[Migrated, see pinned post] Casual Conversation @lemm.ee

10mo ago

What smell do you love that you’re not supposed to love?

74 comments

Gasoline

Steam Deck fan smell
- Oh so you're the reason they put out that health and safety statement.
  
  No, Valve went out of their way to make it smell like electric strawberry.
- Beat me to it
- Wtf I thought I was alone

Gasoline.

the sharpie pro marker

Skunk
- This is mine too. Smells like weed to me.
- I get what you mean… as long as it’s from a distance or a long time after it sprayed. I was recently in the vicinity of a skunk that had just sprayed (not at me, but happened maybe 50 feet away max), and holy shit it’s so, so much worse up close. I had an N95 on and had to retreat because the stench was unbearable. Like burning tires and acid and it’s SO overwhelming that you can fucking taste it.
  0/10, would avoid if possible. I still find the smell from a good distance like a 6/10 though.

Gasoline and motor oil.

Lapsang Souchong tea, most people seem to hate it. Also plastic glue

Secondhand cigarette smoke (but not too strong) even though i've never smoked

It's pharmacies for me. Not sure how to explain it, but it's smell I really like for some reason

Microbiology labs. It’s this weird microbe-on-agar musk.
- That's a good one, I like it too!
- I got excited the first day I saw a case of chocolate agar come in. Then I read what it was.... 😔
  Now, some of the labs where they compounded, they had all the flavor extracts, so doing inventory on that stuff I'd take my time and take big whiffs of fake banana and grape candy flavor. Way better than the VOCs and weird metals I normally got to smell in most of the lab and chem store areas.
  
  Wow, cool! I had never thought about it, but it certainly makes sense you'd need blood in those dishes to get certain things to grow.
- The liquid growth medium my college used smelled so, so much like a mix between chicken noodle and miso soup it was unnerving. Mostly because of how good it smelled. Lucky microbes in their soup bath.
- Ick! Glad you like it because I don't! I work adjacent to a microbiology lab and I hate when the smells end up wafting in!

The first time a heater turns on for the year
- Tbh the smell gives me a tiny bit of anxiety because I'm always hoping that a fire doesn't break out lol
- Hot dust.
- I smelled that 🥰

There’s a distinct musty basement smell. Not like…moldy and swampy, but just a little damp.

Alfalfa. I even have scents made after it, which has led many to suggest I'm taking my role as a rural woman too far.
- Fresh cut hay reminds me of helping my grandparents. So you’re not alone with the farm/ rural smells. Alfalfa is a sweet, neutral scent - I’d argue it’s better than some of the perfumes and cologne out there that just smother me with their smell

My man's sweaty taint.
- Okay, we can all go home now, we found the winner
  
  Lol, it's actually a pretty common thing among gay men!
- I missread that as mom

My dog, including her paws
- omg me too!! i have a dachshund, hbu
  
  I have no idea, apparently she was found as a street puppy. She is not very big, but bigger than a dachshund
- Crackers

Rubber cement
- I don't think I'd feel the same way now, but kid me used to think it smelled interesting. Oddly pleasant even.

Can't really put it into cohesive words. But the smell of something like a basement/garage/stairwell, a bit damp/moist. Smells like petrichor

Cannabis.
It's the only thing I could have and describe as, "baby vomit as a prevailing odour, with hints of Stilton, chocolate, and a lot of pinesol in the background" as something positive.

Bakelite, especially fresh sawed or sanded.
Delicious cancer.

Cigarette smoke drifting on cold air

Me.
I had a partner who smelled weirdly almost indistinguishable from me. Now my own scent reminds me of them.
- A long time ago I dated a girl whose natural scent was this subtle heady musk.
  Oh, but it was intoxicating. 30 years and I can still remember it.
  
  I like to smell people.

Freshly poured asphalt.

Cocaine

Leather oil + dry horse poop

Potassium cyanide. We used a very dilute form of it as a laboratory reagent (a safer alternative to its cousin hydrogen cyanide, in case that’s what you’re thinking of). It just smells clean - sort of like a candle that’s labeled as “fresh laundry” or “spring breeze”.

fresh gear grease is kinda nice. got a bit of a black peppery scent that's quite pleasant

A newly opened package of those survey marker flags you stick in ground. It smells like those old vinyl pool floaties dialed up to 11.

I once read an article about how Valve is discouraging customers from smelling the exhaust of the Steam Deck.
Intrigued and willing to risk a couple brain cells for science, can confirm, it does smell nice.

Creosote, not the plant but the stuff they treat wood with. Smells like piers and amusement parks. Love it. Carcinogenic.

Gasoline exhaust, but not diesel. Maybe the engine should be old as well....

When the toilet has been cleaned with a lot of chlorine/bleach, and I pee in it, it smells nice. It's probably not good for me, but I can't help but take a few sniffs when that happens.
- It's definitely unhealthy, but perhaps you enjoy it in trace amounts? Bleach combined with the ammonia present in urine creates chlorine gas.
  
  MMmmm chloriiiine.....

Capguns. So whatever percussion caps were made from throughout the 1990s.

Those giant metal permanent markers and yo mom's feet.

Sweaty gym dude smell that’s kinda like hot dogs and beer and feet combined. Love it

The local species of squash bugs. They're a lot like stink bugs, when you disturb them they emit what's commonly described as "a foul odor". Except that foul odor in this species smells like a super concentrated artificial tutti-frutti bubble gum scent to me. It's overpowering to the point that it almost burns your nostrils at first, but it fades super quickly and doesn't linger like regular awful stink bug smell.

As a vegetarian: the smell of a quality sausage being fried.

Xylene. I think it's maybe used as a paint thinner in some cases? I work in a lab where it is used daily in fairly large quantities (although not for thinning paint). I love it. Highly toxic tho lol.

Old books/old libraries

Nicotine, and antifreeze..

Oil, turpentine, Coleman Campfire Fuel

Chloroform

Ether

Sweat

Magic The Gathering cards, pretty sure it's some part of the lamination process. Under the house smell, earthy aroma that has stagnated for a few years. Moss covered valleys and crevices, basically where moss is so concentrated that it just jumps into the nose.

Diesel - not sniffing the container, but smelling burnt diesel in the air. Also the slightly putrid smell of a creek after it rains and all the gunk has been moved around and the sun has been blasting it and you can almost chew on the odour, it's that thick. I rather like that.

74 comments