Perfumer Christophe Laudamiel, a creator of company DreamAir is launching a project to track scent preferences around the world. It consists of a map defined by aromas, and you can contribute yours as well. In order to do so, please go to DreamAir website and add descriptions for what you are currently smelling. Be sure to indicate your location too.
Once a good amount of data is available, you will be able to click on a country and “see the represented scent families as pie charts, for what locals and people visiting are smelling,” say the creators.
Brussels smells like mineral dust, wet wood, vanilla waffles and crushed leaves. What about your town?
Photography by Bois de Jasmin, the infamous Manneken Pis.
41 Comments
Cornelia Blimber: Speaking of Manneken Pis: you can smell him in Amsterdam, where (male) tourists water in the streets. It is a strong flavour, especially when the stones warm up in the sun.
The building of the new metro (endless) brings dust and the smell of saw-dust.
In the museum quarter there are many fig trees in the streets, lovely perfume.
Although most people ride a bicycle or a scooter, my street smells strongly of benzine. August 22, 2014 at 7:17am
Cornelia Blimber: saw-dust of iron, I mean, not of wood. It is a very particular smell, some people like it. August 22, 2014 at 7:24am
Victoria: I know what smell you mean. I like it in small doses, but too much and it starts being suffocating. August 22, 2014 at 5:50pm
Victoria: You can smell it in Brussels too, especially inside Gare Central, the central station subway stop, which must have an alternative use as a public urinal. Not my favorite place in the city. August 22, 2014 at 5:49pm
rainboweyes: It was very hot as we were in Paris in June and the urine smell was omnipresent, even at the Notre Dame 🙁 August 23, 2014 at 12:05pm
Victoria: Yes, unfortunately, it all sounds too familiar! August 24, 2014 at 12:44pm
Tijana: Very interesting! As it is morning here and I have just put on some fragrance, it is all I can smell (and it is nice – Guerlain’s Mon Precieux Nectar) :-). Thank you for sharing! August 22, 2014 at 9:15am
Victoria: Sounds wonderful! 🙂 August 22, 2014 at 5:50pm
Sylvia Long: Thank you for sharing that site! I’m interested in finding out what people in differing areas like to smell. I’m in Malaysia this week and I found that my perfume smells different here! Amazingly nice different. I always love it, but I love it more here. I think the humidity must amplify it. Also I got to smell Bois d Isle and Beige By Chanel yesterday.They were both very nice. August 22, 2014 at 10:20am
Victoria: The humidity really must have a strong effect, because I also found that some of my perfumes smelled very different in the humid climates. What perfumes do you tend to wear? August 22, 2014 at 5:51pm
Sylvia Long: Estee private collection Tuberose and Gardenia and Stella here this week. The Stella was a bit too much- but the T and G was green garden perfection. I live in a less humid climate and just visiting here. I’m pleasantly surprised with the change the humidity makes. Of course some of my other favorites wouldn’t do well at all. I am imagining my Ambre Eau de Mervilles wouldn’t suit here. August 23, 2014 at 8:12am
Sylvia Long: Also unusual smells ( for me) sort of hang about the air everywhere here… Not bad just noticeably different than my home city… The pervading smell of rice cooking, a savory smell , maybe garlic. The ‘vegetal green’ smell of lots of wet plants.. Occasional Wafts of sweat and sewer smell walking down the streets. Wonderful curry and that flat Indian bread cooking ( nanas?). Oh and Arabic perfume ocassionally! Very strong pungent stuff- almost medicinal. August 23, 2014 at 8:19am
Victoria: Ambery or balsamic scents are tough for me in warm, humid climates. I can handle rich florals better than these kind of notes. Incense, on the other hand, worked really well. August 24, 2014 at 12:38pm
solanace: São Paulo smells stale, and there is something almost sweet, disgustingly so, to the rivers´ foul vapors.
Wearing Farouche today. Very ladylike. 🙂 August 22, 2014 at 11:16am
Victoria: Farouche, the name notwithstanding, is very ladylike! I bet you smell great. 🙂 August 22, 2014 at 5:53pm
solanace: Agree, it actually makes me think of the long walks I used to take in Paris. Sigh…
Have a great weekend y´all! August 22, 2014 at 7:48pm
Victoria: Ah, talking a long leisurely walk is my favorite way to pass time. August 24, 2014 at 12:31pm
FeralJasmine: Here in New Mexico in late summer, the heavenly hot scent of roasting chile becomes pervasive. Wish we could bottle it! August 22, 2014 at 11:35am
Victoria: Oh, you’re making me want to experience it too. I love the smell of roasting chili peppers, which I’ve smelled in parts of Spain. One of my favorite scents and smells in food is smoked paprika. August 22, 2014 at 5:54pm
Kaleigh Bickleman: I grew up in a coal mining town that had America’s oldest brewery running, so my town always smelled like hops and yeast on the days when they were brewing. In the summer you could get a whiff of eggs from the sulfur from the coal mines.
I now work in NYC and in the summer it smells like human waste and rotting garbage. August 22, 2014 at 11:39am
Victoria: I live not too far from a brewery, and I’ve lived in NYC for a while, so I can relate to all those smells you’re describing. 🙂 August 22, 2014 at 5:54pm
Trudy: I live in Southern California about 40 miles north of Los Angeles. I walk every morning in a park near my house. It smells of flowers and cut grass. The canyons between my town and the coast smell like Sycamore trees and the beach smells of the salty ocean and tanning lotions. I can’t complain 🙂 August 22, 2014 at 12:16pm
Victoria: This sounds good enough to be bottled and made into a perfume, Trudy. You’re very lucky. August 22, 2014 at 5:55pm
Kandice: What a wonderful idea! I can’t wait to see how this turns out! August 22, 2014 at 3:42pm
Victoria: Me too! I love the project. August 22, 2014 at 5:55pm
Adrienne: My home city is Christchurch, New Zealand. It smells of the dawn dampened darkest red roses, sweet dried summer grasses from the hot dry winds blowing down from the hills, the sinus clearling fresh waft of eucalyptus trees in the sun……all such welcoming smells that greet me as I stagger off the plane from a long haul flight. Home! August 22, 2014 at 10:17pm
Victoria: Your town must smell wonderful. I never realized until recently how much I love the scent of eucalyptus. I sometimes buy big bunches of it from the florists to decorate the house, and it’s such an uplifting scent. August 24, 2014 at 12:34pm
Brenda: Today my Canadian city smells of too much rain the night before…a mugginess that is not completely unpleasant. There is a whiff of fall in the air…most unpleasant for those of us from a part of the country with a short summer season. Then, all of a sudden….the distinctive scent of a neighbour’s barbecue reminds me that summer is not over yet! I am immediately green with envy…as they “grill away” and I resolve to do the same tomorrow. Today I am enjoying wearing Oscar de la Renta. August 22, 2014 at 11:17pm
Victoria: You smell great, Brenda. How much do I love this perfume! August 24, 2014 at 12:35pm
Claire: Thanks for the info, Victoria! I’m lacking the vocab to describe the scent yet this website gives all the options.. I think one thing is lacking and I often smell here is smoke: BBQ smoke, people smoking marijuana/cigarette, people burning trash out in their yard, smoke from cooking, the exhaust smoke from vehicle/car out on the street. Smoke is about the strongest scent that comes from living too close to your neighbors. I wish they have that.. August 23, 2014 at 1:29am
Victoria: You’ve described it all so poignantly that I could imagine the scents myself. Before our neighbors had their child, smoke (as in cigarette smoke) is what I kept smelling in the hallway often. Not my favorite smell. August 24, 2014 at 12:36pm
Anka: Thank you for the link, Victoria! What an interesting project and company, I particularly liked the Logo Description of Dreamair and am curious about the scent archive.
In April I was at Laudamiel’s scent exhibition “Emotions” here in Berlin where he collaborated with light designer Jakob Kupfer. Very impressive! August 23, 2014 at 2:48am
Victoria: Laudamiel does these quirky projects time to time, and I love the idea. Can’t wait to see what it is will be like eventually. August 24, 2014 at 12:37pm
George: I’m also not sure about ticking a box that says I smell “anus”, ever. Sometimes, context is everything. August 24, 2014 at 9:43am
Victoria: Yes, makes you realize how important context really is. 🙂 August 24, 2014 at 12:46pm
Piper: I live in Davis, California, about an hour from the San Francisco Bay Area, and it’s just inland enough that it gets a hot wind that smells like sage and oak trees and hot, dry grass mixed with a tiny whiff of the salt air blowing over the hills from the Bay. August 24, 2014 at 3:17pm
Victoria: I visited Davis once, and I remember the wonderful herbal-mineral scent in the air. It’s such a good memory. August 25, 2014 at 11:27am
Haefennasiel: Metro Manila smells of vehicular pollution, sewage water, sweat, grime, humidity, sampaguita blossoms, steamed rice and air conditioning (especially from the malls). August 27, 2014 at 4:28am
Victoria: It sounds fascinating and very memorable! August 27, 2014 at 3:04pm
Neisha: Portland smells wet, green and vital, like anything could grow here, including ideas. It always feels great to step off the plane. August 30, 2014 at 5:25pm
Victoria: I love this description! 🙂 August 31, 2014 at 4:26pm