The Science of Scent

It’s the first sense you use when you’re born. It’s also our oldest and most evolved sense, with one out of every 50 of your genes dedicated to it. It must be important, right?

Our sense of smell is breathtakingly powerful. As an adult, you can distinguish 10,000 different smells.

In fact, wherever in the world you may be right now, one thing is for certain: there are smells swirling all around you. While you read this, you are breathing odour molecules through your nose. While 95% of your nasal cavity is used to filter the air you breathe, at the very back of your nose is a region called the olfactory epithelieum. This postage-stamp size patch of skin is key to everything you smell. The olfactory ephithelium has a layer of scent receptors. When odour molecules hit the back of your nose, they bind to these scent receptors which send signals through the olfactory tract directly up to your brain.

The brain region that processes smell - the amygdala - is also responsible for processing memories and emotions, which is why some smells can trigger old memories. No other sense is directly wired to this emotion-processing part of the brain. Incredibly, your brain has 40 million different scent receptors, which is how we can tell the difference between smells. All of these different combinations let you detect a staggering broad array of smells. In fact, 75% of all emotions generated every day are due to smell, and because of this, we are 100 times more likely to remember something we smell over something we see, hear or touch.

Based on this premise, ScentScape aims to harness the intimate connection and emotional power of smell-triggered memory to design and deliver immersive fragrance experiences that elevate your experience of a space. Forming part of a broader movement known as “full-sensory branding”, ScentScape involves using carefully curated fragrance profiles to create a powerful, long-lasting association with it to communicate your desired olfactory identity.