The other day we were all having a conversation with each other on the internet machine. It was about what ‘food’ smells each of us have always loved and would want to be made into a cologne/perfume if possible. To be clear, we were NOT AT ALL talking about the sort of crime against humanity that is Eau de Pizza Hut (or that ‘Flame’ body spray I remember hearing about from Burger King). Personally I cannot even believe either exists and I’m really not the least bit interested in even finding out what they actually smell like. What we WERE talking about were the smells that surrounded us growing up, ones that the love of lasts to this day and still evoke strong memories.
It turns out that our tastes overlapped a fair amount which made me wonder if these picks were just the more universal ones or if it was maybe geographically influenced. So we thought that we would make the topic into a post; to tell our stories but also to ask our readers to comment and tell us their thoughts and/or stories. I am interested to see if any patterns emerge.
Here are each of our thoughts on the topic:
Richard: When I was a kid I LOVED the way that celery smelled. I never ate it though… I would never touch it as food. I was a super finicky person… (who am I kidding, I still am), but the smell was intoxicating to me. When my mother would buy some and put it in the vegetable drawer I would inevitably sit there on the kitchen floor with the refrigerator door open, my head in the drawer, drawing in lengthy breaths of it. I distinctly remember I was planning to invent a cologne that smelled exactly like celery. it was to be called “STALK” which I thought was genius at the time. (and probably why I remember it so clearly) I may even have had a bottle design in mind, but I cannot remember one at the moment… I would not have put it past me though to come up with one.
Mel: I also enjoy the smell of celery (A LOT…and the taste), but I really adore the smell of cucumber. I know there are a lot of lotions out there that have some cucumber and melon in them, but I want straight up, light, clean, cucumber scented perfume. When I was young, my mom would get peel masks from Avon, and we always did the cucumber one together. A little “Grey Gardens,” I admit, but the smell always brings me back to being a little girl. What would I call it, though? KUQ, maybe…but with umlauts! The men’s spicier version could be PIKL. Bottle design might be troublesome though.
Found for sale on Etsy, and I bet it smelled wonderful:
T: I am going to jump on the bandwagon and say that I, too, like the smells of celery and cucumber. My dream food fragrance, though, is freshly cut cilantro. I want a cilantro scented perfume so badly that, a few years ago when I was on a perfume oil kick, I tried to make my own. I found a bunch of instructions online, and it seemed like it would be a relatively easy, although lengthy process. Fast forward a week; to a broken jar, a bunch of green oil on the floor, and a smell like boiled cabbage that was almost impossible to air out of the bathroom. Not at all like freshly cut cilantro. If anyone ever figures out how to make a cilantro-scented perfume, though, I will be all over that. I also think that fresh shiso (aka Japanese Basil) and tarragon would also make delightful perfume scents.
It seems, at least among us, that herbs and vegetables are the winners which makes sense as they are the most fragrant (without getting into the smell of full meals). My suspicion is that this will be somewhat common, but which ones might be the interesting part.
So now, we pose the question to you, tasteful readers: What food would you like made into perfume or cologne and why? Comment below!
I automatically said chocolate, but does it atcually have a scent that could be carried over to a perfume? Cocoa beans? Nah.. My next choice would probably be Cinnamon.. I’d like to wear a nice warm cinnamon bun….
chocolate works sure.. we’re not really working scientifically here 🙂 LOL on wearing a cinnamon bun
Ooooh my word, YES on Ristagno’s having the best buns in town…many many great childhood memories involve meals featuring them!
And now I am craving a hot sausage patty on a Ristagno bun…doh!
For me it would have to be the smell of bread dough rising. The smell of active yeast and flour combining takes me right back to my childhood, I grew up in an italian bakery you see. My family had what I sometimes like to call ‘The Ristagno Family Compound” which were 2 houses( my grandparents and great grandparents) an apartment building owned by my great aunt(which also housed her daughters beauty parlor) and the bakery itself( that had 2 apartments above that, one of which I lived in). Everything revolved around the bakery, mostly manned by cousins, aunts and uncles but also other members of the community, and we were very tight knit. The smell of fresh baked bread would waft about the “compound” every morning starting very early and would linger on throughout the day as loaf after loaf would be churned out of an oven that was probably the size of the first floor of my current house. And the rolls…. I cannot describe. They were what we were known for. “The Best Buns in Town!” our T-shirts proudly proclaimed, as did the girl who would answer the phone. They were old fashioned hard rolls, a slighty crisp outer shell and delightfully fluffy and warm on the inside with a taste that I have never been able to find again. Almost daily, after annoying my mother a bit she would exclaim “go downstairs and help your grandfather!” And I did. Now granted there are not many things a young kid can do in a bakery but I would help bag bread and rolls and sometimes they would let me run the register. It was a good time to be a kid. Sadly we had to close up shop around the time I was 10 and everyone has since moved on and the compound has long been deserted. I do make dough quite often and everytime that yeast starts to react I’m taken back to that place and time and all is right with the world.
Definitely citrus, refreshing and fresh
OOOOhh yes! Have you ever taken an orange peel and just squeezed it in half towards your wrist? A little spritz of juice on the skin smells super sweet and fresh!
That is also a natural insect repellent. Why bother with harsh chemicals when a little bit of citrus peel keeps the skeeters away.