Oct. 15, 2018

The ScEnXt!

We may not fully understand the weight and power of scent in our life but it’s definitely one of the things that has a big effect on us.

Scent is the underlying reason for many behaviors, many animals recognize their offspring by smell, it’s a fact that with many animals if you take the young and wash off their smell or fully cover them with another smell and return them to the parents the parents will not recognize them and in some cases they will even attack them or kill them for being inferior through the scent.

The scent is the most powerful part in mating for many animals and mammals. In the jungles, the scent of deer musk can go for miles and affects the behavior of other deer and attracts the female deer for mating, similar behavior is observed and documented with many animals like tigers, lions, wolfs, and even dogs, and we all know how dogs mark their territory!

Many people, including some very well know perfumists and Noses, believe that humans observe a similar behavior through the scent of sex, or what many people call pheromones. Now, this is not to be confused with what some new companies and manufacturers started selling and promoting, what they call (the magical pheromones) where a few drops of some simple chemical liquid can turn someone into a godlike sex figure where he or she becomes irresistible to anyone from the opposite sex, this is just not true and not scientific and please don’t buy into it.

Still, we have to state that some oils, especially natural oils, do have strong effects and interference with the human attitude and behavior. It was documented that in the time of the Soviet Union, the female spies of the KGB used a mix of special herbs in a special measure mainly consisting of (verbena, rue and love ashes) to attract and seduce men and it was fully proven and documented by Russian scientists and former KGB spies that the mix they had was very powerful and effective.

Many social and scientific experiments were done to study and understand the effects of pheromones and scent on human behavior. It may sound strange or unfamiliar when some people swear that they can smell fear, yes, the emotion itself fear, it may sound like a simply undocumented and unproven claim that looks illogical to many people. But if you think about it, when we are afraid, worried or have an intense danger our bodies produce chemicals and we have all experienced an adrenaline rush before. When the hypothalamus sends the fight or flight response, the heart rate goes up rapidly and the glands start producing cortisol and adrenaline, and the blood get flooded with glucose, maybe this whole chemical chain of reactions and processes does actually have a special scent that some people can pick on and recognize; maybe that is the scent of fear.

It’s a fact that some companies and stores do use special scents and perfumes to attract people, customers or even affect customer spending or buying behavior. Actually, it’s a big part of the new marketing strategies being studied and taught and there are many articles and respected scientific studies about it and it actually has a name (SMI) or scent marketing influence. As professional perfumists, we can easily recognize it and even sense the effects of it on our behavior. Keep that in mind next time you walk into any large retail chain or store; it doesn’t matter if it’s a fashion store or a coffee shop, slowly but surely you will be able to recognize it and understand its effects. It may be just the smell of burnt coffee beans, caramel and vanilla which gives you a kind of sugar rush and make feel that you can’t think straight until you get your favorite drink from that shop or maybe it’s a smell of denim and silk in a high-end women’s retail store, sometimes it’s a mysterious floral, citric smell that has some special sharp and vibrant accords to it, usually used in women's lingerie stores and sometimes you can even smell it coming from outside the store like it’s going out of its way to grab the mind and the attention of those who may be interested in this smell or what it represents.

Additionally, there is nothing that triggers memories and past records like scent; sometimes the scent represents something very beautiful and innocent from childhood, and sometimes it reminds us of places or people that we don’t like and, believe it or not, you can immediately feel the change of the behavior and body language of someone who’s invoking past memories or experiences from a special scent.

There is so much to be said and so many articles and studies out there but for us, the most important aspect is the power of scent in developing positive emotions and feelings, making people happier and more excited and dressing the lucky clients and customers of our house with an aura of mystery, power and seduction. In the end, a scent is only good as the emotions and the feelings it evokes, so a big part of our work and creation is understanding the underlings of human psychology and understanding the power that some scents awaken in the human mind and soul.