Creating natural fragrances: techniques and processes

The smell of home baking might remind you of spending time at your grandmother’s house when you were a small child. The scent of a particular perfume might remind you of a romantic partner. Why does smell seem to act as such a powerful memory trigger and how does it affect our fragrance choice?

First, the olfactory nerve is located very close to the amygdala, the area of the brain that is connected to the experience of emotion as well as emotional memory, and the hippocampus, which is part of the limbic system and associated with emotions and long-term memories. The actual ability to smell is highly linked to memory. Smell is processed through the emotional part of the brain first before it is incorporated to other senses. Fragrance is integral at birth for communication; a baby’s attraction to its own mother is far greater than to another female’s odour. Research has shown that when areas of the brain connected to memory are damaged, the ability to identify smells is actually impaired. In order to identify a scent, you must remember when you have smelled it before and then connect it to visual information that occurred at the same time. According to some research, studying information in the presence of an odour actually increases the vividness and intensity of that remembered information when you smell that odour again.

Creating natural fragrances has an exeptional benefit too in terms of health and wellbeing as research from Japan has confirmed that odours from essential oils had a definite effect on brainwave patterns and cognitive function. Oils such as peppermint and jasmine increase an alertness response; whereas German chamomile and lavender offer a decrease in alertness.