ScentSational!

Every time I smell fresh strawberries and pine trees, I remember my happy childhood days in Baguio. Every time I smell a traditional Filipino Christmas feast, I remember my mother. Every time I smell Johnson’s Baby Oil, I remember my father. Every time I smell Geoffrey Beene’s Grey Flannel, I remember my husband.

Have you ever had the experience where you distinguished a smell and suddenly remembered an event that you had forgotten for years? Or scents that remind you of people in your life? There is no doubt that our sense of smell has an amazing ability to transport us through time, usually back to our happiest moments. The only sense extending directly to the brain, smell is an essential component of our mood, memory and appetite. Dr. Alan R. Hirsch, director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, offers an explanation. "The olfactory lobe, which governs our sense of smell, is part of the limbitic system, which is the area of the brain considered to be the seat of the emotions and memory," he says. This private practice evaluates and treats disorders related to smell and taste. In addition, the foundation’s research extends to the effects of odors and flavors on emotion, mood, behavior and disease. In one study conducted by Brown University on the connection between fragrance and memory, researchers found that people can in fact recall smells with 65 percent accuracy after a year, while visual recollection diminishes to 50 percent after just four months.

Humans once depended on the olfactory ability for survival. It was the primary resource for selecting mates, sensing danger and discovering food. Today, smell is still believed to be one of the first of the five senses to develop in the womb. Once you understand the connection between scent and memory, it’s easy to understand why a bouquet of roses can create a totally different sensation for each person. If you’re looking to make sense of your memories, the answer may just be in the scent of the moment, both now and then.

French novelist Marcel Proust, one of the great literary figures of the modern age, has documented the experience known as "odor-evoked memory." He wrote the monumental cyclic novel, Remembrance of Things Past, and was chiefly concerned with memory, the actual process of remembering as much as the events remembered. He wrote, "When from a long distance past nothing subsists...still, the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, ready to remind us." Evocative memories, rich with scented imagery, may be happy, romantic, or painful. For example, Jean Harlow’s husband is said to have drenched himself with her favorite fragrance, Mitsouko, and then, in a fit of despair over their irreparable relationship, shot himself. On a happier note, Aimé Guerlain created the fragrance Jicky in honor of his first true love.

The word perfume comes from the Latin phrase, "per" meaning "through" and "fumus" meaning "smoke." The French later gave the name parfum to the pleasant smells that drift through the air from burning incense. Discovered by the Mesopotamians about 4,000 years ago, incense became the first form of perfume. Ancient cultures burned many kinds of fragrant resins and woods, often soaked in water and oil at their religious ceremonies. They rubbed their bodies with the liquid and also embalmed the dead with these perfumes. Perfumes were only used in rituals of the gods and pharaohs during this time. Even in the Bible, perfume was often mentioned and regarded highly. In the New Testament, the three wise men carried gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the infant Jesus. And Moses was commanded by the Lord to "take unto thee sweet spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum...with pure frankincense...and thou shalt make it perfume."

During the 19th century, changing tastes and the development of modern chemistry laid the foundations of perfumery, as we know it today. Alchemy gave way to chemistry and new fragrances were created. Despite the hard times, people expressed an inclination for luxury goods, including perfume. Couturier Gabrielle Chanel launched her own brand of perfume and the first completely synthetic mass-market fragrance in 1921. Created by Ernest Beaux, she called it Chanel No.5 because it was the fifth in a line of fragrances Beaux presented to her. Then the Thirties saw the arrival of the leather family of fragrances and florals also became quite popular with the emergence of Worth’s Je Reviens (1932), Caron’s Fleurs de Rocaille (1933) and Jean Patou’s Joy (1935). Then other designers such as Christian Dior, Jacques Fath, Nina Ricci, Pierre Balmain and so on, started creating their own scents when the French perfumery reached its peak in the Fifties.

The allure of fragrance is legendary. Women from Cleopatra to Empress Josephine to Coco Chanel have treasured its magical powers. When Prince Rainier of Monaco took Grace Kelly as a bride, he commissioned Creed, the exclusive Paris-based English fragrance house to create a scent especially for his bride-to-be. Fleurissimo, a bouquet of white flowers, became Princess Grace’s signature scent. Several years later, the fragrance became available elsewhere and became the favorite of Queen Elizabeth II and Jacqueline Onassis.

Fragrance not only captures a moment but also becomes important to a person’s character. Gone are the days when our grandmother’s and mother’s would stick to one perfume for life. Then women wore a singular signature scent. Times have changed. The rise in popularity is a reaction to the increased commercialization of the perfume industry. Big fashion houses spend US$30-$40 million marketing new fragrances alone. One reason for the immensity of the $4-billion industry is that the sense of smell keeps lasting impressions. With more than a thousand scents on the market, you will surely find one, two or more which will truly express your personality.

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Fragrances come in a variety of strengths. The more fragrance oils used in a formula, the longer lasting the fragrance and the higher the retail price.

The various ratios of fragrance oils to alcohol are as follows:

Parfum 15% to 30%

Eau de Parfum 8% to 15%

Eau de Toilette 4% to 8%

Eau de Cologne 2% to 5%

Splash Cologne 1% to 3%

Go light for those who work closely with others (like doctors, trainers and hairstylists), on a relaxing weekend, when spending time outdoors and on romantic candlelight dinners.

Go moderate in a position that requires authority (like lawyers, bankers and teacher), on a shopping weekend and on a movie date.

Go intense for creative people (like artists, designers, people in advertising and film), when club hopping and partying

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Send queries and suggestions to joyceo@netvigator.com.

All fragrances available at RUSTAN’S BEAUTY SECTION