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Olfaction really involves two things: application and experience. We place scent on our bodies AND we seek it out in the world. In today’s audiovisual-centric world, the full beauty of our olfactory senses can easily be overlooked. People tend to inappropriately dismiss fragrance as just another fashion accessory (so for beauty application only), undervaluing its full, active potential. Perhaps this is because they simply do not understand how deeply we experience each and every individual smell we come into contact with. They do not know “The Rules of Olfaction.”

SMELL. FEEL. REMEMBER. CONTEXTUALIZE. REACT.

These are “The Rules of Olfaction:” The five stages of understanding olfactive stimuli.

Smell

Smelling Flower Douglas Bender

Everything begins with a sniff. A few quick inhales and the olfactive process begins. Awake or sleeping, knowingly or unconsciously, we smell with every new breath that passes through our nostrils. While we may not noticeably acknowledge every iota of scented material in the air, our body is actively seeking out any and all olfactive triggers that might be lingering around us. Why? To warn us. To protect us. To lead us to food… Yes even possibly to turn our attentions towards potential sexual partners. The nose is our instinctual guide to the world, examining everything that surrounds us one sniff at a time.

Feel

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What happens after we smell olfactive stimuli? We feel them. Because our sense of smell is part of the body’s limbic system, when we take fragrance in, we are activating the brain’s emotional receptors. Have you have walked into a room and immediately felt comfortable? scared? tired? This could in fact be due to your nose: a result of your body responding to something you are smelling. Find the right olfactive trigger, and even the “strongest” of individuals can be reduced to tears. Just one example of the inescapable emotional power of our nose.

Remember

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At the same time we are feeling fragrances, we are remembering them, our nose acting as a gateway into the past. Find yourself in proximity of a familiar scent, and immediately the mind begins to wander, a flutter of memories flooding the brain, taking you on a journey. It’s quite amazing how instantaneously a whiff of perfume can remind us of our loved ones, transport us to our favorite places, even uncover parts of ourselves that seemed long since forgotten.  Like fragments of a dream, this is the beautiful dance between fragrance and memory.

Contextualize

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With the brain now swimming in memory and emotion, the mind begins the process of trying to make sense of it all: to contextualize the fragrance.  Bits and pieces start to come together.  The rational mind finally starts to respond to the initial olfactive stimuli.  Ah yes, this is a clove… a carnation… a lime. Sense is made from the madness.  Understanding how we get to this moment of clarity helps better explain why we oftentimes find ourselves at a loss for words when trying to describe a fragrance.

React

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Fight, flight, or everything is all right. Once a scent has been put into context, a decision can now be made as to what to do next.  We simply need to react to what the scent is telling us. I smell fire, therefore I should leave the building. I smell food, therefore I should eat something. I smell home, therefore I can relax… A simple olfactive cue can guide us in the right direction.

Though oftentimes treated as a passive object of beauty, as you can see, fragrance (and our connection to it) is far more powerful than it seems. Whether we acknowledge it or not, our nose is always there to help.

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