How fragrance can make you feel good
At times like this, you might be wondering whether it is worth applying your favourite fragrance when you cannot go out and about and see anyone? But maybe you are missing the point. We don’t just wear fragrance to make ourselves smell more attractive, we also wear it to make us feel happy, to evoke memories and to give us the chance to demonstrate our individuality.
From its early usage in ancient Egypt where scents delivered a sense of elegance and denoted social status, to the modern fragrance market, awash with gorgeous scents, decadently bottled to cater for diverse tastes and different occasions, fragrance has long been used to make us feel better.
Whether it is a confidence booster, to make us more attractive or to enhance our personalities, how you choose your fragrance can say a lot about you to others, but it is what it can communicate to you, the wearer, that is most interesting.
How fragrance evokes memories
Our sense of smell is a highly emotive one, enabling us to link the smell of something to a feeling or emotion, but more than that, it is also highly connected to memory. In fact, scents have a direct path to the part of the brain that deals with emotion and memory. As a smell enters the nose it is carried to the brain’s olfactory bulbs, where it then gets processed and carried to the area where emotions are processed – the amygdala – and also the adjoining hippocampus, where memory formation takes place.
This close connection and direct path means that any memories triggered by scent are likely to be very evocative and experienced on an emotional level. Whilst faces, places and belongings can often only stimulate general memories, due to the fact we experience these stimuli frequently, a specific scent can trigger a memory that we might not otherwise be able to recall.
Wearing your favourite fragrance then, may help you to remember a time and place when you also wore that same fragrance. Or perhaps it will remind you of the person you spent time with whilst wearing it? If you wear the same fragrance every day, then it is unlikely you will suddenly get vivid memories pouring in as it’s a regular stimuli, however, try wearing a fragrance that you keep for special occasions or one that you haven’t worn for a few years, and take a trip down memory lane.
What does your favourite fragrance remind you of?
We canvassed opinion amongst the Fragrance House family and friends and were surprised to see just how many different memories surfaced:
“Giorgio Armani Si Eau de Parfum reminds me of a wonderful few days spent in Venice. Soaking up the historic sights, travelling by gondola and supping Aperol spritzes in the early October evening sunshine. It’s a chic and timeless fragrance, so what better place to remind me of than one of the most chic and timeless places on the planet?”
“Paco Rabanne Pure XS is one of my favourite fragrances, it reminds me of Christmas. It’s quite a spicy fragrance isn’t it and I note that the heart notes of cinnamon and base notes of myrrh could well be what is evoking that festive memory, or it is more likely that it’s because a bottle of something like this is always under the tree from the in-laws!”
“As soon as I dab on a little Paco Rabanne Lady Million Eau de Parfum I am instantly transported back to the early days of setting up my new business. I wore this fragrance to all my meetings, as it gave me a sense of confidence. Whether it worked or not is another matter, but I still wear this fragrance today when I need a lift and want to win at something.”
“Giorgio Armani Code Profumo reminds me of eating out in a restaurant with close family. I can even picture myself wearing my favourite polo shirt at the time!”
Win a bottle of your favourite fragrance
Now it is your turn to get involved. Tell us about your favourite fragrance and the memories it triggers. Visit our Facebook page and leave us a comment on our pinned post about your favourite fragrance. Don’t forget to link it back to the fragrance on our website. At the end of May we will choose our favourite comment and that person will win a free bottle of their favourite fragrance. So, get spritzing and tell us more on our Facebook page.
