and their odors:Opium: this has a sweet slightly burnt marshmallow scent when it is smoked.Heroin: burning heroin releases a very strong smell of vinegar. The higher the quality the less the odor, but all forms will smell to a certain degree. It smells this way because heroin is produced from opium in a method that leaves behind vinegar as a waste product. It is the vinegar smell that drug dogs are seeking.Cocaine: This primarily smells of methyl benzoate, a floral chemical that gives tuberose its rich smell and feijoas their distinctive taste. Drug dogs sniff for this chemical along with vinegar as previously mentioned.[10]Methamphetamine: Meth (and crack) both smell similar to burnt plastic combined with cleaning products like glass cleaner. Frequent use can lead to a person’s skin smelling of ammonia. Delightful.

4 The Titanic

In the early hours of the morning of April 15, 1912 the immense body of the Titanic, rent in two, plummeted to its grave on the ocean floor. More than 1,300 souls were lost that night. Fresh varnish, paint, and newly sawn wood were the initial smells that greeted a passenger aboard the ship. In those days paint was still made with lead and contained high amounts of linseed oil. There would have been the smell of smoke from the coal driven engines and on that fateful night, the wonderful smells of roasting duck, lamb, and beef, all of which were on the first class menu. [12] That same year, the famous French perfume house Guerlain had just released L’Heure Bleue (the bluish hour): “velvety soft and romantic, it is a fragrance of bluish dusk and anticipation of night, before the first stars appear in the sky.” [13] It was expensive and in high demand and would have certainly been smelled by a lot of women on the first class deck. The fragrance can still be bought today and there is no denying that it still has a quality that brings to mind that fateful night. But at 11pm on April 14th, 1912 another smell began to appear: a mineral odor with a metallic edge. It was the smell of an iceberg. Just like ice in your freezer takes up the varied aromas of other goods kept inside, icebergs will take on the fragrance of their environment. Interaction from marine living species contribute to this, as well as the chemical makeup of the water from which the iceberg is created. Recognizing the mildly metallic scent of ice may not have saved the ship, but it may have raised the overall number of survivors. Pictured is the iceberg thought to have been the one that Titanic struck; remnants of the ship’s paint are evident on it.

3 ) Ancient Egyptian Temples

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I have a fascination for Ancient Egypt. As a teen I couldn’t get my hands on enough books on the ancient civilization. I trained myself to read rudimentary hieroglyphics, I researched the names of all the gods, and I even decided to one day migrate to Egypt and reestablish the Pharaonic kingdoms of yesteryear. My ambition of being the future King of Egypt didn’t come to fruition, but I never lost my interest with the region. I am embarrassed to say that I have yet to visit. If you have gone to a Catholic Church you surely recognize the aroma of frankincense and myrrh because these are the major constituents in the most widely used Church incense. The Ancient Egyptians utilized the same resins in their temples, thus it was the permeating aroma of incense that most likely welcomed you when entering the building. And again, like our own Churches, the Egyptians filled theirs with flowers. The most prevalent were lotus blooms and other marsh plants and reeds. The aroma of the lotus is extraordinarily sweet—like fruit. And although that sickly-sweetness would have prevailed, the damp marsh plants would have provided an underlying aroma of water and dirt. Other perfumed flowers present would have included jasmine with its hypnotic fecal odor of indole, lovely blooming roses, and the powerful fragrance of fresh mandrake, evocative of dried tobacco. [14]The next expected odor of the temple would be that of food: sacrifices to the pantheon of gods. Commonly they were freshly made bread and roasted meats. At this stage you may imagine that the temple would have somewhat of the aroma of Christmastime in a contemporary rural community! At different seasons of the year, milk, herbs, and vegetables were supplied and after a short period they would have imparted a somewhat sour and decaying fragrance to the entire. How more exquisite a confluence of odors could there be? All the odiferous components of existence combined in one location. Combine with it the serious chanting of old priests, the distant noises of exotic creatures kept as pets, and the musical instruments of street beggars and a really amazing depiction of life in Ancient Egypt emerges

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2)The Holocaust

In 1942 the Jewish Ghettos were abolished by the Nazi authorities and mass deportations by rail started. There were no pauses for bathroom breaks, and there were no facilities for those who were unwell save for one pail in the corner which, needless to say, very soon was made worthless. The whole ride from city to camp was soaked in the odor of vomit, excrement, and urine. The foulest features of man’s animal nature were observed, inside and outside the trains. For those in the camps who were witnesses to the incineration of dead, the scent was unlike anything they had smelled before. When meat is prepared for eating, we smell just the scorching of flesh. Not so when a human body is torched. The horrific fragrance experienced everyday by individuals in the camps would have been constituted mostly of a beef-like odour from burning flesh, and a pork-like smell from human fat. This would be accompanied by the terrible scents of sulfur from burning hair and nails, a coppery metal smell from burning blood and iron-rich organs, and spinal fluid which burns with a horribly sweet musky odor suggestive of perfume. It is a scent so rich, it can almost be tasted. [15] And then there came the aftermath. American GIs approaching to liberate the camps stated they could smell the stink long before they saw them. “The fragrance permeated the whole area . . . for kilometers around.” One Private reported “disease - typhus, dysentery, and TB – was widespread. The crematory had been functioning around the clock. . . . [T]he odor of death and of mounds of human waste was overpowering.

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1)Sanctity

Saints have a fragrance. Well . . . some saints do. The odor of sanctity (Osmogenesia, or Odore di santità as the Italians say) is the antithesis of odore di zolfo—the stink of death, sulfur. This odor of holiness occurs in a number of various ways. While some saints it is a scent that starts to leak from their corpse after death—often associated with incorruptibility, for others it is a lovely aroma that they unexplainably generate throughout their lives. And for others it is in the form of delicious smelling liquids that drip from the tomb containing the saint’s bodily remains. One of the most stunning legends of the odor of holiness is that of St Simeon Stylites (died A.D. 459) who spent 37 years on a pillar with his flesh slowly decaying under the items of mortification he wore. The saint was supposed to radiate the scent of perfume. Tragically the structure upon which he stood was damaged by a rocket in Aleppo in 2016. So what does the odor of holiness smell like? Virtually all instances describe it as pleasant, with overtones of honey, butter, roses, violets, frankincense, myrrh, pipe tobacco, jasmine, and lilies. [17] It is also accompanied by a perception that the fragrance is unearthly. In the 2nd Century, St Polycarp’s body, while burning at the stake, was reported to fill the air with the scent of incense, while St Therese of Lisieux (her incorrupt corpse preserved with a thin coating of wax is seen above) smelt of roses, lilies, and violets. The wounds of stigmata are often thought to produce a holy odor.