"Make me a fragrance that smells like love" - Christian Dior

Smell has the power to transform your mood, evoke memories, take you to a faraway land, and even help you fall in love. That’s why it’s not uncommon for perfumers to be approached by a frequent request. ‘Make me a scent that smells of love’.

In fact, it is every perfumer’s desire to create scents of love. Isn’t it an undisputed fact that being in love makes one happy, hopeful, inspired, and grateful? Being loved gives one confidence and courage. As perfumer, a good scent is one that makes the wearer feel good. At training schools, perfumers are taught general schemas of great fragrances along with a detailed study of all the raw materials used in perfumery. Based on this, and his own orientation, each perfumer has his own preferred palette of ingredients which he works with to create scents. Experience and expression in composition over time bring out the most liked perfumes.

You can fall in love at first whiff

Scent is so closely connected to emotions. The perfumes are deeply personal and can evoke strong memories with a single note, even on a subconscious level.” A fragrance is a reflection of our personality, a way of giving others a piece of ourselves simply through smell. Fragrances help us to portray an impression of how we wish others to perceive us.

Fragrance creator Roja Dove said in an interview, “When it comes to falling in love or setting the right mood for Valentine’s Day, fragrance is the most important alluring accomplice to add to your arsenal. It is the catalyst for romantic alchemy.” Imagine you see someone you are attracted to, across the bar or in a restaurant or a common friend’s party. As you get closer, you breathe in a little of their fragrance, and their olfactory signal is imprinted on your psyche. When you smell a desirable fragrance on someone, the hormone balance in your body is stimulated and you subconsciously become attracted to them.

Decoding love notes…

A fragrance is an artistic creation and interpretation of the perfumer. Romantic notes in a fragrance evoke an olfactive perception of smelling something soft and delicate like a petal of a flower or the morning dew. Light florals, Gourmand, Fruity, Powdery and Green are the leading notes that are considered romantic. The emotions these trigger are tenderness, charm, hope and romanticism.

Rose is definitely the flower of romance! In India, the Queen Noor Jehan is credited to have discovered rose water/rose oil floating in her rose petal bath. This soon became a fragrance for the kings to offer their queens. It is believed the favourite fragrance of Queen Victoria in the 19th century was Creed Fleur de Bulgarie – also made of roses from Bulgaria.

White flowers like jasmine, magnolia, gardenia, and tuberose add a touch of sensuality as they have naturally occurring aphrodisiac in them called indole that we, as human, produce naturally.

Exotic and sensual, Orientals and gourmands are a blend of warm and spicy smells accentuated with hints of caramel, dark chocolate, and creamy coffee.

If you find a perfume deeply sensual and addictive, chances are that the vanilla in it is having that effect on you. The scent of vanilla is known to enhance sensations of pleasure across the entire central nervous system.

In the Middle East, Agarwood or Oud is considered to be very sensual and used in their traditions especially by the rulers and their families. Recently, it has been embraced by the contemporary world of designer and niche fragrances. Tom Ford Oud Fleur, Versace Oud Oriental, Maison Francis Kurkdjian Paris Oud Silk Mood, Dolce and Gabbana Velvet Desert Oud are some examples of this traditional ingredient given a modern interpretation by western perfumers.

All Good Scents smell of love

The idea behind Love & Joy was to create a fragrance that’s classically feminine with delicate notes of rose, lily of the valley, peony & freesia. At the same time, I wanted an element of modernity and surprise, which makes it lighter to wear for the women of today. Love and Joy is an elegant floral feel-good fragrance. It’s not reserved only for special moments as I feel every moment should be celebrated. Tender for her is more sensual with presence of freesia, orange-blossom and jasmine. The earthy-woody base of vetiver and musk is sweetened with a touch of honey. Our Eternal Garden Range, consisting of four perfumers based around the hero ingredients of rose, jasmine, vetiver and musk, is also an ode to different facets of love, ranging from tenderness and romance (rose and jasmine) to earthy (vetiver) sensuality (musk). Though perfectly balanced to be worn on their own, these soliflore fragrances are great for layering. Combine Rose with Vetiver for a tender-earthy appeal, or Jasmine with Musk for raw sensuality, or Musk and Vetiver for an addictive woody-spicy allure. This range allows you to be your own perfumer and play with different notes and the emotions they evoke.

Are modern romantic scents marketing-driven as love sells? Or there is more to the emotion, which gets translated to universal acceptance? It’s a bit of both. While it is true that marketing has taken over the fragrance creation in a lot of ways these days, it’s also a fact that scents do have the power to evoke love. However, being very personal in nature, the scent of ‘love’ may not be universal evocation but for a selected few.