We all have a personal and unique relationship with scents and smells that evolves and deepens over time.
I still remember sneaking into my mother’s bedroom as a girl to spritz the ornate perfume bottles on her dresser and owning my first fragrance, a symbol of growth and sophistication. I chose Baby Doll by Yves Saint Laurent, captivated by its glass spinning top bottle and gilded lid.
As I’ve matured, my connection with fragrance has become more nuanced. I find myself drawn to scents that resonate emotionally and my preference changes throughout the day, depending on how I feel.
I know I’m not alone in going beyond the simple act of picking out a pleasant-smelling aroma to craving a more profound sensory experience. Akin to reaching for a lavender-scented candle to instil calm, it’s now about a lot more than choosing a scent because it ‘smells nice’. In 2020, a study by perfume manufacturer International Flavors & Fragrances found that 87% of consumers actively seek fragrances that offer emotional or physical benefits, a trend largely attributed to the connection between scent and mood.
Kate Guthrie, founder of local “olfactory wellness” brand Inxhale, says consumer interest in scents has increased noticeably since 2010. She credits this to a craving for more physical experiences in an increasingly digital world. The same could be said of the Covid-19 pandemic, where lockdowns amplified the desire to create uplifting indoor environments. Using scent to set the mood was part of this, with candle and home fragrance sales skyrocketing globally as people sought solace and comfort in their personal spaces.
Like the “lipstick effect”, where sales of affordable luxuries increase during times of financial hardship, it became clear after the pandemic how fragrance was seen as an accessible way for people to make their environment smell good and trigger positive emotional responses.
Olfactory wellness
When we inhale an aroma, our olfactory receptors send signals directly to the limbic system of the brain. This system is responsible for processing emotions and memories, so it directly influences our behaviour.
We’re not as immune to our olfactory receptors as we may think we are. After all, scent marketing is an already established tool for emotional persuasion, whether a real estate agent fills an open house kitchen with the comforting aroma of freshly baked bread to put prospective buyers at ease or a retail store uses a signature scent to make shopping there more memorable and encourage spending.
In 2022, on World Menopause Day, local perfume brand Abel released the Eau de Parfum Pause to raise awareness of, and conversation around, perimenopause, associating the scent with confident messaging around a topic often clouded in shame and silence.
Abel founder Frances Shoemack says that although it was never the intention to undertake scientific research around the effects of wearing Pause, which includes essential oils touted by some for their mood stabilising and calming properties, its wearers tell her that they genuinely feel that Pause helps them feel calm, grounded and at peace.
Functional Fragrances
Beyond anecdotal experiences, fragrance and wellness brands are exploring the link between scent and cognitive function, crafting “functional fragrances” with science-backed formulations they say are designed to positively influence the wearer’s mood and wellbeing.
For example, Inxhale now has a range of nasal inhalers designed to stimulate the olfactory system and enhance targeted cognitive activity. The idea came to Guthrie on a seven-hour drive from Kurow to Blenheim, where she wondered if something could help her stay alert.
Collaborating with product designer Stacey Fraser and Professor Conan Fee, a perfumer and head of the School of Product Design at the University of Canterbury, Inxhale developed the Alert inhaler to promote cognitive function and mental focus and the Calm inhaler to enhance relaxation and sleep quality. Inxhale plans to conduct further research in partnership with the University of Canterbury later this year to deepen understanding of the effects of olfactory fragrances on alertness.
It is encouraging to see brands investing in research that supports the functional fragrance movement. Some critics compare it to the rise and subsequent decline of aromatherapy, or the use of essential oils (made from natural plant extracts) for therapeutic purposes.
Aromatherapy has its roots in the practices of ancient civilisations, but its reputation has foundered amid claims of pseudoscience, comparisons with “snake oil” and associations with predatory sales strategies (such as multi-level marketing schemes).
While there might be some sound science behind aromatherapy, and in other countries much stricter rules and regulations about the sale and distribution of essential oils, it’s a reminder for users to be cautious when selecting natural, essential oil-based fragrances. For instance, rosemary oil should be avoided by those with high blood pressure or who are pregnant and eucalyptus oil can irritate the sinuses and airways.
Beyond selecting a scent for its mood-boosting properties, further research on the link between scent and cognitive function is hoped to bolster our knowledge of the brain. In a 2023 study by the University of California, subjects exposed to natural oil fragrances for two hours a night demonstrated an impressive 226% increase in cognitive performance.
Personalisation and big data
Consumers’ desire for fragrances that may positively affect personal wellbeing also reflects a broader cultural shift within the beauty industry. Customers, particularly millennials and Generation Zers, increasingly value their identity over mass consumerism. In response, brands are creating products that celebrate individuality and diversity, although these products are often manufactured en masse, too.
Yves Saint Laurent’s 2021 “Scent-Sation” activation in Dubai exemplifies this trend, where a “neuro-connected headset” that measured electrical activity in the brain was used to analyse emotional responses to different fragrance families, ultimately recommending a perfume from the brand’s range that best suited the wearer.
Glossier’s fragrance, You, is another example of the industry embracing personalisation. The data-driven brand describes You as a “personal skin-scent enhancer” that allegedly reacts to the wearer’s natural oils, enhancing their unique scent rather than masking it.
Hyper-personalisation, or the leveraging of data and algorithms, is another way fragrance brands and manufacturers are creating tailored experiences for customers.
Local brand Speak Scents uses algorithms and scoring models to match customers with bespoke fragrances developed in France. It was a desire to modernise and make the perfume-buying experience more accessible that helped to seed the idea behind Speak Scents.
Its co-founder Madeleine Patel highlights a dilemma many fragrance buyers, especially first-timers, have: “When I could finally afford to venture into a store to find a unique scent, I immediately felt out of my depth, like I didn’t belong. It was a terrible experience.”
After meeting data scientist and now husband Ankit Patel, they saw the opportunity to combine data with scent and create new products. The Speak Scents proprietary database consists of more than 70,000 global scents, each with more than 300 attributes. Its platform will be updated in March to provide what they say will be even greater accuracy, with approximately 34 million possible combinations. Later this year, Speak Scents plans to move into physical retail settings to further simplify buying fragrances.
As brands like Speak Scents and Inxhale continue reshaping how we wear, use and buy fragrance by catering to consumer indulgences, this evolution will inevitably bring greater scrutiny to the business and science of scent, particularly as our awareness of its impact on our mental and physical wellbeing grows.
