Reference point
Walk into a room painted earlier the same day.
Do this before you read on. An entry only works when you have just smelled the thing.
Sharp, pungent, mildly dizzying if you stay long. A very clear solvent note and almost nothing else.
In this entry intensity is the main characteristic. It is not complex, but it is very strong, and it is one of the few smells in this dictionary to which the body reacts with physical discomfort.
Water-based and oil-based paints give two quite different smells in both intensity and duration.
How to smell it
Stand at the door rather than going deep into the room, smell, then step back. Return after three days and after seven — this is the entry that shows most clearly how a smell decays along a curve rather than a straight line.
Why this one is hard
Because it is unpleasant, people avoid it rather than observe it. But that very intensity makes it a good reference for the idea of “beyond the comfortable threshold”.
Don’t confuse with
This entry
Fresh paint
Household objects family
The same aromatic solvents. A permanent marker is much more concentrated because it comes from a tiny point; paint is more dilute but fills the room.
Scientific note
Oil-based paint contains volatile organic solvents such as white spirit and xylene, up to a third of its weight. They evaporate over several days as the paint dries. Water-based paint uses water as its main solvent, so its emissions are much lower, but it still contains small amounts of film-formers and preservatives.
In Vietnamese life
Repainting the house before the lunar new year is a common custom in Vietnam, so the smell of fresh paint goes with the last weeks of the year. It is also one of the few smells many families willingly put up with for the sake of ritual.