Smells can conjure up some powerful memories. The smell of pine needles can take you back to childhood Christmases or the smell of a laundry detergent can remind you of home. For me, there are certain smells that I’ve come to associate with manliness. Whenever I smell them I think of my dad or grandpa or some aspect of my boyhood and my initiation into the rites of manhood.
And apparently, I’m not alone. For fun last week, I asked Art of Manliness Facebook Fans and Twitter followers what smells they thought were manly. The response was overwhelming. I decided to pick a few of my favorite responses and make a post out of it. So without further ado, I present 15 manly smells.
Hardware Store
The hardware store is a smorgasbord of manly smells: paint, wood, fertilizer, metal. It’s all there. As a boy, there was a local hardware store that my dad would go to. He’d lug my brother and I along. We’d open up all the drawers for the hinges and nails and play hide-in-seek in the door displays. Like many local hardware stores, it went out of business years ago when the Big Box stores moved in. The building was torn down and replaced with an upscale shopping center. But whenever I drive by the corner where it once stood, I can still smell the manliness that once emanated from that place.
Shoe Polish
The smell of shoe polish is a distinctively manly smell. For many men it conjures up images of brave soldiers shining their shoes to a mirror polish. For me, whenever I crack open a can of Kiwi black shoe polish, I’m instantly transported to my childhood den. About once a month, my dad would pull out his wooden shoe polish kit and take all his boots to the den to polish them. He usually watched In the Heat of the Night or Magnum P.I. while he did it. The warm smell of shoe polish and leather filled the entire room, and it would usually linger there for an hour after he finished.
Cut Grass
For many men, mowing the lawn is the bane of their existence. But even if you hate the actual chore of mowing the yard, you can’t deny that the smell of fresh cut grass is pretty darn manly. I love the smell of the grass bag as I empty it into a trash can. And I actually quite enjoy how I smell after I mow the yard. It’s a combination of cut grass, gasoline, and body odor. I’ll even delay taking a shower just so I can revel in my manly scent.
Sawdust
I haven’t worked with wood as much as I would like to. But whenever I do, I always try to savor the smell of sawdust. I can remember when I first gained an appreciation of sawdust. It was at that old hardware store I mentioned earlier. Out back, they had a lumber yard, and I remember getting big whiffs of sawdust as I watched the workers saw wood down to size for my dad. The smell of sawdust also brings back the memory of my dad showing me how to sand my first pinewood derby car. Good times.
Scotch
The warm, rich, smokey smell of an aged scotch whisky. There’s nothing like it. To the first timer, the smell of scotch can be off putting. But once you get past it’s initial pungency, you’ll discover a symphony of smell. Each scotch has its own distinct smell, but they all share some general characteristics. You’ll definitely smell the smokey peat used during the malting process. But if you get in closer, you might catch the subtle fruity smell of apples or cherries. There’s also a hint of licorice, which reminds me of kind old men. Taken together, you’re left with a scent that will put hair on the chest of any man who takes a whiff. Scotchy, scotch, scotch.
Gunpowder
I think every man’s affinity for the smell of gunpowder began at some fireworks stand out in the country. That’s where mine did at least. Every Fourth of July, without fail, the parents would take my brother and I to a fireworks stand on an old country road. I can remember being overwhelmed by the smell of gunpowder as we ran up to the stand. After we filled up our paper bags, I would often stick my nose in it and take a nice big whiff. I was smelling danger. And manliness.
The smell of spent gunpowder is just as appealing, too. The smell of spent shotgun shells or the way an area smells after you fire off a round from a pistol is definitely manly.
Original Old Spice
Go to any men’s section in a department store, and you’ll see a stand selling $60 bottles of cologne with foo fooey scents. Walk into any local drug store and you can find manliness in a bottle for less than 12 bucks. Before they made deodorant, Old Spice was known for it’s cologne. Chances are your grandpa did and still does wear Old Spice. They still make the cologne, but it doesn’t get much play these days, which is a shame. Based purely on anecdotal evidence, women seem to love a man who wears Old Spice cologne. It reminds them of their grandfathers. They’re not hot for their grandpas, obviously, they’re just keen on the smell of old fashioned manliness. When they get a whiff of you sporting Old Spice they’ll instantly associate you with a time when men were men. Quit dousing yourself in Calvin Klein or gassing yourself in a cloud of Axe body spray and get some Old Spice.
Campfire
It’s sunrise. The sky is still gray with a hint of orange and yellow on the horizon. You go over the fire pit and begin to strategically place dry leaves and small twigs into a tepee shape. You light a match, and watch the leaves smolder. And then it reaches you- the first bit of smoke from a campfire you made all by yourself. You suddenly feel more manly. But the smells don’t stop there. Throw in some maple, pine, or pinon logs and you up the manly smell quotient a few marks.
And the campfire smell stays with you when you go home. It gets in your clothes and in your hair. You never really notice it until you walk into a clean house. The contrast between your smokey smelling self and your antiseptic home gives you one last chance to revel in the manly scent of a campfire, before you watch it get washed down the shower drain.
Barbershop
I love walking into a barbershop. You know why? Because they all smell so damn manly. A barbershop smell is a mixture of Barbicide, shaving cream, musky smelling hair, and cheap (and free) coffee. If you’re going to an old barber shop, it may also smell faintly of tobacco from the days when men would smoke a cigarette and put out their butts in the ash tray on the barber chair arm rests.
Pipe Smoke
Not many men smoke pipes these days, which is a shame because people are missing out on the sweet manly smell of pipe tobacco. Cigarette and cigar smoke can be acrid and obnoxious, but pipe smoke is, well, just pleasant. A whiff of a nice clove or cherry wood blend summons images of kindly older men in tweed jackets sitting in a chair next to a warm cozy fire with an old dog nearby.
Leather
Nothing beats the smell of well worn leather. Some of the manliest pieces of clothing and accessories are made from leather- leather jackets, leather boots, leather briefcases, leather saddlebags. The smell of leather reminds me of riding horses with my grandpa. I loved walking into the storage area in his barn where he stored all his tack and taking a deep breath. I remember thinking “Man, this is manly.” And like a fine glass of scotch, leather only gets better with time.
Your Grandpa’s Chair
It seems like every old man has a chair that’s just for him. After years of sitting in it, the seat conformed specifically to the contours of his body and his scent has been permanently stamped into the upholstery. At least that’s how my grandpa’s chair was. That’s him sitting in his chair with me on the left and my little brother, Larry, on the right. One my fondest memories was going to my grandpa’s house in Bosque Farms, New Mexico for Thanksgiving. We’d sit on his lap and he’d hold us in his big strong hands. His chair smelled like the pinion wood he’d burn in his cast iron stove, the barn that he kept his horses in, and the sweat of a man who worked hard even in retirement. In a word, it smelled like pure manliness.
I miss that chair.
Gun Cleaning Solvent
Another ritual my father had when I was growing up was cleaning his government issued gun for his job as a Federal Game Warden. It was usually done on the week nights after dinner. He’d bring his gun cleaning kit to the kitchen table and place a white cloth in front of him on which he’d place his revolver. I was always fascinated by all the different size brushes in his kit. He’d then slowly open up the bottle of Hoppe’s No. 9 gun cleaning solvent. It filled the entire room with a rich, warm smell.
The first time you smell gun solvent it’s pretty jarring, but then you get used to it, and then you start to like it.
Charcoal
I love tearing open a bag of Kingsford and letting that waft of charcoal goodness hit me right in the nose. It’s a smell that tells my mind and body that summer is officially here. But the smell only gets better when you throw a match on them and watch them turn from black lumps of coal to glowing red stones, ready to cook any meat you throw on it.
Bowling Alley
In their heyday in the 1950’s, bowling alleys replaced the fraternal lodge as a place for men to gather and bond. Perhaps that’s why I associate the smell of a bowling alley with manliness. The combination of lane wax, piles of bowling shoes that have been worn by thousands of people, and cigarette smoke mix together to form that distinct bowling alley smell that permeates alleys across the country.
I know there are some other smells that you all think are manly. Share them with us in the comments!
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I miss that chair too!
Man, so true. I would have to add cigar smoke though. Even though you stated it can be “acrid and obnoxious”, my dad used to smoke them, and whenever i get a whiff, it reminds me of him.
I never penpointed the combination of smells that reminded me of winter evenings at my grandparents’ house until one day.
)
It was winter and after a long drive from the city, my wife and I finally made it to the family cabin in the mountains west of Denver. We settled in and I replaced my overcoat with a ragwool sweater and poured a scotch, then I went to light the woodstove. After successfully getting the fire started (in one try, mind you) I settled back with my drink.
Smelling the wool sweater, the wood smoke, and the scotch took me right back to my younger days visiting my grandfather, who smelled exactly like all three at once. (Yes, I do realize that grandpa drank…
Nice list, a couple more I can remember is the smell of going into the old feed store with my dad and the old feed mill. All the different grains and feeds around along with different fertilizers made up one unique smell. Also the smell of walking into a mechanics shop and you get the smell of those tubes of grease. And the smell of a strong pot of coffee brewing also brings back memories, that and the way the old tan colored Listerine smells.
I would second the pipe smoke, woodsmoke and the Hoppe’s No. 9, all three really bring on the memories.
I would add the smell of Brut,
also the aroma of WD-40.
Nice reference to Will Farrell as Ron burgundy.
Scotch, Old Spice, and Charcoal. Definitely the mark of a man.
One word, Sweat.
Well, of course too much of it, but women love the smell of man’s sweat, a man who has worked hard all day long out in the field is very attracting to women.
Trust me
*NOT too much of it, sorry.
It’s a shame that more men don’t smoke pipes? Tsk tsk. Tobacco’s certainly something I hope we all can partake more of
The smell is nice, comparative to cigarettes, but it’s still just the lesser of two evils.
I second the smell of coffee being a manly smell. A couple of more:
The smell of metal working, forging, kind of an oil on hot metal. My father used to do that and taught me a good bit of it.
The smell of warship. Having spent a lot of time at sea when I was in the US Navy when I visit warship museum such as USS Midway the first thing I notice is the smell. Kind of a paint, hydraulic fluid, boiler exhaust, salt air mix.
The smell of coal, not charcoal (well that too) but anthracite. My uncles on my mother’s side were all coal miners, some of my cousins too. I remember them coming home all covered in coal dust and how tough they were having to do that kind of work. Then there was the smell of the coal stove and “stoker” (furnace) in my grandparent’ house.
the smell of cars… oil, burnt gas, rubber.
I can think of 2 that make me just want to start combing my chest hair. The smell of an old airplane cockpit. I worked B-52’s, and the smell of 40 years of sweat, burnt food, tension, and hard work just can’t be beat. I’m sure it’s one of those acquired smells, once you get it, you got it.
Same with the smell of an old car. Nothing beats getting into an old car (that hasn’t been completely restored from the ground up) and taking a big ol whiff and just smelling the years.
The smell of shoe polish takes back to the weekly Saturday night ritual of polishing my shoes prior to church the next day. My father emphasized the need for the polishing and the attendance at church. We would drag out the shoe shine box that he had made as a boy during the depression out of an old apple crate (he worked as a street shoeshine boy) and shine away while we watched TV. I still have the shoeshine box with the 5 cent price for a shine whittled into the wood. I treasure it.
I can’t believe you left out burnt two stroke! The smell of motorcycles! Although they’re (sadly) no longer manufactured I can still get my two stroke kick whenever someone is using a petrol lawnmower.
That’s a two for the price of one. Is there such a thing as nose heaven?
I must agree with Mark – Certain types of Engine smoke strike the tone of manliness – Be it a classic 67 Mustang being tuned, to a modern powerhouse of a new Charger, to even a cruiser motorcycle, either of Foreign or Domestic Production – any of these conjures up the image of your James Deans, your Steve McQueens.
I would add a few more:
1. Cigars, especially the smell of a cigar-store humidor.
2. Sandalwood or Almond shaving cream.
3. Fresh dirt.
4. A nice, clean, dog. Even better, a nice, clean puppy.
5. An old house.
6. Anything that reminds you of your grandpa.
But my all-time favorite has to be campfire.
Cool post!
I am really happy about this. It brings a sense of good nostalgia, plus a lot of these are some of my favorite things. The little Tweet escapade we had was enjoyable- I didn forget to mention that I have a new found love for Lagerfeld Classic(cologne). It has that old musk that reminds me of my grandpa. http://www.fragrantica.com/images/perfume/nd.1309.jpg
did* forget to mention…
Great list, but you forgot a very manly smell: BACON.
As for other smells, I returned to wet-shaving with a badger brush a few years ago, and the accumulated soaps in the brush produce an aroma that reminds me of my grandfather. Very manly, and nothing like the cheap cans of foam guys tend to use nowadays.
I’m also glad to see you included pipe smoke. I smoke an occasional pipe myself; I love that smell. I have a friend who used to work at a tobacco shop, and when I’d visit him there, I loved to hear the great stories told by the elderly men who’d frequent the place. They’d smoke a pipe or cigar, lean against the counter, and tell us about hunting in Africa or fighting in Korea or how his dad had met John Wayne. It was great, and those smells remind me of that.
I’ll also add machine grease and (like someone else said) WD-40. And if you ever made a list of manly sounds, I’d suggest a chainsaw, a shotgun being pumped, the crackle & pop of a campfire, and the engine of a 1968 Mustang Fastback.
I like Cutter’s thoughts on the sounds. That’s something you don’t think of as often… in addition, I’d say the sound of shaving those burly whiskers with a fresh blade on the safety razor, the swish noise of a golf club grazing over the grass when hitting the ball, the sound of the grill when the fire initially ignites…
I used to love getting packages in the mail from my Pop (grandfather). I would revel in the smell of his pipe smoke as I unwrapped them. I actually keep a sealed bucket of his cloths in basement. I took them from his closet after he died. Every now and then I’ll open up the box and breath in the memories.
Thanks for the post.
Cheers,
Adam
Wonderful topic. Certainly made me think. My grandfathers died before/soon after I was born. One was a guilder/framemaker, the other a shipbuilder. Imagine the smells I was never allowed to associate with them.
Two other things: Tiger balm and that garage smell, exhaust mixed with rust, metal and oil.
Oh, and the smell of welding.
I couldn’t agree more with any of these 15!
Another one – not just “charcoal” or “campfire”, but the actual smell of bbq/grilling itself…men come out of caves inexplicably when a grill is fired up and a good slab of pork thrown on.
Another might be the distinct smell of hops – not beer – hops.
Maybe black coffee, brewed…although lattes have changed all that too.
Great list. I would not only add cigar smoke, though, but the smell of cigar boxes. That makes me think of grandpa.
Love this article! Nice to know I’m not the only one who gets nostalgic from smells.
I’d have to add modeling glue/paint for all the times I did this with my dad and definitely concur with the car smells of oil and tires.
Also – why aren’t farts on here? Nothing manlier! LOL
You missed the smell of freshly burned racing fuel.
CAM 2, Sunoco Racing Fuel, VP all have their delightful qualities.
I’d buy cam2 perfume for my wife.
Not very pleasant but still very manly is the Methanol based fuel used from Briggs and Stratton Go karts up to Tip Fuel dragsters. Eye watering noxious stuff…but all in all VERY manly.
Great list. Don’t think anyone has mentioned this yet; the interior smell of a wooden sailboat.
I keep reading about Old Spice in alot of posts, can anyone post a link to a webshop that ships to Scandinavia? Would love to try it out.
3in1 oil and WD40 were the standards for manly odor around my house. Also mineral spirits from my dad’s cabinet shop.
My pawpaw definitely had a smell. He was a prison guard at a minimum security prison farm. The kind where drunk driving accountants go. They were in charge of mowing public property. So when I was a kid in school I’d look out the window at orange jumpsuited prisoners pushing lawnmowers and my pawpaw watching over them with mirrored sunglasses and a shotgun over his shoulder.
When you are 10 years old it don’t get any cooler than that!
PawPaw always smelled like soap and freshly cut grass.
Now my father is a differrent story. He was actually born without a sense of smell, a condition called anosmia. Not having a sense of smell has few major effects. It makes you paranoid about BO. It puts you in fear of getting caught in a fire (cause you can’t smell the smoke) so his house is littered with smoke detectors. And you end up making your beloved son who has a perfectly good sense of smell check things out for you before you eat them. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been nose deep in a jug of milk that would gag a crocodile.
So strangely enough the smells that recall fond memories of my dad are rotten things. Smells the evoke the “Oh my GOD you didn’t just eat that!” response. Or the time he left some food in the back of his van… for a year. Somehow he never got sick from what he ate, he must have had a cast iron stomach or had built up an immunity over the years until he could literally eat garbage. It was a source of endless fascination and amusement when I was a kid.
For me, it’s always been the smell of black coffee…especially the stuff that gets stuck to the bottom of the cup and makes a dark ring…ahh the smell of manliness
Beer, Gas and B.O.
While I don’t like the addition of any tobacco-related products to Brett’s list due to health concerns, I do think his list is pretty darn spot-on. Especially the leather and Old Spice.
I’d like to add two more smells to it.
First: Nothing beats the smell of Army-issued tents or clothing. When I smell this scent I instantly imagine army platoons marching in front of me.
Second: the smell of my Grandpa’s garage. It was kind of a metallic scent, I can’t quite define it.
Could you do a post on pipe smoking (the pro’s, con’s, the benefits, how to do it, etc)?
I’m a little hesitant to pipe-smoke due to health consequences/risks, but think it might be nice to indulge in once in a while…
?
@Andy,
I’m slightly concerned if AoM posts something about how to get into pipe smoking that I’ll be out buying one! Seriously, AoM, you have waaaay too much influence on my life. =P
Well be forewarned Brian….an AoM reader wrote up a great article about pipe smoking and sent it to me the other day. We’re going to publish in a few weeks. It unfortunately doesn’t discuss the health concerns, Andy. I think it’s one of those questions that’s very difficult to answer as you only smoke a pipe on occasion and you don’t inhale. I’m sure there will be plenty of debate on the subject in the comments section……
The smell of axle grease and old spice reminds me of my grandfather, it’s what his shop always smelled like. The smell of that orange-scented hand degreaser and wood shavings brings me back to my childhood.
I haven’t been able to pin down the specific smells, but I have always found the way my dad smelled when he came in from working outside in the winter. It’s something of the clean smell of winter (what you get before it snows), a hint of sweat, and the slightest bit of whatever he was working on. It was a very clean scent, no fruity, flowery stuff, nothting of grease or oil or gas or anything of the like. Just clean.
To me, remembering that smell always helps me relax. I just wish I could figure out what was in it.
Also, the smell of the sea. Not the smell of beer, hotdogs and sand while you sit beside the ocean. The smell of the sea when you can’t see the land and there’s no sound but the wind in your sails.
Nearly 40 responses and no jokes yet about the smell of napalm in the morning…
A fantastic list. I read it with great approval and when I saw gunpowder I thought, “As great as gun powder smells, I really love Hoppe’s No. 9.” Sure enough…
I am also a big fan of coffee (my cup has more than a dark ring in the morning, it has a layer of grounds from the french press), WD-40, gasoline, and cigars.
Brett and Brian
Thanks!
Brett specifically:
I love how you read these comments! It’s great for a more… communal feeling?
I guess I’ll have to check out the health effects, and then give it a try (see if it’s fun/worth it).
I’ll be looking forward to that article! I LOVE this site!
Reenacting combines at least three of these great smells: campfires, gunpowder, and leather. It’s a great time, especially getting up just before dawn and watching the silhouettes of the men as they prepare the campfires for the day…
Just going through this list with my wife, and she thought to add fishing and the smell of the scented baits. Also, it seems that rivers have a particular scent, different from oceans or lakes, and this is manly as well. I would add all bodies of water myself.
I would also add the smell of a hangar. An airplane hangar combines a large number of manly scents into one uber-masculine odor. Leather upholstery, old airplane scent, numerous fuels and oils and greases, and exhaust, both tubine and reciprocating. It’s unforgettable, and undeniably masculine.
wingnut
Also thought I’d add one – early morning dew. Manly because if you up early enough to smell it bake off from the rising sun, chances are you are doing something manly like (note how well it mixes with other popular smells):
- walking onto a job site, tools in hand (mixes well with gas, sawdust, etc)
- hitting the first drive down a glistening fairway (leather shoes and maybe a cigar)
- waking up in a tent (campfire AND coffee and maybe a body of water)
- maintaining silence in hunting post that you’ve been in way before sun up (gunpowder and the general musk you develop after 5 days in whitetail country)
Perry –
Thanks for reminding me about “ship smell”. I’m an old navy guy too and after 35 years I can still remember that smell. Red lead paint, bunker oil, steam, food from the galley, and gunpowder. Add several hundred – or several thousand – tired and often scared people. Put it all in a steel box and seal it up from the sunlight and fresh air.
I visited the USS Texas about 15 years ago. She’d been cold iron since the late 1940’s but when I went below decks I could still smell the ghost of that smell in the air.
I can’t believe you got Hoppes no. 9 in there–I thought I was the only person who loved that smell. I never thought of it as especially manly, but it’s a *great* smell.
Vitalis. My dad used the hair oil for years until the “wethead” look was beat down by the blowdried dillhole look. Whenever I smell Vitalis, I see Dad slicking his hair, then running his comb through it until it was perfect.
Two-cycle exhaust preferably from a chain saw and sweat. I didn’t recognize it until I smelled it on myself after a hard day cutting wood and it brought back memories I didn’t realize I had.
I’ve been a competitive rifle shooter since before I can remember. My dad taught me firearms safety, shooting skills, sportsmanship, reloading, and firearms maintenance. He was my coach, mentor, confidant, and friend over the years. He taught me how to win and lose with dignity. I achieved great success on a national stage, and I can’t give him enough of the credit.
There were plenty of rough spots throughout my shooting career, and my dad wasn’t always perfect. But he was always there, and he never gave up on me. He taught me more about being a true competitor and a good man that I can put into words here.
I say all of this because of this post’s references to the smell of gun powder and solvent. For me, those two smells are more than an expression of manliness, they’re a reminder of how life’s lessons are passed from father to son.
How about the smell of a brand new baseball? They used to come in a box, wrapped in tissue paper, not shrink-wrapped in plastic.
Both of my grandfathers and my dad worked on the railroad so the smell of diesel is always associated with men for me. Also, the smell of a tackle box and northern pike always seemed pretty darn manly to me. And varnish.
gin, gasoline, candle wax, burnt hair, napalm, Aqua Velva, beer and so many others
Diesel fuel!
the one you forgot to mention i always loved visiting my dads body shop the smell of bondo and grinding always brings fond memories. i recently bought a new car and the smell in the dealership brought me back instantly
For me, it will always be the smells I associate with the time spent with my dad While he was working.
All the smells of a fishing boat, but most of all, the smell of the sea.
It truly was his second wife.
Fantastic list. I love almost all of the things you listed.
I just have to add a few…..
Motor oil.
Fresh cut lumber and sawdust.
Wood stain.
All very manly smells.
I worked in a tune-up shop for close to 30 yrs. Boss’s pipe tobacco, assorted auto chemicals, exhaust, oil, grease, rubber. Any of those aromas engages my nostalga. Most unhealthy, sure, but it really says “Man area”
Being a pipe and cigar smoker I’d say you have it wrong. Pipe tabacco can be just as arcid and obnoxious as a cheap cigar. A good quality tobacco smells good.
The smell of the auto parts store. A combo of bearing grease, gasoline, used motor oil and WD-40.
Also add the smell of fuel stabilizer, my Paw Paw would treat the fuel in his boat every year. Last year, I put fuel stabilizer in my generator getting it ready for hurricane season, the smell took me back…
the smell of sambuca always reminds me of my grandfathers and my father.
How about MEAT. Nobody mentioned the smell of rotting flesh. Nothing better than walking into a butcher’s shop if you can find one….
Gasoline is one of my favorites and can only be considered manly. Brasso smells offensive at first, but then you begin to love the smell as well. I wonder what I’m doing to my lungs sometimes.
Good list! I just wanted to add the smell of cement mixed in a wheelbarow. One of my grandpa’s built almost all of my mom’s sister’s houses. The smell of fresh mixed concrete always reminds me of him.
Engine oil/grease
My dad would smell like that after working on the family cars, my older brothers would smell like that after working on their cars, and my husband smells like that every day, as he is a mechanic. Too much is too much, but just the right amount of grease on his tan forearms, smelling manly…WOW. That is one hell of a manly smell.
I wanted to go back to the Old Spice bit. Sure, it’s manly. But I’m not sure it’s the right choice if you’re into dating: “That smells like OLD MAN! Almost as bad as Stetson!” I use both, I’m not chasing babes anymore, so I don’t care if I smell like “old man”, especially since I’m almost 50. But younger guys may want to think twice about Old Spice, classy as it is.
I haven’t every really looked at a Bowling Ally as a manly smell…. I would definitely add WD40 to the list.
I thought this was going to be another bullshit list like the smells “real man could whitstand”, but you have actually made outstanding, great list.
10/10
Personally I find the smell of train station, this burnt disel very pwoerful, nostalgic and manly. Reminds me great metal monsters that could shake all the windows in house when going by.
Aqua Velva. Whenever I put some on after shaving, I feel manly and confident!
@Cowboy Bob:
I wear old spice and I’m in my mid-twenties.Oddly enough, it’s not the women who disparge the cologne, but the other men. They seem to think I’m doing something wrong because I don’t smell like fruit.
Bay rum. ‘Nuff said.
My grandpa wore Old Spice. He also ate pig’s feet and drank Stroh’s beer. Now that is a manly combo of scents. He also had a drawer where he would store his cigars, cigarettes, and Cherry Borkhum Riff. Absolutely wonderful.
Curry combs, gun cabinets, sweat wet horses, pipes and the hot air smell of a garage in late July.
That was my grandpa.
the air after a lightening storm & freshly baked bread
What a lovely article! It reminds me of my Grandpa’s garage; I miss him so much. It is also really making me want to buy a pipe. Strange, for someone who has never smoked!
Funny, though, how one or two things haven’t crossed the Atlantic. I doubt many British men would list gunpowder or gun cleaning stuff!
You did not mention Pinaud by name….FOR SHAME!!!
More manly than sweat or black coffee!
I definitely agree with the necessary addition of Pinaud, and I would also put forth Brylcreem. It has a very distinct smell that just screams manliness.
Manly and stomach-turning – the smell of jet fuel. Eau du JP-5.
the smell of my tackle box!
Outboard motor exhaust.
The smell of combining a corn field on a dry fall day – my dad in the combine and me hauling wagons with our old Farmall 806 diesel. Those are some great memories.
I swear I never dated a guy who didn’t fill his lungs and let out a contented smile after passing near a car repair shop doorway. Cold places smelling of paint, dust, oil, gasoline, leather, sweat and many odors I would only adjective as gross, were (are) like flowers to their noses. Dusty places with aggressive chemical smells, like hardware shops and shoe repair shops, also rate very high in that list.
I don’t know if this is a manly smell, but onions getting golden in oil in a saucepan have an immediate possitive reaction in my husband’s mood. The smell of red meat being cooked in an gas oven, saucepan or open grill, of stew and of angel cake (yeah, I know) also lift his moods more than any other food smell. But that’s only because salami, cheese and olives don’t always smell very strongly I guess.
Though I can see some smells appeal more to men than to women, I’m not very sure I can pinpoint any particular smell I associate with manliness, that make me think of, well, men. Probably some faint trace of some very specific very expensive fragrance worn by very clean people mixed with just a dash of tobacco smoke. But that’s too much to describe, isn’t it?
This is a fantastic post, I love the chance to peep other people’s sensitivity. Thank you.
Julia, if we got into all the possible food-related smells, we’d never get out of here. But cooking up some onions in oil is one of the finer culinary-olfactory experiences.
I definitely agree with the hardware store smell. There used to be a great local hardware store where I grew up and you could smell the fertilizer as soon as you walked in the door. To this day, the smell of Scott’s Turfbuilder or similar fertilizer takes me right back to those days. I go to a traditional (and old) barbershop and it definitely has that manly barbershop smell. Great list.
Great list. I’m reminded of an Army attack helicopter pilot’s toast,
“Here’s to gunpowder and pussy.
One brings you into the world,
the other takes you out
and I love the smell of them both!”
Pine Tar
Great list. Some combinations I am fond of are wool sweaters and guns (before and after being shot) and the combination of smells in the morning of the campfire the night before, beer and Morning mist or rain.
Great topic. I’ve often thought about it myself, and you’ve hit almost all of my favorites (the exception being WD-40, which others have mentioned). My list is as follows:
leather
sawdust
WD-40
gunpowder/gunsmoke
Hoppe’s #9
cosmoline (This comes from my love of old military surplus guns. Nothing smells quite like a 60+ year old gun, slick with cosmo, that’s been stuck in some Eastern European warehouse since the end of The War. Smells like history.)
Two come to mind for me.
1) Motor oil and Gasoline. My dad was always a car guy these smells remind me of working with him in the garage.
2) Sign making vinyl. This one may seem weird to a bunch most of you. But my dad made signs for a living for a good portion of my childhood. The smell of the vinyl instantly takes me back to memories of my dad working hard to provide for his family. It smells like manliness to me.
I agree with all the aforementioned scents, but I’d also like to add “salt air” to the list because, heck, what guy hasn’t dreamed of going on a Hemmingway-esque nautical adventure at some point in an old sailing vessel?
An excellent list. I am a fellar now in his 50s, enjoy your website much. I do use Old Spice, original of course, I spoke Capstan navy cut, the same as JRR Tolkien, I visit hardware stores often, etc., etc.,
Damn good list lads.
Sandalwood
YES! These smells are exactly what come to mind when I think of the best men in my life AT their best.
My dad shining his shoes for a date with my mom.
The smell of Old Spice left on my sheets after my boyfriend goes to work.
And the freshly cut grass my brothers and I would run across at our childhood home.
Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. This article made my day.
I’m now sitting here wondering what scents I will leave my children with… Pinaud is definately overlooked on this list, but I think you could apply the Old Spice section to many “vintage” aftershaves and colognes. The smell of trout on your hands, coffee as strong as rocket fuel, ribs and tri-tip smoked with mesquite, Armor-All on the car interior…
And the unmistakable smell of a deer carcass hanging in the garage. Venison good, deer innards bad!
Great, great article. Well done.
Dirt roads and the woods that surround them, especially in the morning. Humidors, Barbeque smoke, and old guitars are pretty great too.
good blog, always is
good post, usually are
but don’t romanticize pipe smoking or any other kind of tobacco. Not to say you shouldn’t mention, just don’t romanticize it, and if you mention it, you might also mention tongue, throat, and lip cancer are just as bad as lung cancer.
Patrick, we’re adult men, we understand the harm smoking can potentially cause and some of us would prefer to enjoy ourselves, we can make choices for ourselves. Grandfather is pushing 80 and has used tobacco in some way shape or form since the 40s, does he know about the effects on his health? Sure. Does he care? No. His mantra is live your life to the fullest and enjoy it, and frankly that’s what my pipe and I intend to do.
Great list! A lot of those smells make me think of my father, grandfathers and just men in general! Grass made me think of my father for sure! ha ha
Let’s not forget fiberglass resin. Whether patching up a sailboat or a surfboard, it’s a smell from a manly act usually done in the company of your best buds. Also Old Bay crab / shrimp boil would have to be added. What about roasted oysters on the grill? I think the smell of seaweed would fit, because you would have to be near or on the water, which means fishing, boating or surfing, manly.
Two places will forever leave their manly olfactory mark on me in a positive way:
1) A blacksmith’s shop. I worked in one at a historic site for a number or years, and the combination of steel, coal (burned and unburned), sweat, tobacco smoke, rust, oil, grease, and wood is a whole other level of manly.
2) An old hockey arena. I played a lot of hockey in my younger days, and every time I head back to the 70-plus year old rink it reminds me of all the manly old buggers like my dad who played there before me. It has to be an old one though, the new ones don’t have the right smell.
Diesel fuel, old books, and shoe polish always make me smile.
English Leather cologne.
Velveta cheese…..stuck on a hook and line tied to a cane pole as me and my dad pulled in rainbow trout.
Hoppe’s #9……brings a tear to my eye. My wife thinks it smells awful. To me it smells like deer season.
Great list!!
For the gun cleaning solvent, I think a lot of us have a particular in mind… Hoppes #9.
An old garage. Has a distinct smell, a combination of wood,oil. My garage has that smell and I love to spend time there. I have an old radio, listen to the ballgame, my tools, I spend a lot of time in that garage.
Two rather unusual scent memories which I haven’t seen mentioned previously are: 1) Railroad tracks on a hot summer day (actually the smell of the tar on the ties), and 2) (OK, this one might be weird) the inside of an old camera.
Scent is one of the first senses to develop. It has been well documented that it has the most powerful ability to associate to a memory. Ever notice that if a stranger is wearing a perfume or cologne that someone else you know wears, you instantly think of them?
Rubber, especially tire shops.
And creosoted wood in the hot sun.
Jet Fuel…
I don’t know why, but I love the smell of pumpkin pie. (it is rumored to be an aphrodisiac for men, so what do you think?)
Definately agree with the campfire and coffee!!!
Why are these things so often a reminder of a grampa? (although the coffee for me is one, especially italian coffee, mmm….)
An airplane hanger has a pretty distint smell too.
I don’t like smoke though.
a great list, but without one of my favorites-walnuts, especially green-most guys my age would whack them with a baseball bat for post-season practice
also, a new aquaintance once asked if he could smell the inside of my vintage fedora, because it reminded him of his father
The inside of a hat definitely smells good. I have an old felt cowboy hat my grandpa gave to me 20 years ago and it still smells like him.
Unless I missed it, I can’t believe no one mentioned the smell of a change room after a game of rugby. Sweat, grass, blood, and Deep Heat and after the showers, various types of stinkpretty. Just the smell of a changeroom almost has the power to impregnate any females passing by.
i loved the smell of horse crap….sounds weird but reminds me of the horse barns, being at the track. cow shit not so much….i prefer horse. i’m not kidding.
My grandfather recently passed away, and nothing takes me back more than entering his house and taking a big whiff. It’s similar to the smell of my dad’s pickup, like leathery work gloves and sweat from working with the cattle on our farm. Has a hint of hay-bail in it.
Also, I remember when I played in Little League there was no smell like putting your glove on your face: leather, dirt, grass, sweat. Baseball is full of great manly smells.
definately metal. My father was a machinist before he got his engineering degree 3 months after I was born, but still continued to manufacture many of his own parts, and taught me the ways of the vice, then drill press, then finally the lathe. That damn workshop reeks so much of manliness it could make a man cry just imagining it.
Same goes with anything under the hood of any automobile. Especially riding tractor hoods (those regular engine checks before taking it out for a mow *every* *single* *time*… I guess he taught me more than I usually admit to myself). And Gasoline.
Every time I’m at a gas station, I can smell my father with his hands covered in engine oil and gasoline from splashing the red canister contents onto the funnel. Those red rags smell more like a man than most men do.
As for the list, right on with the leather and old spice. I was in Macy’s today, and almost bought cologne called “True Religion” in a flask shaped bottle with leather on it, looking rough and manly, and actually smelled nice. $80 a bottle. Tomorrow I will go to my local non-chain drug store (been there over 50 years) and buy a bottle of old spice. (confession: might buy the True Religion for myself ultimately anyway)
One thing I’d have said differently is the sawdust bit. I think the sawdust is not the important part – I think it’s the lumber itself. The smell of wood. Unfinished wood. Especially freshly cut. (like splitting logs for the wood burning stove?) or when I stick my nose into the f-holes of my cello. The inside of a stringed instrument is *ALWAYS* unfinished, and smells like it. Smells real. Smells authentic. Smells like honesty, and strength. Age, and wisdom. Are these things different than manliness?
Old Spice for certain but don’t forget Bay Rum! That was the choice of my beloved grandfather’s generation and also,Brylcreem has a scent I associate with some very signifigant men of the past.
Remembering nights spent looking over Dad’s shoulder as he worked on the balky Sears TV set….there is nothing like the smell of a hot soldering iron and rosin core solder. The smell of a hot vacuum tube can instantly take me back to when I was 6 years old.
This may not be as manly as an outdoor campfire, but there’s nothing like the sweet smell of honeysuckle to make you feel truly at one with nature. For my money, it doesn’t get better than honeysuckle during the day and a campfire at night.
Know what smells manlier than anything else? Prison.
Great list of nostalgia inducing aromas from childhoods spent around the men of the family and social circle. One more to add………..burnt heroin. Miss you Dad!
For me… it’s the smell of freshly turned dirt – that earthy, loamy smell reminds me of the large garden we had in the backyard when I was a youngster. We emigrated from Hong Kong when I was a kid, and my father dreamed of having a farm or acreage in Canada. We never did get that farm, but the privilege of working on his *own* land meant spring and fall, my kid brother and I were outside mucking around in the garden with him as he toiled away. To this day, when I turn the dirt in my own garden, the smell of turned soil reminds me of “real” work and what life is all about, not the antiseptic feel of my office, pushing electrons and paper around in an endless circle.
The other, closely associated smell is the smell of the sun: exposed skin and hair seem to acquire some sort of “sun drenched” fragrance – probably a mix of fresh air, sweat, dirt, etc. Probably unpleasant if unwashed for 24 hours, but the immediate smell reminds you that you did “real” work again.
And finally… just coming out of shower, using only plain soap and water – none of these perfume laden body washes. My wife comments (pleasingly) that I smell like freshly washed “me” – whatever that means!
A warmed up Lionel transformer.
It is hard to believe, but I don’t see auto grease, oil, gasoline, etc. listed. Whenever I smell an auto shop or I am in a garage where someone is working on a car or just smell a tool bag / tool box with old greasy tools it reminds me of my dad working on the car in our garage and my grandpa’s wrecking yard..
Hoppes #9 for certain. Is there any other?
Bacon in the morning, because who doesn’t love bacon.
Construction site, with the smell of wood, concrete & dry wall. As a New Yorker, the big change after 9/11 was when Ground Zero stopped smelling of charred concrete and started to smell like a construction site. That took years.
Old churches, where the smell of incense and burning candles mingles with floor wax. You can smell the sanctity of decades of humble prayers. Real men go to church (or another House of Worship),
The fresh smell of earth and asphalt after a summer rain. Makes me wanna do something constructive.
How about napalm in the morning?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPXVGQnJm0w&feature=related
coffee, bondo, and paint.
That is the best list i’ve ever seen (not that i’ve ever come across a list of manly smells).
I agree with Matt (2 Aug 09) about the jet fuel. I was in the military in Korea where I was a mechanic on H-53 helos. I remember the smell of the jet fuel, grease, oils, and solvents. It was tough work in a tough environment but somehow the challenge made it all the more satisfying.
I also remember the smell of jet exhaust. It’s a bit different than car exhaust or the old oil/gas mixture exhaust (snowmobiles?). I liken it to a charcoal barbeque with too much lighter fluid. Come to think of it, snowmobile/motorbike exhaust has its merits as well (just don’t get too much!)
Charcoal and wood will always have a place with me.
Ace hardware kind of still has the old school smell.
Old Spice is definitely good stuff(this coming from a 30 Y.O.) But women young and older(cougars hell yeah) love a good smelling man even more than a well dressed one. Most man body sprays are garbage The only Axe body spray you should use Is Dark Temptation after Using Lever 2000. As for cologne Choose Extremly carefully, not all scents are for all men. Lucky Number 6 is really good for me.
You nailed the Grandfather’s chair smell. Brings back memories.
Robert Carter. Bacon, yes! And I love the smell of old churches. I agree, real men go to church. It’s a manly thing to do, (unless your church sings modern, girly praise songs, just my opinion).
Here’s a smell that’s hardly ever smelt these days. Probably because it’s illegal but I loved the smell of burning leaves in the Autumn. It’s a shame kids these day won’t get to experience it.
JTT, you mentioned jet exhaust and that’s one of the best. It has a smell and taste that I’ll never forget. Here’s one that may be familiar to a few folks out there. The smell of a naval warship. Not the cruise line kind of “boat” but a ship built for combat. The mixture of oil, grease, exhaust and layer after layer of paint can’t be beat. I’m sure that smell also brings back some bad memories to some but not for me. It always takes me back to when I was a young Seaman walking up to my first real Navy duty station. That ship seemed massive and had a life of it’s own.
Stick welding. That is one manly smell. Nothing can match the characteristic odor of 6011 and the hum of the ol’ Lincoln buzz-box.
Never tried Old Spice cologne before, but Chaps by Ralph Lauren is really cheap and incredibly manly.
yes, Bay Rum. That’s one of the main ingredients in making a barber shop smell manly!
And gun cleaning solvents. Unfortunately, they changed the formula of Hoppie’s 9 some years ago and it dosen’t smell the same any more. Something about the EPA found one of the ingredients bad for the health or something like that.
Yup, Old Spice! I use it evry day.
My dad grew up on a farm before rural electricity and forever after loved the smell of a kerosene lamp in action.
Chainsaws and deisel fuel. My dad was a logger so anytime I am around those scents I think of him.
Cigar smoke
Grease / oil
Gasoline
Fast orange hand cleaner
Warehouse
cleaning the stable and spreading fresh straw, baling hay, the smell of your horse to name a few……….
Anything to do with horses…dried manure, saddle leather, wet saddle blankets, even the smell of hay and sweet feed. A close secound is the smell of a rough framed house, before the exterior doors, windows, and roofing are installed.
Spent gunpowder and Hoppe’s #9. That is the smell of a good day of quail hunting.
Hi Karate!
3-in-1 oil! My grandpa, and dad always had a can around the tool room. In addition to the smell, I can still remember the sound the can made when you squeezed the sides to apply it!
My favorite is the smell of wood after it has been bucked up by chainsaw then split by axe, the combination of the bar oil, two stroke exhaust, sharpening oil and work makes me happy.
my second favorite is the smell of my knife sharpening stones and sewing machine oil
Not just diesel itself, but more the exhaust. My dad drove a truck while I was growing up and would take me along with him from when I was an infant up through grade school when I was on break, and from that I always love the smell of that thick black smoke.
pinaud aftershave!!! how can we ever leave that out!?
Diesel fuel does it for me!
I’ve seen a lot of good suggestions, my favorites not mentioned in the article are:
2-stroke
Race Gas
Man, I miss the smell of the old-time bowling alley. It’s different nowadays, and the one I bowl at regularly is geared toward a family-friendly environment – not that it’s necessarily a bad thing. But it lacks the scent of the bowling alley my parents bowled at when I was a child. Every once in a while, I will step into a bowling alley that still has that nostalgic aroma – but it’s becoming a rarity, unfortunately.
What’s amazing though, is that pretty much every one of the scents you named – I can associate with, and miss the smell of (perhaps tonight I shall clean my shotgun, even though I haven’t fired it in years) – just to fill my living room with the smell of that solvent.
You can’t forget lanolin. Not many things smell manlier than a well maintained baseball mitt, and the distinct aroma of lanolin glove oil definitely makes the list in my book.
Loads of great memories here. Add a few more, some subtle like: fresh maple syrup in the morning when my dad made pancakes (or the smell of ANYTHING cooking for breakfast after a long night camping); the whiff of scent of a freshly lit Zippo lighter; the faint ozone and oil of slot car racing or model railroad engines; that sweet airplane glue or the clear dope you painted on tissue paper covered balsa airplane wings; and Cox model airplane fuel burning in a micro two-stroke spittin’ and barking in your hands. The sulphur of model rocket engines when they launch; the fresh pigskin smell of a brand new football. The grassy plastic smell of “Jarts” on a summer afternoon before do-gooders made them illegal. And a few not so subtle: August-hot creosote on the fresh telephone poles my dad would climb when he was a lineman; the smell of engine, black grease, dust and the acres and acres of crop you were working under your grampa’s tractor when he trusted you to do the field when you were just 11 years old; black powder smoke from the shooter’s point of view on a firing line of muskets in a Civil War reenactment; ether engine starter spray; waterproofing on G.I. tent halves; mothproofing stuff on canvas webgear and new uniforms; LSA cleaning solvent for your M-16 or M-60 (and the sulfur, burning grass, and white-hot metal smell whenever you had to change barrels; deuce-and-a-half diesel exhaust; the smell of the inside of your combat helmet (the steel pot kind); jet exhaust, dust and just a hint of somebody else’s barf as you exit the tail of a C-130 over a blistering hot tarmac– weird as it might sounds, still striking good manly memory smells.
Personally, the faint smell of grease and gasoline. My dad used to work on his motorbike a lot, and while he was a very clean man, the smell never really came off. None of us kids ever really complained because it was a reassuring scent.
Compost pile
the smell of dirt, dry dust, and grit of a job well done, and WD-40. There are tons more but recently with all the work I have been doing around the house memories of helping my dad come back with these smells.
First off, I love the list. I immediately put it in my favorites to refer to later. Also, some of you guys have some great ideas. Bacon!? How did THAT get left out? Fresh dirt and the smell of a garage are both good too. Personally, I love the smell of the woods themselves, not just sawdust (although that is one fo the greatest smells ever). Whoever mentioned the smell of metal being forged was right on as well.
Ivory soap has a manly smell in my opinion. It’s not scented or even colored, just a nice, plain, clean smell and feel. Oldschool.
Many of the above scents are right on the money, but I have a few more to add.
1. Bay Rum shaving soap. The kind you have to whip to a lather with a badger hair brush. It is a clean, woodsy, herbal scent(yes it goes nicely with Old Spice) and women LOVE it.
2. Used hypoid gear oil. The stuff you find in the rear axle of an old car. It stinks to high heaven, permeates your clothes, skin, and even hair if you spend enough time working around it. It is pungent, acrid and foul, but it is the smell of serious repairs from a time when men worked on their own cars.
3. Hand splitting of firewood. You can’t use an electric or gas powered log splitter and get the same effect. From the metallic smell you get stuck in your nose as you use the double action file to restore the edge on your decades old axe, to the one of a kind aroma released by a length of red oak as it is cleaved in two, right on down to the combined smell of dank bark chips stuck to your sweaty flannel shirt. Much like the above lawn mowing smell, I like to pause to enjoy it.
4. Race gas and burning rubber. Ever been to the drag strip? Men without fear pitting one home built machine against another. Spitting fire, oil, chunks of rubber and raw nerve. Get down close to the starting line and get a deep whiff of that 116 octane, extra leaded, fruit scented gasoline combined with tire rubber so hot it is as gooey as taffy laying in a parking lot in July. The only way to get more manly, is to actually drop the clutch behind the wheel of a six hundred horsepower car and row through the gears yourself.
I can’t ever forget another smell. My grand-father was a baker, and when I visited the bakery I couldn’t come back home without taking to me the agreeable smell of the bread newly made.
Another unforgettable fragrance. I was living in a huge house that has a great courtyard full of flowers. I can remember many of these perfumes, but specially one of a little white flower that only smells by night.
It is impossible to forget the aroma of the orange trees in the streets, the smell of the incense in the cathedral, the cinnamon fragrance of the sweet that make my grand-mother, etc.
what about gasoline? thats a great smell. So is WD40.
The smell of a Submarine snorkleing on the diesel, manly, heavenly. The smell of a Butcher Shop with the saw dust mixed in and an old school Fish Market, smelly good, but manly nevertheless. The Old Spice is right on but don’t leave out Pinaud a proud standby at any old school Barber Shop.
somebody said a nice clean dog. but i like the smell of my labrador after we’ve been out stomping through thick brush doing retrieves, or after he’s been swimming in clean water. it smells like hard, manly outdoorsmanship to me.
another one is the smell of newsprint. my dad would sit on the couch after work (whence by the way, he would come home smelling of machine grease) and read the paper, back in the days when the paper would really leave some color on your hands. i would sit next to him and that newsprint aroma would waft out when he spread the pages wide open. In the winter, he’d light an old kerosene heater just before he settled down to the paper. Talk about being engulfed in manliness.
When I was younger my dad would bring me and all the kids on our block paint balling, I can smell the sweet smell of hundreds of CO2 tanks being filled. ahhhhhhhh
i grew up with a man that was in WW2 @ Normandy, Korea, and Vietnam. he was a cop and he owned a tire king center (love that smell too). i remember wild-root hair groom, tackle boxes, and oil paints.
my girl friends father owned a airplane company and she remembers axle grease. the smells you don’t remember from youth that come creeping by once in a while are the best.
Reading this article reminded me of my grandfather and how he used Old Spice. Today I bought a $7 bottle of Old Spice, splashed a bit on after a shave and I truly feel like a new man! Thank you.
-Sean
Jeris hair tonic ( the green stuff ) winston cigarettes ( I know its unhealthy ) otasco stores , and boraxo powdered hand soap .
Good Afternoon,
In an age where Men and women go to get hair cuts, the unisex salon, it seems as though the art of being a Man is falling by the wayside….but not for Me. I go to a barbershop, a tonsorial palor and get a haircut, shave and walk out feeling like a Man instead of a de-nutted fop. And when it comes to smelling good, well, Old Spice and Bay Rum are at the very top of the list. Bring back the are of Manliness for God’s sake and lets get back to being what W/we were mean’t to be in the first place….MEN.
I have to agree with ABBO. The smell of surfboard resin is probably at the top of my list … acts like an aphrodisac to me. The smell of leather and neoprene rubber is are other manly smells. Could be all that surfin….just went to my head.