The Scent of a Woman (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love my Snatch)
I swear on Ganesha’s mighty trunk I am really pushing myself on this one.
Leave it to The Dominant Guy to bring up and toy with one of my more…sensitive personal areas. This is going to get punny in a second because the area I’m talking about is the DMZ. The punanni, snatch, cunt, mouse (that one’s for my Swedish peeps) pussy, vajayjay, nappy dugout…I could go on but I’m just stalling and since I now HAVE to write this post, in the words of Lady Macbeth “If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well  / It were done quickly…”
So, somehow or other in conversation arose the issue of the particular sent of …uh. You know. One of those words I just used to describe genitals and stuff. Now, to be fair, there was no pejorative in these discussions at all. The pejorative slipped in (god this whole post is a vast, lurching, leering double entendre…christ) when I realised my triggers around personal scent, etc, were firing left right and center.
Years back, during a scene, I had my dominant lean in and whisper lasciviously that he could “smell my wet pussy†and I started to cry. Of course that wasn’t his intended reaction so the scene was diverted for a while while we figured out what my issue was. It was that I had no association with people scenting body odor and having that be something fucking awesome. On days when I myself can smell my own …er…you know, things and stuff…it is usually because I’m ovulating and it…um. I tend to get…
**deep breath**
Oh, The Dominant Guy…you are lucky you’re irresistible. This is awful!!
Anyway, the point is this. We are having this conversation and he was saying that he had an…appreciation? For my own, you know, scent, and that I had a delightfully “earthy†scent when aroused…
“Earthy.†I was a bit put off. “Is that good?â€
“Of course.â€
“Because you know, when I think of earth I think of dirt.â€
“I am certainly not saying you smell like dirt.â€
“So what the fuck’s earthy? It doesn’t sound good!â€
“I like your scent.â€
“Because maybe I should, I don’t know, I try to be all hygienic and clean and stuff, but not, you know, overly so with sprays and fake smells and stuff. I do my thing, wash down there, eat yogurt and probiotics to keep everything happy and stuff…â€
“Don’t change anything.â€
“!!!!!!!â€
“Maybe you should blog about that.â€
“I really do not want to.â€
“See how other people might describe their own scent. Just don’t use the word smell.â€
“Yeah that does have a less reactive flavor to it, scent vs. smell but I really don’t want to write about that. What the hell would I say? ‘Hey how would you describe the smell of your pussy?’â€
“Scent. I look forward to seeing that post.â€
**grinding teeth**
“Of course, sir.â€
Gah.
I am only somewhat mollified by knowing that I’m not running around funking up the joint with some raunchy rug. But…yeah. I will permit further mollification later, but right now I’m too embarrassed.
I know I’m not the only one who has these sorts of concerns, and the motherfuckers who make billions of dollars selling douches that ostensibly smell like meadows after a spring rain (See now THAT’S ‘earthy’) are making money and fucking up pussies all over the place because of some bullshit paranoia.
And I can SAY that and KNOW that and STILL have that frisson of anxiety that I don’t smell….good.
I know I’m not alone here. I know those who have to manage, maintain and operate vaginas have had this internal conversation. Those of you who are cunt connoisseurs, how does smell…er, scent impact you?
OK I’m done now. I will slink onto my plane to San Francisco, slip into the bathroom, and pull a Mary Katherine Gallagher on my crotch.
I am totally with you on this. I too am not with the whole douching and spraying all sorts of chemicals there. I would rather practice basic hygenic maintanence and leave it at that, rather than risking fucking up my ph by over use of scents and cleaning products.
Still, my big problem is that I cannot smell nor taste my own pussy. I had a similar conversation of the one you describe. They told me I tasted good but I just HAD to ask what I tasted like. They said it was too hard to describe and so I immediately wondered if that was a good or bad thing. So they told me to taste it for myself.
I tasted nothing. No taste. Just like smells, I cant really get a smell off of myself anymore than tasting myself.
I think this is perfectly natural, Mollena. It probably is because its my own so my body doesnt detect it as anything out of the elements and therefore gives me no imput regarding taste and scent. Still, it does concern me when someone wants to go down on me because I have no way of knowing if my smell/taste is good down there. Therefore I cant warn ssomeone should I be having a day where I smell or taste bad.
The best I can do is not allow oral to be performed on me 2 days before and after (and of course DURING) my period. Best I can do. I hope that if I do ever taste or smell bad that my partner can MATURELY (without shaming and being insensitive) inform me.
I wonder if the being unable to gather what your own scent is is akin to being unable to tickle oneself…or like the people who cannot smell and or don’t micturate funkily when they eat asparagus? :-)
Sidebar on the period thing? My very first BF in HS absolutely would not let that stop him. I had no idea at the time how unusual a person that made him.
It’s funny. It wouldn’t have occurred to me in a million years that you’d have an issue around the scent of your pussy. I guess some people must, since they sell things for it, but I’m with The Dominant Guy—it’s a wonderful scent, and a lovely indicator of arousal, which in turn feeds back into my pleasure at having gotten someone aroused.
Oh she’s got issues :-P But all of the people I know who enjoy pussy enjoy everything about it, you know?
xoxo
I’ve struggled with that as well, esp due to being a squirter and the scent of me can be everywhere and linger for days. It’s funny how we are conditioned as females to be women who are not offensive and that includes body odour.
The scent and taste of arousal of a woman is glorious, I’ve revelled in the scent of other women but still being told about my ‘smell’ and I revert to being an embarrassed 14 year old.
Still I bet your scent is wonderful, earthy and with a hint of copper.
I wonder if http://www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com/ could replicate you so that your Dominant Guy could wear you all year around.
THAT would be HYSTERICAL!!
Perhaps weirdly this isn’t something I’ve ever struggled with at all except when I did (on the suggestion of a lover who was summarily kicked out of my pants) and tried some scented douche of some sort. I am (perhaps unusually) close to my pussy and can usually tell what’s going on with a sniff and there’s never been any upset about that.
Parts (human parts) stink sometimes and it’s not a huge deal or deal breaker for me.
I’m also a big sucker for how people smell individually, I’m a person sniffer.
I am as well, and it is funny because that pheromone thing? Gets me big time. If I like how someone smells when they’re all sweated up, it’s party time :-D
xoxo
My current partner says I smell and taste like sweethearts. This makes me giggle. I once had a submissive tell me I didn’t taste bad enough, which actually kind of hurt my feelings. He was looking to be humiliated by be forced to lick bad smelling pussy and apparently my bits were too sweet [I think it’s because I have a major sweet tooth and consume a lot of sugar].
I’m typically a very wet girl and can often smell myself when I spread my legs even a tiny bit. I’m trying to get over the embarrassment though and feel good about it.
What hilarity to feel self-conscious about not being funky enough for one’s partner?!?
I think enjoying wetness ought to be widely encouraged!! Yay juiciness!
Thank you for this! I too am hyper aware and embarrassed by the sm… er scent! It’s good to see I’m not the only one :)
It has helped me to have someone say nice things about my scent, and to remember that others enjoyed it, too! I do well with those reminders, even when I have my own doubts and little paranoias :-)
I once knew a dude who claimed his ex’s snatch tasted like strawberries and cream. When I realized this wasn’t actually a metaphor, I smelled BS and decided to play with him a little.
Me: So it was red?
Him (enraptured): Yes
Me: Sweet?
Him: Yes
Me: Seeds?
Him: No!
The look on his face is something I will treasure forever.
I know I smell nothing like any kind of fruit, but I’m at a lost to describe the scent. Sometimes I smell more… spicy right before my period, but that’s the only thing I’ve ever been able to find the words for.
High. Larious.
I am trying to imagine what pussy seeds would look like… would they be like apple seeds? Grape seeds? sunflower seeds…or cheremoya seeds??” :-D
I have a *thing* for smells, my own and other peoples. Particularly now that I’m taking a new route in my personal upkeep – I use soap in the 3 key areas (armpit, asshole, crotch) and I switched to a natural deodorant. I find I really enjoy my own scents these days, even more than usual.
As for vajay scent, I generally enjoy and am comfortable with my scene there. I tend to notice it different times of the month, and the scene lets me know how things are going with her.
I also enjoy Anon’s scent, particularly when he doesn’t use deodorant. LOVE IT. I’ve become quite the armpit sniffer. I’m very oriented towards scent, and I notice it about people. I like peoples smells. I still haven’t found a nice non-weird way to comment on how I like someone’s smells.
And, for the record, I have been quite close to your cooter. It has a nice smell. :)
Thank you, lovely!! And you were hanging out when it was certainly not being shy about dripping all over the place, too :-) I think liking the way your lover smell is a vital compatibility point…if I don’t like it, bad sign.
Yay peoplesniffers!!
x0x0x
Mo
OMG!!! I too am not HAPPY with how I smell at all. My d-type loves to lean in close to me and whisper “i can smell you….everyone can smell you” or “it smells like whore”.
This makes me very jumpy and nervous especially since I am a naturally very wet and easily aroused person. I feel as if I am constantly stinking things up by just going about my day.
He claims to love how I taste and has commented more than once that I smell and taste better than anyone he has ever been around but it still makes me uneasy and jumpy to have it pointed out to me that I smell.
It was great to read this and to hear from someone else who has not always loved the smell.
I don’t mind the scent myself so much as had this idea and anxiety that having ANY detectable scent = people thinking you’re unclean. Which is so much pressure to put on yourself, really! Bt paying more attention to my own scent, and the scents of others has really helped me to relax quite a bit! :-D
Long long ago I used to worry about this too, but eventually I got close enough to a couple other pussies to realize that mine smells completely normal…maybe even better than most (allow me my little vanity, k?).
Now? I love the way I smell (and taste). It’s a huge turn-on for me to have my guy come up from going down on me and smell myself on his beard. If I’ve been masturbating and go out in the same clothes, I love catching just a whiff of myself when I sit down – I feel like such a perv then (in the best way). I even (this might squidge you out, I don’t know) use my own juices as perfume sometimes – run a finger into myself and then down my neck. I’ve never told my man (or anyone, really) that I do this, and I don’t think he’s ever consciously noticed, but I SWEAR it makes him horny as all get out when I do LOL.
Of course, I’m kind-of with Wendy on this one – unless the person is just unbearably filthy, I love the way people smell. I love the way *individual* people smell. I can’t imagine much that would be more disconcerting and unerotic than going down on a woman and smelling some funky chemical perfume – ugh!
Yay! Maybe I could market Eau De Mo..? :-)
I think it is superbadass to enjoy yourself in that manner, frankly :-D
“…pull a Mary Katherine Gallagher on my crotch.” Best line I have EVER read in a blog!
**VICTORY LAP**
NOW I may retire :-P
Here’s the deal. I (fairly recently) had a four year bout of re-curring BV. Now that smelled BAD. Halfway through the day at work bad, don’t even think about wearing tights bad, in the shower bad, hated tasting myself on my lover bad. (I’d wash up, he wouldn’t notice my taste being different, I’d be jumpy during oral, and he’d come up for a kiss and I’d be… yuck. But not out loud. That’s rude.)
Before that, I smelled… like sex, and tasted yummy, a little sweet, a little salty, but mainly LIKE PUSSY! I remember, because I liked to taste myself. And I know that as a teenager, with copious amounts of masturbation, and possibly sketchy laundry practices, but I’m under the impression mostly the masturbation, my room smelled “earthy”, so sayeth my mom. But my mom always used it unpleasantly, and I guess the lingering odor of earthy would be unpleasant.
Moral of the story? I’m getting used to my scent again, and I smell and taste good, but now I’m on my way to my first post-BV period, and by gosh I have not embraced my period the way some people think I should… So I’ll keep smelling period for the next week and be thrown off by it.
What a DRAG to have your body in a state where it is off-kilter and not doing right by your scented goodness! I am VERY glad that it is getting under control and it sounds like you’ll be able to revel in it again!! :-D
The scent of an aroused partner will drive me wild. I will often get re-aroused myself just from their scent lingering in the bed or on the pillows. The scent of my fiancé changes as she moves through her cycles and I can not say that I dislike any of the variations on her.
I have only had one partner who’s scent was more funky then I liked, but that was only after I convinced her to stop using that flower scented in pussy. Once her body was able to regain its balance her scent was wonderful and taste even better.
To describe a partners scent/taste profile I have to dip into words that make me roll my eyes at the wine snobs.
“Subtle, with grassy notes, a hint of chestnut, tannins and sea salt…”
:-D
So, #usedpanties is a well followed hashtag on twitter. I’m a phone girl, and I *sell* my panties to men who’s wives do all sorts of vile chemical things to their cunts, or are so hung up on scent/taste they won’t let their husbands go down on them. There are entire sites to used panties, mostly to sniff. Guys like scent.
I taste sweet, slightly musky right before my period (think cologne musk, that deep, lingering scent that makes you want to kiss that spot on their neck at the end of the day and breathe it in deep) fresh brine like just from the sea oyster liquor, the more turned on I get the deeper and more lingering it becomes.
When I think earthy, I think a deep Sumatran coffee. That wonderful wet forest smell, clean, heady, rich Mother Earth scent.
That does make earthier sound appealing and rich and delicious…and it is most definitely true that scent can re-arouse the memory like no other sense can! :-) Thank you for dropping by!
xoxo
Mo
The Perverted Negress » The Scent of a Woman (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love my Snatch)…
Mollena talks openly about coming to terms with her scent. Awesome, funny and honest!…
I’m in the “Yeah I can smell me and I’m ok with that” camp. It’s just never been an issue. :)
That somehow doesn’t surprise me, darlin’ :-*
love
Mo
I concluded a long time ago that I tasted like potatoes. So maybe that’s kinda earthy.
I had a boyfriend once describe the taste as “milky and sour.” Which made sense in my “potato” mindset–after all, you need butter and sour cream on a good potato.
I like my scent. I find it oddly comforting, much like the scent of my armpits without deodorant on the days I determine that I won’t be seeing anyone important and don’t bother to apply. I think the familiar scent of myself lets me know, on some level, that everything’s okay because nothing smells funky or immuno-compromised. It just smells like my body.
I totally get the armpit thing! I DO like the way I smell if I don’t wear deodorant (Well, at first. Then it gets to “Woo! Showertime!” especially depending on what I’ve eaten). Knowing what is your day-to-dayy scent vs. what smells “off” is also a great way to keep track of your health, as you mentioned…! Thank you for reading!
I know very few women who have always been truly comfortable with the scent of their vagina. I definitely think some of it is social and cultural conditioning, just like women who fear having hair down there makes them dirty or unclean. I confess, I never had a fear of my own taste or scent. I didn’t love it or hate it. But having sex with women was definitely the turning point for me. At first, going down on a woman was scary and awkward and messy and… oh, I was so unsure. But it’s made me significantly more at ease with my own body. Don’t forget, too, some of the foods you eat can affect it — not to make anyone paranoid about eating specific foods! But it’s a fun reason to eat more strawberries :)
Just talking about it sounds like a great step toward getting to be more comfortable with it and getting over the irrational fear of “bad” scent.
I can smell myself just about every day. However, I worry about my scent when aroused the most. it’s kind of comforting to know I’m not the only one who worries!
I think I worry because I have never had a male tell me my scent was good OR bad. As a result, I freak about it quite a bit. I haven’t had many partners, and the ones I have had, I probably didn’t communicate with enough… but still. Nor have I ever had a male perform oral sex on me, which made me more worried about it. However, of the males I’ve been with, several got their faces up close and personal, just never their mouths. From what I can tell, I have a musky scent with a slightly soapy undertone. It becomes especially pungent if it lingers on the fingers for awhile. It can change during my cycles as well. As for taste.. it’s mostly salty, which is funny considering how much I hate salt. It becomes sweet, though, after it spends more time on the tongue.
I dunno. I just hope I find a male soon who loves my pussy — smell and taste too — in all of its glory. I also hope that he will be the first to eat me with lust-crazed abandon! Here’s hoping.