One Scent with Thousands of memories

Has the hint of a smell ever propelled you back in time? The link between scent and memory is powerful. Let’s dig deeper!

Have you ever caught a whiff of a smell and instantly been propelled back in time? Perhaps you’re suddenly under a cherry blossom tree on a first date, or maybe you’re on the seaside on a childhood family holiday. We’ve all been there — it’s an incredible phenomenon. And when you stop to think about it, more than any other sense, smell has a unique ability to evoke special memories, feelings, and associations. Each fragrance family is a portal to a particular part of your life.

Believe it or not, associations with smell impact daily life.
Smells can manipulate many aspects of human behavior and cognitive function, especially memory.

Occasion Association
People make smells significant when that particular scent becomes associated with an occasion or person. As you encounter a smell, you form nerve connections that cause your brain to link the smell to the emotion you’re experiencing at the time. Scientists say it is one of our most incredible abilities as human beings and that none of the other senses has such deep access to our memories. The smell is by far the strongest. Think about it — you may smell someone wearing the same perfume as your favourite school teacher and be transported back to happy times you experienced with your friends or the teacher in class. Or perhaps, every time you smell a musky perfume, you’re reminded of a terrible experience with a strict professor in your university days, something you’d rather not remember. You associate smells with positive and negative experiences, most of the time without you even realizing it until you smell that scent again.

Give Your Brain a Boost
If our brains can link a smell to an event or person, we can harness this ability to perform better when it matters. This makes it very possible to use your sense of smell to prompt your memory when studying for an exam or making an important presentation.

If you breathed in a certain scent while you were studying or creating your presentation, your ability to recall that information is improved by inhaling that same smell during the exam or presentation. The simple solution, in that case, is to wear a particular cologne or perfume when you’re prepping and to wear that same scent when it’s go-time.

Scent association, in this instance, can boost your mental performance and unlock your memory. According to one study, scents like lavender and rosemary can significantly increase recall and image memory.

The Love Connection
How do scents affect love? Smells and emotions are all processed in the same brain area.  Should we then talk about love at first sight or love at first sniff?
Fragrances can also be used to remind you of a loved one if you’re spending periods of time apart. Smelling an item of their clothing or their cologne can bring the person to life, more so than a photograph can. The smell is also essential when it comes to attraction between partners.

The sense of smell is considered among the five senses in the same way hidden love is considered among all types of love, they both are commonly underestimated but definitely powerful as they have got an intense effect on our daily life.  When thinking about a person we love, most of us can remember their body scent, their particular fragrance, or their perfume.  There is a strong connection between smell and memory.

Health and Happiness
A smell can also be used to aid good health by inducing feelings of calm and serenity. The simplest way to use perfume to induce relaxation is to pick a signature scent and pair it with a yoga or meditation session. After doing this a few times, every time you catch a whiff of the perfume, you will instantly feel a sense of calm. As previously discussed, the smell can be extremely emotive, and the perfume industry has tapped into this to its advantage. Perfumers have developed fragrances that convey various emotions, including desire, power, relaxation, and well-being. A spritz of perfume developed with a certain emotion in mind can put you in the right mood for the right occasion.

That is why at Sayeeda, we highlight the importance of the sense of smell. With our fragrances, we want to promote well-being and happiness, so that they make you fall in love with life! And always remember, love is literally in the air!

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