25 Smells That Will Take Every Aussie Kid Right Back To The '00s

Why am I suddenly craving fairy bread and overripe mangoes?

1. Fairy bread

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The combination of fresh bread, butter, and sprinkles creates such a unique sensory experience. It'll always take you back to fighting over the good food at birthday parties.

2. Lip Smackers

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Lip Smackers always smelt good enough to eat, but the occasional cheeky taste proved otherwise. You'd apply scents like Cola and Ice Cream so frequently that they're now permanently burnt into your memory.

3. Strawberry ChapStick

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These strawberry-scented sticks were for the kids who weren't allowed Lip Smackers, but still wanted to apply lip balm and look cool. You'd always lose them, partly because it was so easy to do, but also in the hopes that your mum would buy you a Lip Smacker to replace it.

4. Magic Goo Ballon

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Magic Goo Balloons provided minutes of entertainment until their overwhelmingly chemical smell gave you headache. Half your experience with these was just trying to wash the smell off your hands afterwards.

5. Hama beads being ironed

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The smell of Hama beads under a hot iron was so distinct. It'll send you back to all the times you spent waiting eagerly to see your artwork.

6. Care Bears

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Whether or not Care Bears were meant to smell, they definitely did. They smelt just a little bit sweet, almost as if their scent was an extension of their personality. It was perfect for snuggling with and telling secrets to.

7. Sharpies

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The best day of the week was whenever you got to pull out the Sharpies and write your lunch order on a brown paper bag. The strong smell of Sharpie mixed with your excitement for lunch that day always put you in a good mood.

8. Overripe mangoes

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AKA the smell of summer. They were always too ripe because your parents would buy a massive tray and then forget to eat them. The juice would spill down your arms as you ate them and the smell would linger, even if you showered.

9. Zinc sunscreen sticks

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These gluggy sticks were the ultimate swimming carnival throwback. They smelt like sunscreen on crack, and were basically useless since you only ever used them to paint war stripes.

10. Mobile library books

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Mobile libraries smelt like musty old people, and the scent lingered in all the books. It really took effect on old books that hadn't been touched in ages.

11. Chlorine

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The smell of chlorine could take you back to anything from swimming lessons and carnivals at school, to pool days over summer. You knew you'd had a good summer when the chlorine from all your swimming turned your hair green.

12. Impulse Tease

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The iconic smell of every school changing room. An overwhelmingly manufactured scent, that according to the website was meant to be pineapple. In reality, it just smelt like trying to be ~provocative~ despite not knowing what that meant.

13. The school bus

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Everyone's school bus had it's own distinct smells, but there were always commonalities. Maybe it was the stale smell that dispersed from the seats, or the general stuffiness caused by the constantly closed windows.

14. Crayons

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The waxy smell of crayons is something you can never really forget. It'll remind you of scribbling outside the lines and having no grasp of how to draw basic human anatomy.

15. VapoRub

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As soon as you started sniffling, your mother would coat you in this stuff. The minty/mentholy scent may have been pleasant from a distance, but was always so overwhelming when slathered straight onto your chest.

16. Foohy Scented Erasers

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Between their lava lamp rulers and their array of "Pencil Petz", it can be easy to forget Foohy's iconic scented erasers. The options included blueberry, grape, apple, and watermelon, but whether or not they actually smelt like that is up for debate.

17. Flowering Jacaranda trees

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The subtle honey smell of Jacaranda flowers is enough to take any Aussie back to their summers as a kid. When the flowers fell they painted the ground purple, and you thought it was the prettiest thing imaginable.

18. Freshly-baked ANZAC biscuits

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Nothing says grandma's house like the smell of toasted oats and golden syrup. It would torture you to see them on a tray, fresh from the oven and too hot to eat. That was until you stole one and burnt your tongue, but it was worth it.

19. A new backpack

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Primary school always started with a backpack that was unnecessarily large and smelt like cheap plastic. It was great while it lasted, until you spilt something from your lunchbox and tainted the smell forever.

20. Hot bitumen in summer

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There was nothing like playing in the street on a boiling hot day, surrounded by the smell of scorching bitumen. Even if you tripped over and skinned your knee, the street was so hot that it would instantly cauterize the wound.

21. Play-Doh

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The smell of Play-Doh is synonymous with childhood. It's wheaty, it's salty, and just a little bit sweet. You always wondered why they made it smell good if you weren't supposed to eat it.

22. Old Spice

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This musky deodorant was the universal scent of every grandad. Smelling this again would make you feel like giving your old man a hug.

23. Cola lollies

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The sweet smell of these bottles was like gummy, cheap cola – which is basically what they were. They'll remind you of lolly shops, and begging your parents to buy you more than you needed.

24. Smiggle highlighters

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You knew you had made it when you were able to whip a packet of these bad boys out at school. You'd find every excuse to highlight things just to enjoy that sickly-sweet, synthetic goodness.

25. Werther's caramels

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You'll always associate these caramel-flavoured "lollies" with old people since they would take any opportunity to hand you one. They weren't your favourite lolly by any means, but you didn't complain.

It's Rewind Week at BuzzFeed Oz! Go here for more '90s and '00s nostalgia!