For you, what is the most comforting smell?

It’d have to be some kind of food – something that has been cooking away for hours on the stove. Like the aroma of chicken soup. Having that growing up, especially in the Winter months, always made me feel good and still does.

Freshly baked bread. My mum used to bake bread at home a lot when I was a kid and it reminds me of my childhood.

The smell of spring, when the first flowers begin to bloom.

Either apple pie baking or coffee brewing.

Taking a shower, then sleeping naked in freshly washed sheets.

The smell of the sea. It’s instantly peace-inducing.

Well, I’m southern, and I grew up around the smells of southern home cooking which I have many fond memories of… so I would have to say that one of my favorite comforting smells is walking in to the delicious heart stopping aroma of chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes.

My other favorite is a combination of scents: the whole house is clean, the laundry has been done and I’ve got those little “plug-in scent” things of vanilla and spiced apple in several rooms. You get the light, fruity fragrance of the cleaning supplies, the crisp fragrance of the fresh laundry, and the warm fragrance of the vanilla and apple spice all mixing together, and it’s pure heaven.

Coffee Beans
I keep a mug of them in my office

If I’m tense or stressed, just smelling a fresh cup of coffee will relax me.

Nag Champa

What’s that?

A type of incense. All the hippies use it.

For me it’s crisp fresh air.

For my son & my husband: Baby Powder.

Petrichor. It’s a beautiful exhilarating smell. It reminds me of when I used to live in Florida and of the charged time before a storm would hit. The sky darkened just so and the wind blew and there’s an amazing tension before the rain lets loose.

I love petrichor.

My own farts.

Clean linen.

@KateTheGreat yes.

POOP!

balsam, a baby, spring flowers, especially lilacs

Yes, fresh sheets on the bed, heaven, and coffee brewing, along with cozy winter late afternoons when cooking something delicious that gives the entire house a comforting aroma.

I also really like mountain air, there is a hint of chocolate to it that I seem to detect, very unique smell in my higher mountains, truly sweet air.

The smell of night scented stock.

Marinara sauce from scratch on a Sunday afternoon—-

Freshly laundered sheets and pillow cases

My husband’s natural scent, baby smell, vanilla, the smell of ‘clean’, whether it’s just out of the shower or the house just cleaned.

Yes – @augustlan‘s husband’s natural scent. I love tha…er, um.
nevermind

@cprevite Threesome? ;)

[NSFW] A woman’s pussy.

Such nice ideas: @Adirondackwannabe‘s balsam – I have a pillow from Maine made out of balsam. It’s such a great scent. @Coloma‘s mountain air – I love that sweet, cold pine smell from up in the mountains!

My blankets and pillows. They have that natural comforting smell that I feel all safe in. I also love the smell of a really cold Winter night. In my town, it often smells like firewood, because we’re all a buncha rednecks over here. I love that smell. Even on the coldest nights my window is always slightly open. I sleep under three blankets and two comforters, so no worries about the cold. I have a whole lot of pillows in my bed too, so they smell all nice and block out most of the cold. But it doesn’t block out the smell of the cold air, which is also very comforting to me. My grandma says it’s good for your health to sleep with cold air hitting your head. I’m usually buried in the blankets and pillows though, so I denno if that counts.
That’s why I hate Summer, since I have to store most of the blankets and pillows away.

Also, @KateTheGreat‘s farts.

I don’t see the point of putting NSFW in front of your answers @HungryGuy…we can already see them! lol

@Keep_on_running I disagree, it makes them easier to skip

@YARNLADY You must have very good eye control. I just find it difficult to skip over small sentences without reading them. Stupid, crappy impulse control!

@Keep_on_running – I thought that was the rule here…

@HungryGuy

Yeah it is, to me its use is for questions and when you post a link – that way you can warn people who may not want to see such things, not to go any further. However, with general answers putting NSFW right before it doesn’t really stop you from reading what comes straight after :P

@Keep_on_running – You’re absolutely right. It’s silly. But it doesn’t hurt to put it in, and I just know that if I don’t put it there, someone will rip me a new one for not warning them first :-p

So unless you’re a moderator telling me not to put NSFW in my NSFW answers, I think I’ll continue to do so (especially if the question isn’t labeled NSFW)...

@HungryGuy No worries, I’m just getting all particular about shit again.

@Keep_on_running – np :-)

Baking bread and baking brownies.

The smell of my cat’s tummy.

The scent of pine trees in the mountains.

Garlic bread baking in the oven.

Certain types of fabric softener, when smelled from outside on a cold night (when it’s wafting up through someone’s vent)

Bacon frying and coffee brewing in the morning (especially on a camping trip, even though I don’t eat the bacon)

Certain places that have dried oak leaves all over the ground, the kind that crunch when you walk upon them, especially if you are walking in the shade, but there are warm wafts of sunlight coming down and hitting the leaves, it’s the scent that is activated by the sunlight hitting the cold dry leaves, with wet earth underneath. That scent always reminds me of my Grandmother’s front yard.

Turkey roasting in the oven, even though I don’t eat the turkey.

The smell of Sea and Ski suntan lotion

Gingerbread

The combined scents of motor oil, turpentine and sawdust, which remind me of my Uncle’s old workshop that we used to visit when I was a little kid.

A beach campfire.

The faint scent of natural gas that you get when you have an old-style stove where the pilot light is always going. Reminds me of my Grandma’s house.

White vinegar. Reminds me of dyeing Easter eggs and my Grandparents house. They had a set of these milk glass coffee mugs in which we put the colored dye.