Dr. Feelgood

A romatherapy is nothing new, but Grasse-based Arthes group takes it to new heights with Smiley, the world’s first antidepressant perfume. I’m normally suspicious of high-concept anything, but who can resist trying out a feel-good perfume?

“Everybody is stressed and running, so they need to have a fun time,” says Juan Cuadrado, area manager of Arthes, the French group behind Smiley. Cuadrado was at Rustan’s Essenses last week to introduce his company’s brand of happy therapy to Pinoys. “When we launched Smiley in 2005, it was an immediate success.”

Smiley’s packaging is an instant draw: sunny yellow and white pharmaceutical containers like medicine droppers, lozenge tins, and those sterile squeeze bottles they use in hospitals. The eau de toilette and eau de parfum are in throat-spray bottles with round bottoms that won’t stand upright by themselves until — and here’s a tip from the makers themselves — you take the plastic clamp from around the neck of the bottle and use it as a stand. Voila!

This oh-so-clever packaging was designed by Ora-ito, the young French “Prince of Design” who’s worked with everyone from Chanel and Louis Vuitton to Guerlain and Kenzo. “Ora-ito designed the brand as a medicine, but it’s not a medicine,” Cuadrado cautions the overly literal.

Ora-ito made his clinical packaging instantly universal with the Smiley logo. The smiley face — a symbol invented in the Sixties that has transcended time to become the digital emoticon — is warm and friendly.  “Among 13- to 80-year-olds, 90 percent see it as a unisex symbol of happiness and communication,” notes Cuadrado. “Though it was most popular in the Seventies and Eighties, every generation can identify with it. Everybody knows Smiley.”

To create a perfume to go with the symbol was not easy, however, so the formula had to be equally ingenious. The fragrance starts out fresh — top notes of bergamot, orange and pimento berry are instant picker-uppers and energizers. In aromatherapy, bergamot is used to uplift and inspire. Orange is similarly cheering, with a touch of sensuality. Pimento berry, a.k.a. allspice, is nurturing and adds warmth and comfort.

The secret to Smiley, however, is in its heart. Middle notes of cocoa and praline curacao provide the joy. Two extracts from cacao, theobromine and phenyethylamine, have an endorphin effect similar to eating chocolate. When ingested, both can affect mood. Theobromine, a form of caffeine, works as a natural antidepressant, while phenylethylamine can cause emotional highs. Researchers believe that our body releases phenylethylamine when we are in love, thus producing the uplifted mood associated with love.

Not even science has proven yet whether these molecules are better ingested or inhaled, but any perfumista worth her salt knows that fragrances have a direct line to the brain. Why else would we love them so much? Perhaps it’s because scent is capable of jogging buried memories, reminding us of more cherished times of life.

But that’s not all there is to Smiley. The fragrance ends on bottom notes of patchouli, myrrh and musk, known for their calming, peace-giving qualities. Hippie favorite patchouli is romantic, soothing, and used in Chinese medicine to normalize and balance the flow of chi. Myrrh is centering, making it conducive to meditation and visualization. Musk is generally used in perfumery to “fix” the fragrance, and give it lasting power and sexiness.

Smiley’s nose was Jean-Pierre Bethouart, creator of fragrances for Firmenich, which has done Dune pour Homme and For Ever and Ever for Dior, and Cerruti si Masculin. Considering this expertise in gents’ scents, it follows that Smiley is unisex, and Cuadrado tells me the 30-ml EDT is most popular with the guys.

Not surprisingly, this type of prescription-free happiness breaks all the rules of perfumery. Targeting upwardly mobile 20- to 30-somethings with its trendy image — “people who want a contrast to traditional perfumery” — Smiley is launched only in concept stores, not mass marketed on purpose, so people can understand its concept.

Smiley comes in a full range of bath and body products. There’s an EDT, EDP, pure perfume extract, therapeutic bath, all-in-one washing solution, body rubbing friction, body gel, and a super-cute boxed set that looks like a first-aid kit. Launched at prestigious stores like Selfridges in London, Sephora in Europe, Henri Bendel in the United States, and Essenses in the Philippines, prices are so reasonable that over 10,000 pieces were sold in a month at Selfridges.

So, is Smiley really happiness in a bottle? The mixture of chocolate with citrus-fruit notes might make you think it’s a gourmand, “edible” fragrance, but Smiley is actually less gourmand and more uplifting. The EDP has great staying power and leaves very pleasant traces on your skin — boozy, white musky, a tad perfumey. But don’t go off your meds just yet. Though Smiley isn’t meant to replace your Zoloft and Prozac, you will feel serene, at peace, more open and loving towards the world, as if you had sniffed some olfactory “E.”

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Smiley is available at Rustan’s Essenses.