You know it before you see it — that earthy smell just before the first drops fall.
You know it before you see it. That earthy smell just before the first drops fall. It even has a name, petrichor, and yes, I get a bit too happy about that.
It comes from oils in the soil. They build up when the ground is dry, then the rain knocks them loose and sends them up into the air. You breathe the whole lot in.
It is never the same twice. In the village it is green and deep, all wet earth and leaves. In the city it is sharper, rain on hot road and warm stone.
For me, it is holidays. Packing the car in the drizzle, windows steaming up, that smell meaning we were finally off somewhere. I have chased it for years.
So we are bottling it. A new Oud Attar scent, rain wrapped around oud. Soft, earthy, a little wild. Coming soon.