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Mello Smello Stickers: The Smell Test!

I was digging through my many storage boxes for a top secret project, and was surprised to find a Ziploc bag filled with ancient scratch 'n sniff stickers. I have no idea how they came to be in my possession, but I'm not complaining: This was a magic Ziploc bag, sealed so supernaturally tight that all of the stickers somehow retained their goofy odors for around 25 years now.

Most of the assortment was of the official Mellow Smello variety. Scratch 'n sniff stickers were made by dozens (if not hundreds) of companies, but Mello Smellos were the standard by which all other stickers-that-smelled were compared. The fad rose in the '70s -- before my time -- but it was still going strong enough in the '80s for virtually every kid in class to have at least one heavily-fingernailed sticker placed at an awkward angle on their marble notebook.

Since my little batch of stickers was kept in such tremendous shape, it seemed like a waste to dump them back in the bottom of a cardboard box. Instead, let's review the collection and see what these legendarily odorous stickers actually smelled like.

TOP ROW:

Hot Fudge Sundae: There's a definite chocolate waft to this one. Kinda like Rolos. I would've given Mello Smello several thousand bonus points had they gone through the trouble of making the little cherry section actually smell like cherries, but even as is, it's making me want candy.

Baby Powder: I figured this would be an easy smell to replicate, and I was right. Good God, I don't think I've ever smelled a scratch 'n sniff sticker that delivered on its promise to such a level. The baby powder odor is huge and unmistakable. I feel 10% cleaner just by virtue of having placed the sticker one inch from my nose.

Caramel Apple: A bit more subdued in comparison, but the caramel scent is prominent enough. Sadly, this one is fighting with a disadvantage since it was stuck right next to the Baby Powder sticker in the Ziploc bag. The caramel is there, but so is the baby powder. And the baby powder is winning.

BOTTOM ROW:

Sniffy Peanut Butter: I gotta admit -- I don't remember scratch 'n sniff stickers working this well. Maybe I subsisted on lower quality editions in my youth? In any event, this smells so much like real peanut butter that I'm halfway convinced that the sticker is edible, and the only thing stopping me is knowing that I won't be able to decorate any notebooks with a peanut buttery sticker if it's in my stomach. Good show, Sniffy.

Strawberry Shake: Christ, this is amazing! This shit smells exactly like Strawberry Quik! Exactly! Even more incredible is the fact that I haven't had Strawberry Quik since I gave up on straight up milk over two decades ago, and yet, I still know that this smells just like it! Whether that's a testament to the sticker or to Quik, I leave up to you.

Popcorn: Hmm. Not sure about this one. It definitely smells like something, but I don't think it's popcorn. (Or butter, or oil, or anything else that would seem justified.) It's, dare I say, a little nasty, and I don't want to ruin this entry's overall palatability by describing what its scent brings to mind. On the plus side, I really like the sticker itself.

Raspberry Go-Play Yogurt: On my first whiff, I only surmised that this smelled like random berries. On my second whiff, the unmistakable combination of berries + yogurt prevailed. I've read about how scratch 'n sniff stickers work (a scented fragrance is plastered across the stickers, which is then "activated" when scratched), but I can't for the life of me determine how these companies so perfectly mimicked certain smells. Yogurt with berries? How do you make something that smells like that without actually using yogurt and berries? Voodoo?

Rose: They don't smell like roses, but they do smell like "artificial flowers," which is to say, the chemical shit that toy companies frequently spray on girly dolls to make them more noseworthy. I don't know if "flowers" would've been my first guess if there wasn't a big ass rose depicted to help clue me in, but it's a nice smell, all in all.

Tiny Martini: My absolute favorite of the batch, and I'm so glad that it's one of the few Mello Smellos that I somehow acquired two of. One for show, one for private worship. I'm not sure why they insisted on calling them "tiny" martinis (by this logic, the others should've had titles like "Tiny Rose" and "Tiny Raspberry Go-Play Yogurt"), but this is a minor gripe for what's assuredly the most awesome scratch 'n sniff sticker concept in history. A martini! A martini sticker that smells like martinis!

Since I only drink vodka martinis, it took me a moment to comprehend this one. Finally, it hit me: They smell like gin! When I was in my late teens, a few friends and I spent the evening drinking gin and tonics. After 17 of them, I got so sick that I swore off gin forever. I haven't had more than a few sips of the stuff in almost a decade. The smell of gin still makes me queasy, and in a roundabout-but-still-perfectly-valid compliment, these adhesive martinis make me want to wretch. They really smell like gin.

What a strange thing to write about on a Sunday night. If only HBO wasn't in reruns.

Posted by Matt on 01/05/2009. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 880 comments
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Awesome article.

AC :(

Chestnuts roasted by Tom @ 01/05/2009 1:04 AM

I never quite got the whole gin martini thing. However, I like mine on the dirty side, so I don’t think gin would work for that.
Most people I know(myself included) have a “I drank gin so much that one time that I really don’t drink it anymore” story. I guess it just has that effect on people. My wife and I got a bottle of Bombay Saphire as a gift, like, two years ago and still have yet to touch it.

Chestnuts roasted by Ben @ 01/05/2009 1:06 AM

Martini smelling stickers. Classy

Chestnuts roasted by Precursor @ 01/05/2009 1:06 AM

Ben: Totally. I was a late bloomer with drinking, and could barely partake in the many underaged boozefests of youth simply because I hadn’t acquired the taste. I thought gin was a godsend; I loved tonic water, and gin blended in it so well that I felt like that was all I was drinking. But man, too much of it can really bring out the “gin-ness.” Now I can’t drink gin at all — nor can I drink tonic water. Pretty big response to one night ten years ago.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 01/05/2009 1:09 AM

awesome! I had most of these stickers on my notebooks and folders! Never saw the martini one though! Is this appropriate for teachers to give to children as rewards for work well done??

Chestnuts roasted by crazy_mainer @ 01/05/2009 1:12 AM

Holy crap, these totally slipped my memory. I wonder why they would make a martini scratch n’ sniff sticker. How many ten-year-old’s know what a GOOD martini smells like? I digress, I feel you on the straight milk front, Matt.

Does anybody remember a girl’s toy in which the accessories smelled ridiculously like strawberries? I vaguely remember my sister having something along those lines, and I’m going to guess it had to do with Strawberry Shortcake..

Chestnuts roasted by Cigar @ 01/05/2009 1:20 AM

Nice post, Matt – great to see/hear from you! Hope you haven’t been hit with the post holiday blues too badly yet.

Chestnuts roasted by Muppet Baby @ 01/05/2009 1:39 AM

I hope I’m not the only one who thinks those stickers are adorable. Whoever’s job is was to design scratch and sniff stickers had it made.

Chestnuts roasted by Denise @ 01/05/2009 1:41 AM

I’m reminded of a video game for the SNES back in the Nineties. I remember it involved scratch and sniff stickers courtesy of Nintendo Power. The game was
called Earthbound.

Chestnuts roasted by LoneStar76 @ 01/05/2009 1:43 AM

I would maim for stickers like those.

My grandpa brought my sister and me some puffy scratch and sniff stickers once (the kind with the thin layer of foam inside)
They were shaped like hotdogs, and they smelled like…hotdogs. Funky hotdogs.
I swore off relish after smelling the one labled Onion and Relish. I still turn green thinking about it.

Chestnuts roasted by Cutie Kitsune @ 01/05/2009 2:03 AM

Oh dear Lord, tell me about it.

I can’t have any sort of vodka at all due to going crazy with shots on Prom night. Even the smell of rubbing alcohol gets me queasy.

Nausea is a very strange thing – I loved the blog entry – I really hope the rest of the Advent Calendar is coming soon too ^_^

Chestnuts roasted by TPStag @ 01/05/2009 2:15 AM

mm- strawberry mookieshake.

I had the Buttered Popcorn ones attached to my headboard- I’d crawl into bed, scratch one and sniff real hard… then fall into dreamland… Sometimes I’d just go into my room and whiff them just cause I wanted to…

to this day, I am adorably in love with the smell of buttered popcorn… though I hate eating popcorn.

Now…Buttered Popcorn Jellybellies- those are a gift from God just for me.

Chestnuts roasted by kittymao @ 01/05/2009 2:18 AM

YES! EARTHBOUND scratch and sniff stickers! Thank you, LoneStar76! I KNEW there was some Nintendo related sticker I smelled…

Chestnuts roasted by Muppet Baby @ 01/05/2009 2:45 AM

Gin scented stickers?!?!

The 80′s truly were a different time.

I like gin, but in small doses. Cheap gin is the worst. I like New Amsterdam gin, which is mid-price-range but just as good, in my opinion, as the more expensive stuff. A half-gin, half-vodka martini is perfection for me.

And, I’d like to jump on the bandwagon……advent calendar?

Chestnuts roasted by Bunny @ 01/05/2009 3:38 AM

Man it’s too bad they don’t make stickers that smell like The Gin Blossoms.

Chestnuts roasted by PhelpsPhan @ 01/05/2009 3:52 AM

Ahhh scratch and sniffs. Those have always felt like a mini Christmas present. I got my sticker album that I had as a kid right here in a box that I am going to write about on my blog. We already talked about sticker albums and things but I just wanted to say that yes I was like everyone else and I collected every sticker I could find. I was terrified to use them because once you stick them someplace you can’t take that choice back. I would of rather kept them in mint condition in my album then to use them.

Chestnuts roasted by Goob @ 01/05/2009 4:07 AM

Oh man I LOVE Scratch N Sniffs! I would always buy at least two sets of the same stickers, that way if I put them somewhere I didn’t like I had at least one set of backups . And I always kept the backups in an album.

Chestnuts roasted by ULTRAMAN @ 01/05/2009 4:51 AM

Scratch and sniffs were so popular they became the last name of a bald psychiatrist with thick-lens glasses.

I have the Earthbound scratchies, but I don’t dare smell them.

Chestnuts roasted by Mars @ 01/05/2009 4:59 AM

I can understand how gin could negatively stick with a person. Very strong taste, like pine needles. I personally love gin and tonics, though. I think both ingredients taste disgusting apart, but mix them together and add a little lime, and somehow you’ve arrived at Tasty Central. Very odd.

I second the vodka thing, though. Repulsive, tastes and smells like rubbing alcohol, and gives you the least pleasant/fuzzy drunk ever. My friends are big vodka drinkers, and love to drink at my house. Thus, I always have at least one or two half-drunk vodka bottles lying around. Ick.

And don’t even get me started on dirty martinis. A few of my more naive friends bought a bottle of dirty martini mix thinking it was mango-flavored due to the orangey color. Our cocktail party grew very unpleasant, very quickly. That bottle is still in my cabinet, because after they drank it, they decided that pretending to be cool martini-drinkers wasn’t really important and so began to drink grown-up chocolate milk, otherwise known as a White Russian. Which is still cool in its own The Dude-ish sort of way.

Chestnuts roasted by AIF @ 01/05/2009 5:01 AM

I think the concept of a Scratch and Smell Martini sticker marketed to children is one of the most awesome ideas ever. Imagine being the teacher and getting a call from little Billy’s mom…

Chestnuts roasted by Anonymous @ 01/05/2009 5:06 AM

Ha, what a coincidence. I was orerganizing my DVDs today and I removed from the shelf my photo album filled with my 1982/83 sticker collection. And I did stop to smell my scratch n’ sniffs. They do smell still, although kind of all the same. But it’s a pleasing odour. I’ve always been surprised that trading stickers hasn’t made a comeback with everything else 80s, at least not that I’m aware of. That was such a big craze when I was in grade 2 and 3. Everyone would bring albums to school and trade stickers. My stickers show their age too, with regards to era; I have E.T., Ewoks, Michael Jackson and Herself the Elf puffy stickers.

On the scratch n’ sniff topic, I used to collect smelly felt tip pens. There was some store, and once in awhile I’d go there and acquire one of the pens, and eventually I had the whole set of 24, and so the guy at the store gave me one of the empty vinyl cases from when they open the set to put them out bulk. They had awesome scents, from peanut butter to black currant to barbequeue. Kind of like the Jelly Belly array of pen scents. I still have them, but they haven’t fared as well as the stickers. Most of them smell like vinegar now, especially the barbequeue one.

Chestnuts roasted by CMJ @ 01/05/2009 5:22 AM

LoneStar76, I love Earthbound! I keep voting for it to be released on the Wii Virtual Console. I’ve never cared for RPGs much, but that one was so much fun. I never even passed it yet. I’m stuck at a part where I have to walk a zillion kilometres from the save point to a boss, in which there’s a one in a million chance you’ll acquire the weapon neccessary to beat him along the way.

Hey Cigar. Yeah Strawberry Shortcake was probably the one. I never had her, but I still have one of her pals, named Lime Chiffon. She still smells nice, like sweet cake.

Chestnuts roasted by CMJ @ 01/05/2009 5:27 AM

DAY 23!

Bring it!

Chestnuts roasted by Hazard @ 01/05/2009 5:31 AM

I learned to read thanks to scratch and sniff stickers. Seriously, my brother bribed me – a sticker for each chapter of The Boxcar Children that I read.

Chestnuts roasted by Matthew Berg @ 01/05/2009 5:46 AM

You know that little icon next to the “Posted by Matt”? Is that a Sushi California roll?

Chestnuts roasted by Alexander @ 01/05/2009 6:26 AM

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