The Hunt for Scent or Off On The Topic Of Redolence

[Admiral_Karasu]

What's your favorite as far as scents go? Do you like something like Mandom or Dior more? Or just plain honest carbolic soap? Old Spice, Mennen? I don't habitually wear aftershave, I know some people bathe in it, but so far the scent I've liked consistently the most is Tabac.

To get the discussion started...

Mandom

How would you describe what associations this imagery brings to your mind? It has three versions of the commercial, the last shows what I mean by some people bathing in it. Do you guys really splash aftershave on like that?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chnXo839XVs

Dior

'Rugged and outdoorsy', would they describe this product equally well? Or is here some generation gap thing going on?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfz-rqgEM8U

 

 

 

[Snargfargle]

Most mammals live in a world of smell. The first cranial nerve, the Olfactory Nerve, directly connects the nose to the brain and its memory centers so it's no wonder that smell triggers a memory association. This occurs even in us humans, though we tend to look at and touch things first then smell them later. The neural processing centers for smell in dogs have been determined to be closely related to those involved in vision processing too. Therefore, dogs may actually "see" smells. Come back from college after a few years and your parents' old, blind dog may bark at you, not recognizing your voice, but when it gets a whiff of you it will start wagging its tail in recognition.

I don't much like to drink coffee, I will on rare occasion to warm up when its cold or stay up if I need to avoid falling asleep but that's about it. However, I do occasionally go to the store and walk by the coffee bean section as it brings back fond memories of coffee brewing at home over the holidays.

 

Edited December 4, 2024 by Snargfargle

[I_cant_Swim_]

The "bathing in it" bit is hilarious. There was, some years back, something like that in the stores-  a "splash on" deo or aftershave. I thought it was a joke, but nay, twas real. I don't know if it still exists, I believe it targeted younger men, who maybe needed to make a cool statement.

Dab, dab, just a drop. Armani aftershave is my fav. At least, the old bottle I still have from 1997....

[Snargfargle]

My grandmas and aunts always used to give us boys cologne every Christmas. I never used a bit of it and finally threw it all away. By the time I started shaving I was in the Army. You really can't be using cologne in the Army and broadcasting your presence. Not to mention the fact that if you and a dozen other guys inside a track were all doused in cologne you would create a choking hazard and have to don your gas masks, which would sort of defeat the purpose of wearing cologne in the first place.

Edited December 4, 2024 by Snargfargle

[Asym]

46 minutes ago, Snargfargle said:

My grandmas and aunts always used to give us boys cologne every Christmas. I never used a bit of it and finally threw it all away. By the time I started shaving I was in the Army. You really can't be using cologne in the Army and broadcasting your presence. Not to mention the fact that if you and a dozen other guys inside a track were all doused in cologne you would create a choking hazard and have to don your gas masks, which would sort of defeat the purpose of wearing cologne in the first place.

I had a great Aunt that made lotions from natural ingredients...  Her "pine lotion" is my all time favorite smell and I have one bottle of pine hand lotion I've been sparingly using this past decade...

And, I never encountered a choking hazard in any Tank I commanded - other than the ammonia stench of main gun smoke....  And, that lingers in your BDU's, coveralls or Nomex for days;  and,  your wife usually has a fit after you get back....... "what in the hell creates that stench !"  Remember a few weeks ago, I related a story of my first trip to Montreal in a commercial jet and got "interrogated (nicely, very nicely)" about explosive residue in my Helmet Bag that set off their baggage sniffers....   Same thing with Nomex and helmet bags !!

Now, if a crewman ate something that simply wasn't working..........well, that isn't amusing at all and well, you are extemely close to each other in there....   We had a can of "Sea Breeze" air freshener that got used every once and a while....  Or, crushed when a crew mate left his helmet bag where it should not have been....  One of my Loaders was a huge Star Trek fan and played with the M1 ammo doors all of the time....  He'd talk on the cell phone and talk about leaving the Bridge and use the sound of the door as a back drops for realism.....and, usually forgot where he put his massive cup of coffee that went all over the place at the speed those blast doors closed....

 

[Snargfargle]

3 minutes ago, Asym said:

"pine lotion" is my all time favorite smell

The mountain pines of Colorado have a delightful piney scent. The southern pines of Louisiana put off a stench that can gag a maggot. It's the pollen that's the culprit. The worst stench I smelled inside a track, however, was when we were training some ROK soldiers. That kimchi they eat reeks!

[Admiral_Karasu]

29 minutes ago, Snargfargle said:

The mountain pines of Colorado have a delightful piney scent. The southern pines of Louisiana put off a stench that can gag a maggot. It's the pollen that's the culprit. The worst stench I smelled inside a track, however, was when we were training some ROK soldiers. That kimchi they eat reeks!

Oh, kimchi, yes I think it can be a bit spicy, I believe the Koreans like their food hot and spicy. A delightful piney scent sounds nice, I've had it in some deodorants. Reeky scents... I am not so sure about, although some perfumes I believe are described as 'spicy'. Something that could gag a maggot definitely sounds a bit off....

[Asym]

11 minutes ago, Snargfargle said:

The mountain pines of Colorado have a delightful piney scent. The southern pines of Louisiana put off a stench that can gag a maggot. It's the pollen that's the culprit. The worst stench I smelled inside a track, however, was when we were training some ROK soldiers. That kimchi they eat reeks!

What color was it?  Green (moldy) or Red (deadly?)   Been there, done that when they came to visit Knox.  And, the Japanese.  And, the Saudi's, Egyptians, et al....  Gosh, eating with them in the field was...............sigh.........a challenge some days.  Of course, several of the Middle Eastern Allies catered all of their field rations....  Again, it was something you had to see to believe....  I think Germany was the best food stop and their Beer was second to none....  Even their field rations were pretty good as well...

The British, since I was an Officer, was an experience and there some great stories working with them in Europe and at the NTC and Knox....  And, I collected a good many "short tales and stories" from the Sandbox's....  Here's one:

1.     “My regimental Commander said that a platoon of M1’s were “out looking for the forward edge of the Republican guard…”  Alone, I asked?  He replied “Americans are never alone out here lad…”  A moment later and for the next 25 minutes, the world shook, there were massive explosions and fireballs of enemy tank turrets flying into the night sky…… and, my Commander said “Ah, jolly good, they found them…! ”  Holy Christ,  that was just a platoon?

[Snargfargle]

4 minutes ago, Asym said:

that was just a platoon?

Kind of off the subject of smells but I recall hearing a French officer say that if you were in serious trouble to not call your own command but instead call the Americans as they were going to come and get you out of trouble first and then worry about such niceties as command hierarchy and orders later.

[Admiral_Karasu]

If OP does not mind a little detour here and there, coincidentally, neither do I.

[Wolfswetpaws]

I rarely wear scents or cologne.
Even when I do, it is my understanding that it is mostly for women's benefit (not my own).

When I was young, I worked at a full-service gasoline/petrol station. 
The exposure to the fumes decreased my scent perception capability.
Once upon a time I could smell muffins being baked from the second floor of my parents house (the kitchen was on the first floor and on the opposite side of the house).
After working at a gas-station, I could only smell the muffins while I was in the kitchen.
It may not be the most scientific of scent measuring methods, but it is what I experienced.

 

[Asym]

1 hour ago, Snargfargle said:

Kind of off the subject of smells but I recall hearing a French officer say that if you were in serious trouble to not call your own command but instead call the Americans as they were going to come and get you out of trouble first and then worry about such niceties as command hierarchy and orders later.

You said "inside a track" and I'm just a simple DAT........easily distracted I guess....  I wish my great Aunt would have taught me how to recover the essence of Pine from the needles.  I guess, I could look it up on YouTube.....and, burn down the house....

And yes, if it all goes in the dunny and things get a might hot, I can completely understand our allies wanting us to save their bacon.  After all, we use the American form of math to compute combat power necessary to achieve any mission....  Stuff + more stuff + some really cool stuff = enough stuff.... 

There are some cool stories that I picked up at C&GSC about how we calculate combat power.   Imagine, if you will, that Alien Space Bats (ASB) introduced a new math that is based on what you "feel" is necessary....  And, being good Americans, where in a combat zone we tend to be a might agitated, in that "agitated" is an ASB's compounding factor, that our math gets a little geometric;  and,  if the the next ASB factor, Pissed Off, is in itself, exponentially adding to the geometric calculation....  Now that, <<< is some really neat stuff....

[Snargfargle]

4 hours ago, Asym said:

And yes, if it all goes in the dunny and things get a might hot, I can completely understand our allies wanting us to save their bacon.

"Boys, do you hear that musketry and that artillery? It means that our friends are falling by the hundreds at the hands of the enemy, and here we are guarding a damned creek! Let's go and help them. What do you say?" -- Nathan Bedford Forrest

As for piney-fresh smells...

"pine needle essential oil is obtained by steam distillation of pine needles and soft branches at high temperature, and the pine needles are immersed in 1,3-butylene glycol and ethanol, followed by compression filtration. The obtained pine needle extract is then dried, further extracted with an ethanol aqueous solution, filtered, and then mixed with polyquaternium-7, a cationic polymer of a surfactant, stirred and filtered, followed by evaporation to dryness in a vacuum to obtain a pine needle extract composite."

Not a chemical engineer? Crush up a bunch of pine needles in a mortar and pestle and then pour hot vodka over them, wait a while and decant the vodka through a coffee filter to get a weaker but similar-smelling extract.

Edited December 5, 2024 by Snargfargle

[Admiral_Karasu]

On 12/5/2024 at 5:24 AM, Snargfargle said:

"Boys, do you hear that musketry and that artillery? It means that our friends are falling by the hundreds at the hands of the enemy, and here we are guarding a damned creek! Let's go and help them. What do you say?" -- Nathan Bedford Forrest

As for piney-fresh smells...

"pine needle essential oil is obtained by steam distillation of pine needles and soft branches at high temperature, and the pine needles are immersed in 1,3-butylene glycol and ethanol, followed by compression filtration. The obtained pine needle extract is then dried, further extracted with an ethanol aqueous solution, filtered, and then mixed with polyquaternium-7, a cationic polymer of a surfactant, stirred and filtered, followed by evaporation to dryness in a vacuum to obtain a pine needle extract composite."

Not a chemical engineer? Crush up a bunch of pine needles in a mortar and pestle and then pour hot vodka over them, wait a while and decant the vodka through a coffee filter to get a weaker but similar-smelling extract.

As always, comrades, vodka solves all problems.