Celebrating Scents of Love

Celebrating Scents of Love

Since humans first experimented with blending flower petals with citrus waters, there was a desire to create a scent that expressed love and romance. The Sultans of Persia would stuff their mattresses with thousands of rose petals to set a mood. The Romans scented fountains with rose oil – in palaces and public squares. And in Victorian England solid perfumes were incorporated into beautiful brooches which were pinned to jackets and coats emitting a subtle scent.

One of the reasons fragrance is so associated with love and romance is that it is intimately linked to the brain – the part associated with emotion and memory. Our sense of smell is a complex chemosensory system that serves a multiple purposes. One of these is our ability to enjoy and distinguish fragrances and perfumes.

Here’s how our sense of smell works: Odor molecules travel through your nasal passages to two tiny patches of tissue located behind the bridge of your nose. These patches are comprised of millions of special smelling sensors that connect directly to the brain. Each olfactory detecting neuron has one odor receptor. When you inhale and draw in microscopic odor molecules like your favourite fragrance, these stimulate the receptors. What’s interesting is the odor molecules dissolve in moisture and bind to tiny nerve hairs on the cells. Once the neurons detect the molecules, they send messages to your brain, which quickly identifies the smell. Any given molecule may stimulate a combination of receptors, creating a unique representation in the brain. It is the limbic system, our emotional centre, that is largely devoted to smell. So you can see why scent is so closely related to emotion, particularly to love.

When we inhale, odour molecules enter our nasal passage where tips of olfactory cells with hair-like structures wait for them. A perfume contains a bouquet of different smells, each one being a distinct smell. Most modern eau de parfums contain bergamot, lemon, rose, vanilla and woods. Each one of these is a separate smell. Consequently, a scent stimulates a unique combination of olfactory cells, creating a distinct activity pattern that is transmitted to the brain. It’s a complex and highly reliable system.

With this in mind, we’ve selected a handful of fragrances that evoke an emotion of love and romance to us.

Coach Love

Coach Love is a modern fruity-floral fragrance for her that pairs juicy wild strawberry with a velvet rose note. It was composed to express love in all its different forms and expressions.

Scent Style: a modern fruity-floral fragrance for her

Key ingredients: wild strawberry, red velvet rose, vibrant cedarwood

It’s interesting to discover that perfumers have most recently been selecting strawberry notes for fragrances with a romantic theme. The tart fruit has a juicy, nuanced aroma that blends beautifully with rose and jasmine essential oils. You can even see it blended with cocoa which makes sense. What says romance better than chocolate-dipped strawberries at the end of a meal?

Moschino Toy Boy

In Victoria, England, spices were often incorporated into men’s colognes to demonstrate wealth and privilege simply because they were so expensive. Spices from the Middle East had to travel thousands of miles by boat to make it to England. This is why you’d find members of the Royal Court wearing fragrances with nutmeg, cinnamon and even saffron. We love how spice is incorporated in a modern way in Moschino’s Toy Boy. The balance of floral, fruit and berry notes is seductive and interesting.

Key ingredients: Italian bergamot, pink berries, elemi gems, Indonesian nutmeg, green of pear tree, clove buds, rose neoabsolute orpur, flax flowers, cashmeran, magnolia, vetiver from Haiti ambermaxx

Atelier Versace Éclat de Rose

Rose if the flower most associated with love globally. What’s fascinating is that of the 5,000 known varieties of rose, only two are used in modern perfumery: Damask and Centifolia. Atelier Versace’s use of Centifolia Rose from Morocco is remarkable thanks to its blend of amber, incense and woods.

Atelier Versace Éclat de Rose is a refined floral-musk fragrance for her or him built around an exquisite Centifolia Rose oil. The delicate flowers are hand-picked during the early hours of the morning and then rapidly processed to extract the delicate scent in its peak aroma. The velvety rose accords are perfectly balanced with ambrox, amber, incense, wood and tobacco. A gentle musk is the perfect dry-down to this exquisite fragrance.

Scent Style: a refined floral-musk scent for her or him

Key ingredients: Moroccan Rose Centifolia, ambrox, amber, incense, woods

Montblanc Legend EDP

This fresh woody-aromatic fragrance for him was blended by Master Perfumer Olivier Pescheux who combines notes of bergamot, jasmine and moss with violet leaf and magnolia. The effect is fresh, masculine and confident. This scent boasts great longevity.

Key ingredients: bergamot, jasmine, moss, violet leaf, magnolia, woods, leather

Jimmy Choo I Want Choo Eau de Parfum

I Want Choo is a sparkling floral-amber fragrance for her that blends notes of velvet peach, mandarine juice, red spider lily, jasmine sambac, vanilla and benzoin (that smells like caramel) It’s a fashionable, spirited scent that will appeal to fashionistas of all ages and styles

Scent Style: a sparkling floral-amber scent for her

Key ingredients: mandarine juice, velvet peach, red spider lily, jasmine sambac, vanilla, benzoin

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