The nose knows: When fragrance and memories collide
Young girl enjoying the smell of a pine tree.
I’d been sorting through the children’s memory boxes when a distinctive smell catapulted me back to their early years. It was the washing powder smell from one of their tiny baby blankets.
I traced the soft blue weave and closed my eyes. We’ve since changed brand, but the soapy whiff of lavender brought me right back as if I was the ghost of my own past, sitting folding laundry while the babies cooed beside me. It was a visceral moment that overwhelmed, but in the nicest and most sentimental way.
Now my babies take buses alone, and their rooms smell more like hockey kit and sass than the loamy lavender that brought easy tears.
But how extraordinary that a simple smell can have such a powerful effect on our memories.
Memories are made from many things, but they are undoubtedly made of scents. Christmas is a particularly poignant time that can catapult us right back to our childhood; Pine needles, the smell of the cloves in the ham, the new page smell of a book you've been gifted...suddenly you are that child again, wrapped in the moment and there is great comfort in the nostalgia of a time that is so centred around family.
Life moves fast and without a word of warning, one aroma can take you back to a particular moment; That meal you used to cook with an ex-partner, a perfume that evokes carefree summers with friends, for example
All these connections are the result of olfactory memory, a quality that links smells with memories and emotions.
Scent is big business when it comes to a range of brands too including hotels that often pump their signature scents into rooms and lobbies.
In a Harvard Business Review article in 2018, it was noted that “In an age where it’s becoming more and more difficult to stand out in a crowded market, you must differentiate your brand emotionally and memorably. Think about your brand in a new way by considering how scent can play a role in making a more powerful impression on your customers.”
Neuroscientists believe that sensory representations of odour are reformatted in our brain in ways that extract information from an emotional and biological standpoint. The overriding reason is central to our survival. A dog raises its nose in the air to pinpoint a smell, and while humans mainly navigate our environment with our sight, olfaction – the sense of smell is a powerful and overlooked sense.
Prof. Carl Philpott from the Norwich Medical School says the importance of how we consider fragrance and memory came to the forefront in recent years when so many lost their sense of smell during Covid.
“Loss of smell and taste really impacts people’s lives.” He explains. “Our previous research has shown that people who have lost their sense of smell also report high rates of depression, anxiety, isolation and relationship difficulties.
“It can disrupt almost every aspect of life - from everyday concerns about personal hygiene and emotional memory forming to a loss of sexual intimacy and the break-down of personal relationships.
“Christmas in particular can be a difficult time. So much of our celebration is based around festive smells and tastes - from the smell of the tree and mulled wine to tasting Christmas dinner, mince pies and chocolates.”
Margaret ‘Maggie’ Mangan is the co-director of Irish perfumer, Cloon Keen. After a career in the film industry, her and her husband moved back to Ireland and set up their fragrance business from Maggie’s parent’s garage.
“The house was called Cloon Keen, so we decided to name the business after it. Jules is from England but I’m actually Canadian by birth. My parents are both Irish,” Mangan explains. “We first started making candles in tins, and then I got really interested in the perfumerie side of things. I’d always loved fragrance. When we started it was more like apple pie and juicy melon scents, but when I got into it, I loved combining science and art to make new blends.”
Maggie describes fragrance “more like a physical process. The scent goes through your limbic system,” she explains. “Everyone can relate to getting a sniff of something and it takes you back to where you were twenty years ago. It’s like an emotional imprinting. The right scent can create a world of its own, it can transport you, through imagination and memory, to the past, to a place – real or imagined, to a mood and a way of feeling.”
Maggie now enjoys harnessing that same power through her scents. “I wondered if we could translate it. We always want to have something original so now we work on accords, that’s combining more than two scents together and creating a third.” But what about targeting certain smells to occasion or a feeling?
Founder of Ground, Peigín Crowley is a wellness curator, creating award-winning spa experiences with wellbeing at the core using scent in her products to address anxiety, insomnia, hormone fluctuations, and relaxation.
“Scent is a biological need in bodies for balance,” she explains, “It creates a therapeutic effect. For us, fragrances like perfumes have fixatives that sit on the skin, but aromatherapy is internal as well as external. Essential oils, for example, are transdermal but they have cause and effect.
They can sedate– like lavender, Cedar-wood, for example, brings about relaxation. Mandarin, lime and grapefruit are great for detoxification and movement, while other blends like frankincense help calm the mind.” For Crowley, scent is directly connected to memory.
“It can take you into space and time in your life like nothing else,” she muses.
“What’s even more interesting is that muscles also have memory, so if use oils consistently at night, taking in these aromas into your lung and skin, they are going into your memory and muscles. This is particularly powerful for small kids, or those who are restless at night.
Their smell palate is relatively empty. In other words, the smaller the child, the less they’ve smelt so when you introduce these oils, so they connect very deeply. It’s a nice idea of start using balms at home. Some parents give a little on the skin going to school in the morning. It’s like a hug. Scent is very soothing and potent.
It creates bonds and connections that stretch across decades.”
I think about the lavender smell on the blankets and how, just like those piney Christmas smells, it will always bring me comfort. Then it occurred to me that it doesn’t have to be boxed away.
That night I use some of the lavender oil at bedtime. I tell my daughters how I used to give them little baby massages before bed when they were tiny.
The scent of lavender hangs in the air as they fall asleep to the sound of my voice, just like they used to.
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