If you’ve ever spritzed on a citrusy scent and felt more energized, or lit an ambery candle to give your space a cozy feel, you’re already acquainted with the psychological effects of scents.
Regardless of whether they’re good or bad, the scents we encounter every day have an enormous impact on our mood, memory, and even how we feel about ourselves.
This guide is going to take a close look at the psychology of scents so you understand what exactly is going on when you smell a fragrance you love and feel better.
What Is the Olfactory System?
The olfactory system is the system in your brain that’s responsible for processing smells. Thanks to this system, your brain can understand different chemicals in the air as odors.
When certain airborne molecules (what we would call smells) enter your nasal passages, they come into contact with tissue inside your nose that has olfactory sensory neurons. When a molecule binds with a neuron, an electrical signal travels to the olfactory bulb in the front of your brain.
How Do Scents Affect the Brain?
Once scent molecules reach your olfactory bulb, it has to be identified and processed to be understood. For this to happen, the olfactory bulb sends signals to the olfactory cortex.
It’s almost like each scent you smell is a puzzle, and your brain has to put the pieces together in order to understand what the exact scent is. Your brain pulls on memories and emotions associated with different smells every time it has to do a new scent “puzzle.”
How Do Scents Affect Confidence?
Scents have the ability to make you feel more confident in yourself and give you an extra boost of self-love when you’re getting ready in the morning. On one hand, this happens because your signature scent, much like your favorite pair of jeans or that lipstick color that is just so “you,” is a form of self-expression.
Also, given that you’re likely drawn to your perfume because it is associated with positive memories, spraying it on can bring you back to your happy place.
How To Use Home Fragrance To Create Your Perfect Ambiance
Given that there’s no doubt about how much scents can impact our mood, confidence levels, and overall wellness, why not harness the power of fragrances to create your ideal home ambiance?
This section will explore Snif candles for each room of the house that will help you feel more at home and make the most of your space.
Living Room
If you’re looking for a comfy, welcoming scent for your living room, try Instant Karma. This candle's blend of cardamom, nashi pear, black plum, geranium, vetiver, cedarwood, and black tea makes it spicy, dreamy, and irresistibly cozy.
Bedroom
When you wake up in the morning and wind down at night, it can be helpful to surround yourself with calming scents that make the transition from sleep to wakefulness smoother. That’s where the Off the Grid candle comes into play.
Lily of the valley, moss, cypress, tuberose, cedar, cistus amber, and sandalwood come together to give this scent a relaxing vibe you’ll never get enough of.
Office
Anyone who works from home knows that you’ll do anything to make your home office as optimized for focus and concentration as possible. Lighting the grounding Birds and the Breeze candle, featuring mimosa petals, galbanum, jasmine, cyclamen, orchid, musk, and cedar, is one way to take your home setup to the next level.
Kitchen
Your kitchen is your lab for culinary experimentation, and you can get your creative juices flowing with Crumb Couture. This gourmand candle mixes croissant accord, wildberry jam, blackcurrant, toasted vanilla, tonka bean, and sandalwood to bring the smells of a Parisian patisserie to your kitchen counter.
How To Use Fragrance To Amplify Your Personality
In the same way you can change or enhance the vibe of a room with a scented candle, you can think of your fragrances as a way to amplify your personality. Many people like to have a “signature scent” they use as their go-to, and a selection of other scents they can wear for special occasions. When you’re putting together your fragrance collection, consider the scents you love, the story you want to tell with your fragrance, and where you imagine wearing your scents.
The Science Behind Scents
From molecules in the air to powerful scents that can trigger memories and make you feel your best, there’s a whole world of science behind fragrances. All you need to do is start sniffing to find the scents that make you feel your best!
FAQs
What does your perfume say about your personality?
Just like clothes, accessories, and hairstyles are all forms of self-expression, perfume is another way to show the world who you are and what your preferences are.
For example, if you go for a more classic perfume with a floral fragrance, it can help you show off your more romantic and elegant side.
Why do we like certain scents?
There’s a strong link between scents and memory. Usually, when you like a certain scent, your brain has made a connection between that scent and a positive memory in the past.
We’re also drawn to scents that seem to evoke a feeling of safety, a trait that was biologically advantageous for humans throughout history. Lastly, you might also just have innate preferences for certain smells like you do for certain foods.
How does scent drive human behavior?
Scent heavily impacts and drives human behavior because odors are processed in the limbic system, which is the region of the brain associated with emotion and memory. This means that scents can impact memories, trigger emotional responses, and influence mood.
Sources:
The Olfactory Bulb - Neuroscience | NCBI Bookshelf
How scent, emotion, and memory are intertwined — and exploited | Harvard Gazette