smells that jog your memory

We always had Sunlight soap at home and I used to complain about it to my mother, and ask why we couldn't have Lux or Camay like normal people, but she never gave me a satisfactory answer. We had strange toothpaste as well, in a round block, I think manufactured by Gibbs. I also used to ask for toothpaste in a tube like everyone else. I think now it must have been cheaper because I do remember my dad was a tight arse!

Yes, glass, I remember the plastic flowers. And the plastic soldiers in packets of cornflakes - I collected them all! And those miniature Addis tools that came through the door - tiny tins of lavender polish as well.

I think the soap we had wasn't Sunlight but Lifeboy, does that ring bells with anyone?

I remember the smell of washing being boiled to within an inch of it's life in my mother's old fashioned copper...she used dolly blue-bags.
The smell of burnt milk in the infant school - the teacher had a gas ring and always left the milk to boil over the top of the saucepan. And the smell of the tiny bottles of milk given to school children, which were left in a crate to thaw out [in winter] on top of dusty radiators.

Pears soap

I remember the plastic flowers, glass! They came with Daz! My mum used to send me to the little grocer's shop for it, with strict instructions to try and get a different colour flower each time - not easy when all the shop had was daffodils !

Tinned mandarin oranges - I am immediately 7 years old and on the beach at Cliftonville. We used to have them for breakfast in the beach hut. All my parents' friends knew where we're on the beach and we would make a big circle of deck chairs . There were so many people we could play proper games of cricket. My poor mum worked so hard making tea. The same families took the beach huts every year so there was a community spirit.

Tomato plants growing in a greenhouse. My dad grew tomatoes every year and I used to eat pounds of them. My mother used to bottle the surplus in Kilner jars.

Washing with a dolly blue bag put in the hot water on Monday mornings and the starch that mum used to use on dads going out shirts,poor man must have itched for England.

Thanks all, shall look out forBlue Grass just for the memories. Don't remember dolly blue bags as early childhood spent in Canada. However, the smell of frankfurters [hot dogs] does remind me of then.

numberplease Oh I so loved Pears Soap smell. And I loved it full-stop. Do they still make it. I shall try to find out and seek it on my next visit to UK.
Pencil shavings are often referred to in wine tasting and smells. Pencil shavings and chalk and old-fashioned school dinners. Ooh that brings back awful memories even though I didnt really hate school.

Re Tanfastic - When I was working in the late 60s my friend told me how her Mum had fumbled in the dark one night for her tube of face cream. Imagine her horror when she woke up the next morning to find that the palms of her hands were orange - and when she looked in the mirror - her face was streaked with permanent orange too!

Je Revien - by Worth. I remember a school visit to the London Planetarium in the early 60s. In the ladies loo there were machines that delivered a spray of perfume for a few pence. We thought we were so sophisticated. Oh how that perfume brings back the memories.

L'aimant by coty and the cream sachets by Avon timeless,prettypeach,occur,wishing...all my teenage years,
How about Brut for men and Hai Karate.
JeRevien was the favourite of the manageress in my first job,a Dragon of a woman we could always smell her before she arrived and caught whatever imagined or real misdemeaner you where up too,I was her favourite junior to vent her wrath on and she could frequently be heard shouting MISS DEANE at the top of her foghorn voice

Coty L'Aimant would do it - have me hurtling back into my youth, I mean. So many happy (and rather private) memories...

Otherwise, long ago creosoted fences in the heat of a summer's afternoon remind me of childhood days.

... and I've just remembered: Aramis aftershave - it reminds me of cruising in the Canberra, after my shower and before dressing for dinner (and for a cabaret performance after) slapping it on with wild abandon. Happy days indeed...

So many familiar smells mentioned in other comments. I have one more to add - Cuticura talcum powder which I took with me on my first holiday without the family as an 18 year-old (1965). Oh, and I also liked Tweed.

Ashes of Roses was my granny's perfume - she used to let me keep the empty, tiny bottles, and I wish I'd kept one

The tobacconist who had all sorts of tobacco ,and the Oil shop,that sold all sorts of hardware and household equipment,and like feetlebaum I love creosote and Pollards a chain of shops who sold all sorts of things from lace doilies to grandads long johns,but the shop always smelled of rubber black plimsoles that we wore all through the 6 weeks holiday.

The tiny sweetshop in my childhood village, was a powerful mixture of decades of dust and pear drops...

There is no better smell than a clean baby and Johnson talc hmmmm.

Also for me cockles, used to have a treat at Paignton from the cockle van in the 50,s. Hate the damn things mind.

Youth Dew ......
Yes the perfume is really very strong but I have, for many years, and still do use the Youth Dew body cream. It is great after your shower and it stays with you a,l day. I first used it 35 years ago after the birth of my first son :-)

I have had so many comments about how nice is smells from various ages - it is more subtle and you control ow much is on, so how strong it is

Hey Bert thought you were a bloke and wondered why you were slavering Youth Dew all over yourself, but I'm guessing if you've given birth then you're probably a laydee so that's ok then!

I suppose men could wear Youth Dew if they liked it?

Anagram they could, but let's not forget they do have Old Spice!