Printed from smellbook.com/smells/fresh-towels. This printout keeps the entry for Fresh Towels itself: its description, reference card, Connections, questions, evidence, related smells, record details, states, names and citation. It leaves out your own notes, the map, the lists of paths, routes, stories and fragrance directions, and the lists headed “Also linked to” (other entries that share its place or material) and “Linked from”; they are on the page online. The entries this one links to are still printed under Connections and Related smells.
Categories and types group entries for browsing; they are editorial, not evidence. How smells are grouped.
A warm clean-fabric experience associated with recently washed and dried towels.
Fresh towels smell clean, soft and warm, a gentle laundry freshness with a fluffy, dry texture in the nose. EDITORIAL
Named in the VERIFIED claims about this smell: not a list of what it is made of, and not its cause.
This entry links to
Other entries that link to this one
Links SmellBook records for this entry: where you meet it, molecules and related smells. EDITORIAL links are chosen by SmellBook editors and VERIFIED links come from VERIFIED claims. Nothing here is a ranking, and a molecule is not presented as the cause of the smell.
QUESTIONS ABOUT FRESH TOWELS
Fresh towels smell clean, soft and warm, a gentle laundry freshness with a fluffy, dry texture in the nose. Straight from the dryer they feel warmer and fuller; line-dried towels smell crisper and more airy. The smell fades with use, turning flatter and damp. It is often confused with clean bedding or with fabric softener.
It is met in the bathroom after laundry day, when unloading a dryer or folding a pile of towels, and in hotel rooms and spas where freshly laundered towels are laid out.
Typical settings: bathroom, laundry, hotel room.
SmellBook links it to 2 place pages: see them in Connections.
One VERIFIED scientific claim from one published source is recorded for this entry: Volatiles from line-dried laundry. This claim says only what its source supports, in the scope shown with it.
The scientific study behind this evidence is chemistry or emission work, not a study of how the smell is perceived.
5 molecules are named in this claim; see the evidence for the role the claim gives them. The molecules this claim names were detected or measured in the study. The claim does not say they shape the smell.
Fresh Towels is a use-context profile distinct from the broader Fresh Laundry category.
Words that are easy to mix up: Is fresh the same as clean?, Is every warm smell spicy? and Is citrus a kind of fresh?
No historical source or heritage record is linked to this entry yet.
Answers marked EDITORIAL are written by SmellBook editors to describe the experience and add no scientific fact. Answers marked VERIFIED point to claims on published sources, checked against each source's own summary where one was available (each claim's page says how); what each claim supports is in its own text and scope.
Scientific evidence · 1 claim
Volatiles from line-dried laundry
Cotton towels rinsed in pure water and dried outdoors in sunlight released C5–C9 oxidised compounds, including aldehydes such as pentanal, hexanal, heptanal, octanal and nonanal, which were not observed after drying indoors or outdoors without sunlight.
Detergent-free cotton towels analysed without olfactometry; that sunlit surface photochemistry produces the smell is the authors' proposal.
How this was found: Emissions or air measured. What a material, product or place releases into the air was measured, usually without assessing odour. Source: primary study; material-emission work.
Silvia Pugliese, Malte Frydenlund Jespersen, Jakob Boyd Pernov, Justin Shenolikar, Jesper Nygaard, Ole John Nielsen & Matthew S. Johnson
DOI 10.1071/EN19206Each molecule is named by the claim shown after it. These molecules were detected or measured in the study. About molecules in SmellBook
Links chosen by SmellBook editors, not a ranking.
Associations can vary strongly by person, place and culture.
PATHS FROM HERE
Each step is a relationship SmellBook editors recorded in the knowledge graph, named as it is published there. Paths are not ranked or personalised, and they do not mean the smells smell alike.
Each step is a molecule that a VERIFIED claim names for both smells, in whatever role the claims state. Sharing a molecule does not mean two smells smell alike.
MY SMELLBOOK · LOCAL ONLY
These controls save only in this browser. Nothing here is uploaded to a SmellBook account or server.
Personal tags stay in this browser and do not change the entry's own smell words.
MAP THIS SMELL
Follow the related smells our editors recorded, or use Smell Between to compare this smell with any other, field by field.
WHERE THIS SMELL APPEARS
These links were chosen by editors to help you explore; they are not scores or rankings.
IN FRAGRANCE & SPACES
Directions name SmellBook entries as descriptions to refer to; they are not product recommendations. Fragrance-free is always a valid choice for a space.
FOR RESEARCHERS AND EDITORS
Identity, revision history, corrections and how to cite Fresh Towels.
CULTURAL: This entry's associations depend on context, language, memory or culture; its description and smell words are editorial. It says nothing about research or historical evidence; evidence for this entry is shown separately: VERIFIED.
A state says how an entry is met, such as wet, aged or roasted. It does not create a new smell, and it adds no scientific fact by itself: states marked EDITORIAL come from the entry's own records, and only those marked VERIFIED are reported by a VERIFIED claim.
How this entry is identified and named, for citing it or matching it with other records.
SmellBook SB-0083 — Fresh Towelssmellbook:smell:fresh-towelshttps://smellbook.com/smells/fresh-towelsSmellBook. (2026). Fresh Towels (revision 3, 2026-10-06). SmellBook Public Atlas. smellbook:smell:fresh-towels. https://smellbook.com/smells/fresh-towels@misc{smellbook_fresh_towels_r3,
author = {{SmellBook}},
title = {Fresh Towels},
year = {2026},
note = {SmellBook Public Atlas, revision 3, 2026-10-06, smellbook:smell:fresh-towels},
url = {https://smellbook.com/smells/fresh-towels}
}TY - ENCYC ID - smellbook-fresh-towels-r3 TI - Fresh Towels AU - SmellBook T2 - SmellBook Public Atlas PY - 2026 DA - 2026/10/06 ET - revision 3 UR - https://smellbook.com/smells/fresh-towels N1 - SB-0083; smellbook:smell:fresh-towels; resolver https://smellbook.com/id/smell/fresh-towels ER -
The citation names revision 3 of 2026-10-06, so a reader can tell exactly which version was cited. Citing records what was read; it does not grant a licence.
Fresh Towels is a use-context profile distinct from the broader Fresh Laundry category.
Other entries whose editors linked to Fresh Towels:
Editorial description expanded to answer what it smells like and where you meet it; independently reviewed.
Created 2026-09-22 · Updated 2026-10-06Dataset history In the SmellBook dataset since the first of three dataset releases of 2026-09-30.
No correction notices published for this entry. Corrections policyEVIDENCE MATTERS
SmellBook separates cultural association, community perception, verified evidence, prediction and experimental relationships rather than presenting them as the same thing. Read the evidence guide ↗ See the evidence coverage report ↗