Beauty brands are now focusing on harnessing the power of scent to boost wellbeing, with celebrities like Charlotte Tilbury and Bella Hadid championing fragrances that claim to boost mood. While there is a well-documented connection between scent and emotions, the ability of a perfume to induce specific emotions is less clear according to neuroscientists. Brands like Orebella, Clinique, and Charlotte Tilbury are marketing perfumes as mood-boosting products. Orebella, Bella Hadid’s line, claims to elevate mood and aura using essential oils. Clinique’s “Clinique Happy” fragrance asserts that 97% of people feel happy when they smell it, thanks to an “uplifting blend of ingredients.”
Beauty brand Charlotte Tilbury recently introduced “The Charlotte Tilbury Fragrance Collection of Emotion” featuring six perfumes designed to boost specific moods like love, happiness, seduction, energy, empowerment, and calm. These claims are backed by consumer user trials conducted by an independent third-party testing facility where participants applied the fragrance daily for a week and reported on how it made them feel. International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (IFF), a leading fragrance supplier, is involved in research on scent and wellness. IFF has a database of over 6,000 tested scents used to formulate fragrances that can specifically target and boost emotions like happiness.
The science behind the link between scent and wellbeing involves the olfactory system which processes smells and sends signals to the brain’s amygdala and hippocampus, regions responsible for emotions and memory. Rachel Herz, a neuroscientist, explains that smells can evoke emotions because of this neural pathway. While scents can trigger emotions, there are limitations to how much perfumes can impact mental health. Herz notes that a scent must be connected to an emotional meaning for an individual in order to influence emotions. The placebo effect also plays a role in how we perceive scents, with branding and marketing influencing how a scent is perceived.
Dr. Sandeep Robert Datta, a neurobiologist, emphasizes the importance of pleasant smells for mental health, with the loss of the sense of smell being disorienting. Smelling something pleasurable can boost mental health and contribute to psychological well-being. The perfume industry is using research and data to create fragrances that target and enhance specific emotions through the use of specific ingredients that are associated with happiness or calmness. Overall, while perfumes can have an impact on emotions through scent, the individual’s connection to the scent and the placebo effect play significant roles in determining the effectiveness of mood-boosting claims made by fragrance brands.
