smells that jog your memory

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.

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!

Can you remember the plastic flowers that came free with soap powder.

Thats it carol thanks

Lavender puts me in the bedrooms at my Grandparents' house, there was dried lavender in every room. And stock on the stove takes me back to my mother's kitchen, their was always a home made soup on the go.

Sunlight soap and frying sausages take me straight into my Grandma's kitchen on a Sunday morning.

glass was it Joy by Jean Patou? I remember having a bottle bought for me many years ago, in a commemorative box. The botle was black with a red stopper, but these days it's in a clear glass bottle.

Here's a picture, if that's the one you're thinking of.

www.perfumezilla.com/jean-patou/jean-patou-joy-eau-parfum-refillable-spray-black-bottle13644.php

What was it that came in very small black bottle with a red stopper?

4711 always me of reminds me of gin..or gin always reminds me of 4711,having worked in Boots it was something that was very popular..along with soir de paris in the little blue bottle....oh and I used to love the smell of the local private chemists when I was a child I think that started my love of everything to do with pharmacy.

dorsetpennt I still wear Blue Grass every day! I have tried numerous others but don't like any of them. Of course I don't smell the Blue Grass any more, but family and friends like the fact that I always smell the same!

I hate the smell of coffee (weird I know). It always reminds me of the Cadena shop in Oxford that made the whole of Cornmarket smell.

dorsetpennt I hasten to add that I now find Youth Dew totally overpowering and certainly wouldn't wear it, but aged 15 I thought it was great and like you now prefer the subtleties of Channel No. 5. My Grandma used to wear something called 4711 does anyone remember that? I think it may still be around. nelliedeane, yes I remember a wonderful old fashioned Sainsbury store in my home town with marble counters and the smell of sliced bacon and Macfisheries overpowering smell of fish when did they disappear from the high street? Aqua Manda that definitely rings a bell, I'm sure I bought it, was it some orangey smelling perfume?

Dorsetpent think Blue grass is still made sure I have seen it the discount type stores. Also remember tanfastic.....how about Aqua Manda....and the old fashioned sainsbury stores with marble counters,the smell of the bacon being sliced and the cheese being cut .....and bliss the old fashioned bakers with the smell of baking bread wafting out ..bliss...or whatabout 4 pennorth of chips in newspaper after a dip in the local swimming baths...and they where a smell on their own.....am on a roll here

I love the smell of Ambre Solaire it reminds me of my first holidays abroad. There was a grocery shop my mum used to take me in in the early sixties that was run by an Asian gentleman and had bananas and other fruits hanging from the ceiling. The whole place had a particular smell that when I smell it now takes me back to being a little girl. I have tried to identify it over the years but just realised while looking at candles today that is actually vanilla.

Anyone remember Tanfastic, the first widely available artificial tanning lotion in the 60s? It had that awful fake-tan smell, and even though the manufacturers have worked really hard to erase it, it's still there in some of the products these days - takes me back to the streaky orange 'tans' we used to have!

Ambre Soliel - we used to lather it on and toast ourselves on the beach on the French Riviera - thinking we were 'just like the French' . I remember Youth Dew, but hated it, a friend of mine wore it and it must have been her skin as the pong was sickening. Chanel No 5 for me - wonderful smell. Do you remember Blue Grass by Eliz.Arden? My GM wore it do they still make it I wonder?

oh yes shysal my mum used ponds vanishing cream and that combined with the yardley lipstick was my mums smell.I used to get so cross with the penicillin Ithink it was Icipen,fom dispensing days it looked so enticing and creamy,didnt smell too bad you would open your mouth in anticipation only to have that foul horrible jollop to swallow.

My mother's Ponds vanishing cream had a very distinctive smell. I bought some recently and was disappointed to find that it has a different scent, a bit citrussy now.
A smell I still hate is cherry flavouring, which was used in the penicillin emulsion I took when I had pneumonia as a child.

Estee Lauder's Youth Dew reminds me of when I first went out dancing as a teenager, we all thought it terribly sophisticated. Also Gaulois and Gitanes cigarettes reminds me of going to Spain as a teenager and discovering how attractive the French boys we met seemed. Although I don't smoke, I still love the smell of French ciggies they evoke continental Europe for me to this day.

My Dad smoked Hamlet cigars too Gally when he 'gave up' smoking!My Mum used to send jumpers she had knitted to my kids when they were small and when they used to open the parcels the smell wafted out and they'd exclaim with joy 'Mmmm Grandad!'

My Dad's Hamlet cigars and my Grandma's violet sweets (yuk). The polish used on the 'posh' stairs when I went back to boarding school and newly mown grass when Dad was out in the garden and I was supposed to be asleep.

I remember that, nelliedeane! I also used to like Yardley Freesia - wish it was still available!

my dad used imperial leather in a shaving bowl and a brush and I always bought him one for christmas as a child....boots freesia talc for my first baby greenmossgiel

Imperial Leather soap. It takes me back to when I was in hospital having my first child. I was really young, and still at home (another story), and my mum had put the soap in my washbag because I think she thought it was 'posh'. I always buy that soap for the bathroom, and every time I use it, the memory's there with me - all day long.

Oh, yes! My grandad's pipe - I adored that smell because I adored him. I can remember the smell of my mum's Yardley's freesia talc - overpowering, but she loved freesias. The bonfire of raked up leaves in December at the end of grandad's garden. The smell of ginger biscuits when my grandmother opened her biscuit tin for us.

oh yes and I love the smell of pipe tobacco,my dad always had a cigar at christmas,I only have to smell a cigar and dad is with me and its christmas