From artistic pursuit to functional fragrance, there’s more to perfume than meets the nose | Canada Voices

A few years ago, during a trip to Iceland, I stumbled across Fischersund, a family-run perfume store founded by the members of post-rock band Sigur Rós. The store felt like something out of a fairytale. Glass ornaments filled with pressed plants hung from the ceiling, candlelight flickered across dozens of tiny bottles and ethereal music buzzed from hidden speakers.

The shopkeeper offered me a small cup of homemade schnapps and took me on a “scent tour” of the location. Over the next hour, I learned about Fischersund’s signature blends as we discussed the subtleties of each fragrance and read poems created in tandem with the scents. I was encouraged to think about perfume as a form of storytelling. The local roots of each note. How each smell made me feel.

The experience opened up a new perspective. Before the scent tour, cologne and perfume felt wholly utilitarian to me. I’d never considered scent-making as an artistic practice – or what really goes into making a fragrance.

Making perfume can be a form of artistic expression

For Toronto-based perfumer Elizabeth Connors, a fascination with the form is what eventually led her to create her artisan perfume company, Pulp Fragrance.

Connors was a fragrance collector for years before she started experimenting with her own scents. “As I started to learn a bit more about what I was smelling in the perfumes I was collecting, I started to get ideas,” she said. “Next thing I knew, I’m buying a [perfume] starter kit and starting to make my own combinations.” Starter kits include small vials containing different scents that combine to make up a fragrance. Think botanicals, spices and musks.

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For the perfumer, learning the nuances of each scent – which smells worked together, how they changed over time – sparked all sorts of creative ideas.

Connors began crafting fragrances inspired by gothic romance and pulp horror, two of her personal interests. She’s since created limited-edition scents inspired by the television show Twin Peaks and short-run batches inspired by each month’s new moon. Making these fragrances wouldn’t have been possible for Connors without developing her nose, and a lot of trial and error.

Scent can influence memory and mood

While fragrances can be approached from an artistic standpoint, some perfumers have started using scientific research to produce their products. Ibiza-born company Amatrius claims its perfumes can influence mood and help balance emotions through chemistry.

Its scents were developed based on more than 35 years of scientific research by Dr. Hanns Hatt, a professor of cell biology at Ruhr University Bochum in Germany, into how olfactory receptors influence emotional and physiological states, Amatrius chief executive officer Nora Naisbitt told me. “Because scent reaches the amygdala within milliseconds, a single breath can return you to an emotional state you want to preserve,” she added.

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According to Naisbitt, scent itself is important but secondary to the emotions it conjures. For example, the brand’s Love Me fragrance is intended to stir feelings of intimacy and deep connection. That’s a bold proclamation: A veritable love potion. But as wellness trends such as biohacking enter into the mainstream, more perfumers are starting to explore how scent impacts us from a biological perspective. Referred to as functional fragrance, the trend has been gaining popularity but lacks peer-reviewed studies to support its claims.

Sniffing a sample of Love Me, I couldn’t tell if anything was happening to me on a biological level. But, anecdotally, when my partner wore the scent, I couldn’t keep my hands off them.

How to choose the right scent for you

For those new to wearing fragrances, it can take some trial and error to figure out what you like. One advantage about shopping in person or at smaller retailers is that you can get advice from experts based on your preferences. Do you feel more earthy and grounded? Are florals your thing? What are your thoughts on musks?

If you’re shopping online, it can be useful to start with a sample or discovery set to find out what works for you before committing to a whole bottle. Prices vary, but a discovery set from Fischersund sells for approximately $98, versus around $300 for a bottle.

Whether it’s from a chemical or emotional perspective, some extra consideration for what goes into making a fragrance and how that fragrance makes you – and those around you – feel goes a long way when picking out a scent for yourself.

“Fragrance can be a means of personal expression,” said Connors. “It’s kind of like choosing colours of clothing. They can either get you into a mood or express the mood you’re already in.”