2025 Museum and Attraction Smell Station Roundup!

One of my favourite types of scent-related project is the development of a smell station!
A smell station, most popular in museums, is a stationary unit that allows visitors to access scents by choice. They are often a means of sharing educational facts, but they can also be used for entertainment and storytelling.
Here are a few memorable smell stations I have had the pleasure to contribute to, in big ways or very small ways, through AromaPrime and independently, during 2025.
I adore the levels of imagination behind many smell stations, and I am delighted to showcase these ones that different attractions have created!

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Victoria and Albert Museum's Marie Antoinette Style

Through AromaPrime, I was contacted by museum scent practice AVM Curiosities to collaborate on recreating the odour of Marie Antoinette's prison cell for the exhibition Marie Antoinette Style. This scent was informed by historical records, with Marie Antoinette having requested that juniper be burnt to mask the stench of her cell. The final odour is presented in a bust with sniffable holes that resemble beads on a necklace, as arranged by AVM Curiosities and the Museum.

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Science and Industry Museum's Operation Ouch! Brains, Bogies and You

I worked with the Museum, through AromaPrime, to develop an historical vinaigrette scent, among others, for this exciting children's exhibition.
Three smell stations were developed by the Museum's team, and one includes rotating smell pots beneath a giant nose. Whenever a new smell pot is positioned beneath the nose, a doctor reacts on a screen. I had never seen a smell station like this before, and it is one of my favourite designs of all time!
Another smell station involves illustrated blocks that visitors can turn to guess what they are sniffing from hatches.
The third smell station is simpler, with small holes in the wall for visitors to sniff up-close.

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Thackray Museum of Medicine's POO!

The popular POO! exhibition features two multi-scented smell stations, allowing young visitors to explore what would normally be a taboo subject.
One smell station includes rotating blocks on poles. Some of these blocks subtly emit rhino poo, penguin poo and T-rex poo scents, which were researched in collaboration with the Museum and provided by AromaPrime. Visitors can rotate the blocks, which have text and images on them, to guess what they are smelling and to discover facts.
The second smell station features two smell boxes for sniffing. One box emits a human poo scent, while the other emits the fragrance of 1937 coronation anointing oil. This contrast between scents helps communicate the fact that skatole is a component of poo but also the fanciest of perfumes.
Amusingly, the exhibition provides nose pegs!

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Mary Todd Lincoln House

​There were limitations in terms of the scent products that could be used when the Mary Todd Lincoln House got in touch about their new smell station. However, I was pleased to suggest some alternative approaches. The final smell station includes a lifelike combination of scent oils and organic materials acquired by the Museum to tell stories of the past. I was told that the top of each unit, designed by the Museum, can be removed for replenishing the scents.

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Suntago water park's Crocodile Island

Photo credit: Marcin Kontraktewicz/Suntago

Smell stations aren't just for museums!
AromaPrime was asked by Creative Studio Berlin to develop two bespoke scents for a 'sensory tree' smell station that was being designed for a new water park. I directed the factory in the development of multiple samples before we landed on final coffee flower and durian fruit scents.
The scents were provided in Aroma Blocks which were contained within lidded holes in the themed tree structure. It was interesting to advise on how the smell station should be designed, considering how the humidity of the water park could have possibly affected the potency and longevity of the scents, and the quality of the Aroma Blocks. The final solution was thankfully successful, and I imagine that the warmth of the space might actually enhance potency.

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Nothe Fort's Victorian Gun Deck

Using research provided by Nothe Fort's historians, I used AromaPrime's facilities to develop three scents to help visitors understand what conditions were like for Victorian soldiers. The scents included those of meals, musty sleeping areas and gunsmoke, and I presented these (among others) voluntarily for the Fort's Science Weekend.

Independently, I sketched designs for smell stations to present these scents, and I wrote/illustrated signage to include.

​The Fort's team built the final smell stations, which accompanied sensory maps I enjoyed illustrating as voluntary contributions.

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Wien Museum's Fleisch

A new exhibition, exploring the history and ethics of meat, features bespoke scents that I helped develop at AromaPrime, including that of overcooked bacon.
Scented material is held within containers developed by the Museum's team, and squeeze bulbs push the scented air out of holes on top. Such a fabulous approach! The colour chosen for smell stations can influence how visitors react to the scents; here, bright pink clearly communicates the subject matter and helps visitors perceive the scents as lifelike.

Photo credit: Klaus Pichler/Wien Museum

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Huis van Alijn's Foorwonder

​For this exhibition on the history of fairgrounds, I developed several bespoke scents through AromaPrime, including those of Belgian sugar waffles. The scents of confectionery, burnt wood and manure are accessed in a repurposed popcorn cart that Tuur Demaegdt and Lars Hemmeryckx developed.

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​Weymouth Museum's Timewalk smells

Here is an example of how incredibly low-cost a smell station can be when the budget is small. To finish off 2025, I worked with Weymouth Museum to reintroduce 'defunct' historical scents that were once a major feature of the town's immersive Timewalk attraction. The Museum simply presents handheld Aroma Cubes (from AromaPrime) inside little drawers on its activity table for visitors to interact with.

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Smell stations are excellent for attractions, because they are often incredibly simple to make, and they typically pose minimal conservation concern for museums when done right. They are a brilliant means to engage visitors directly in a way that allows for agency.
Because smell stations can be so simple, I often expect I have seen it all, but the designs created by attractions this year have shown that there is still plenty of potential for totally new and memorable approaches. I look forward to seeing what smell station designs appear in 2026!