When reading the ingredients of a bottle of perfume, one can often be mystified by the contents.  What exactly does freshly laundered t-shirt smell like?

freshly laundered t-shirt

Sometimes our imagination will draw us to a smell.  I like the thought of inhaling something freshly laundered, or the faint whiff of new leather and suede.

leather

suede

Other appealing smells in a fragrance which seem unexpected are alcohol based or contain tobacco.  When thinking of a 'manly' fragrance for some reason we are attracted to smells such as bourbon, cognac, vodka,  gin and tobacco.

bourbon

cognac

vodka

Gin

tobacco

There's something smoky, warm and comforting about these scents that appeal to our senses. On the other hand, you can sometimes wonder why other smells appeal.  On looking at a picture of a musk, I cannot imagine that I would like to smell like one yet a fragrance that does not contain it, is often boring, bland and rarely seems to last more than an hour.

musk

Perfume experts complain of modern fragrances smelling synthetic.  Probably because modern day fragrances contain such things as aldehydes, coumarin and kephalis.  Chemical components used cleverly to recreate such smells as freshly laundered t-shirts or the smell of a frozen lake.

aldehydes

coumarin

kephalis

Fragrances with chocolate, cotton candy and popcorn almost deserve a date to the cinema rather than being sprayed!