From Strawberries to Incense: 7 Women On The Scents That Trigger Emotional Memories

Fresh roses on a first date. Coconut-infused sunscreen on summer holidays. Fresh florals spritzed on your skin on Graduation Day. 

In the same way that music can be the soundtrack to our lives, so too can smell. According to science, scents have more of a connection to memory than any of our other senses. 

A professor at Harvard University shared that smells are processed by the olfactory bulb (the part of your brain that sends out information to the rest of your body). There, the scents travel around your system, including the amygdala and hippocampus, two parts of your brain that are responsible for memory and emotion. 

While this is all very scientific and I’m here imagining something out of The Magic School Bus, it got me thinking. What are the smells that are tied to other people’s memories? 

I know that I can’t get a whiff of seaweed without remembering my childhood spent by the beach, and that I still do a double-take when someone walks past me wearing my high school boyfriend’s cologne (even though I know he lives in another state). 

So, if you’re also a Nosy Nelly like me, then read on for the stories of the scents that trigger 7 women's most emotional memories.