Not only was I instantly transported to another place, I was transported through time.  That single sniff took me back to my childhood home, to when I was probably no more than 8, laying on the carpeted floor of my living room, watching the white gauzy sheers that covered our dining room windows billow inward on a sudden gust of cool May breeze... loving the warm, silky slide of it between my bare toes & breathing in the powdery, sun-warmed scent of lilacs.

Nothing said home to me like that smell.  Nothing said peace and calm and tranquility like those lilacs.  Of course I'm much older now, moved out of that house, and living in a condo with nary a lilac in sight in a town that is (ironically) literally famous for its lilacs.  I kid you not. They actually have festivals built around it.  Anywhoo...

In that moment, in that store, scent became memory.  Memory became scent.  It's not really a surprise since smell has been proven to trigger emotional memories.  It's also why I love incorporating scent into my writing.  I think the sense of smell is one of the most underutilized sensory details of them all, and it's a shame because scent is often a very  universal experience.

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We all know what roses at a funeral smell like.  We know that talcy, clean essence of a newborn baby.  We know cigarettes and beer, too-strong-a-floral perfume in a too-full elevator during an August heatwave, and wet dog.  We know chicken soup and BBQ, Thanksgiving turkey, cinnamon and sugar, and - of course - that weird old lady smell of that weird aunt you never really knew who insisted on hugging and kissing you whenever she visited.  {{{shudder}}}  And who can even think about a movie without instantly smelling buttered popcorn?

When it comes to writing, accurate naming of scents matters.  You're not just describing the character's physical reaction to the scent (say the exhaust of a car makes the character nauseous), but the scent itself.  So how does care exhaust smell?  Sour?  Metallic?  It's like trying to describe something to someone who's never smelled exhaust before.

So where can you find great sensory inspiration for scent?  The list below is by no means exhaustive and the companies and websites I mention are my personal favorites and include:

PERFUME

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I've found the most helpful websites are those that describe the perfume (or cologne) not only by mood (playful, sensual, etc) but also by top, mid, and base notes.  Sites that have "fragrance finders" are worth their weight in gold.  They allow you to search for scents by category like Floral, Fresh, Oriental, and Wood.

Example: Nordstrom's Fragrance Finder

Not sure what scents best suit your character(s)?  Try taking an online Fragrance Quiz like this one from RealSimple.com and answer the questions as your character.  I just ran through it as my character Lorelei and found out she's a Floral, got a handful of perfume suggestions and discovered her associated scents might be peony, iris, pink peppercorn, neroli, and pomegranate.

You can also look at the perfume manufacturers themselves.  All great resources.


COFFEE & TEAS
Example: Teavana, Starbucks, and Coffeeam

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The trick here is to look for coffee and tea shops where their websites offer descriptions of each bean/blend in scent details.  I find these particularly helpful in describing my heroes since they (coffee especially) are described in more warm, earthy, masculine terms.  Teas, however, can be both and often include lighter, fruitier, and even floral.  Some sites (like Teavana) will even break their offerings down into Seasonal Groups which often help flesh out your character if you've created them like we did in the blog articles here on Color (Parts 1-3).  See how one aspect starts to shore up the other and another and another to help reinforce that image created in those blogs?  It's like creating your own little mystery for each character.  I love that!


SPICES/SPICE HOUSES
Example: The Spice House

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Since we cook and eat ad so many memories are tied into food, it's logical that spices would be a great resource for scent details.  Not only do they provide descriptions for spices and herbs you already know, they'll often break them down by cuisine (American, Italian, etc) as well as have seasonal offerings.

The best part is, most towns have a local spice house you can visit and shop to check out the freshest offerings and experience the scents first hand.  For those of you who don't have a spice house nearby, they offer great catalogs and detailed websites to browse.


CANDLES/HOME FRAGRANCE
Example: Yankee Candle Company, Lampe Berger

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Home fragrance is a huge industry with a "something for everyone" menu of selections. The great thing about candles & home fragrance resources are they do so much of the thinking, sorting, defining, and categorizing for you.  Plus, they'll introduce scents for specific holidays and seasons, identifying their core feelings and associations and turning them into scents.

If you look at the Yankee Candle Company link, you'll see they the newest scents of the season (Spring in this case) and as you read the descriptions, you'll not only get the ingredients that make the scent - in the one I'm looking at it's ripe banana, creamy vanilla, cinnamon and cloves - Yankee Candle goes a step further to associate the "mood" of the candle as "exotic island treasure."  They do as much as they can with words to create the scent in your mind.

I love the Lampe Berger products for scent inspiration.  Like the Yankee Candle, they do a terrific job of breaking their fragrances down into categories to help you best create a mood or feel by categorizing them as Sweet, Oriental, Flowers, Fruits, Fresh, Pure, or even Functional. They also come out with seasonal and holiday scents.

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Check out this description of Lampe Berger's Chic Paris.  See what they did?  They grounded you in a place, a specific setting (Paris, France) and even put you on a stroll through "the famous Jardin des Tuileries" while filling your mental nose with grapefruit and bergamot, Bulgarian rose, and bring in the sun to warm those vine peaches and lychees.

Take a stroll down the home fragrance aisle of your local store and check out sprays, candles, car deodorizers... there's a million products out there that fit this category just waiting to inspire you.


SOAPS/LOTIONS
Example: Bath and Body Works & it's Fragrance Studio, Yardley London, and Sweet Cakes

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Another great industry based on scent that can inspire you are soaps and body lotions.  Again, they often change based on season and by popular trend so they're always changing.  There's always something new to discover.  There's an added bonus with stores in this category because they'll divide their scents into female/male, season, holiday, etc., and the names they put on them clue you in to the mood they're supposed to help create, which helps eliminate some guesswork.

The Fragrance Studio on Bath & Body Works' site lets you explore scent by category (floral, fruit, exotic, wood, warm, etc) as well as by "personality" (sexy, fresh, romantic, etc), New (which usually means the season), and even current favorites (aka bestselling trends).


What I love best about looking for scent inspiration is that all it takes is a trip to your favorite stores.  Suddenly wandering the aisles has a whole new purpose and you never know what you'll discover or what will spark creativity.


What are your favorite scents?  Is there a scent you tie specifically to a person, season, or event?  What sent turns you off instantly?  Is there a "why" behind that dislike (reminds you of a person, place, event, etc)?