Fragrances in personal care

For most of us, our sense of smell is an important tool for helping us to understand the world around us. Whether we’re conscious of it or not, we constantly use our olfactory system to receive messages from our environment – shifting our thoughts, feelings and behaviours accordingly. And while not always the primary function of a personal care product, scent can play an important role for the user. Still, “fragrance-free” products have been a huge pull within the world of personal care in recent years. With this new trend, one might ask why still choose to add a scent into a personal care product?

Functional effects 

Cosmetics in general certainly focus on a functional effect: smoother skin, shinier hair, improved appearance – and these will always have an impact on how we feel. But that doesn’t mean a product has to be a purely functional thing. A scent can be a powerful force for joy, a tool for wellbeing, and can match the physical benefits of a product with positive emotional effects.

Emotional effects 

From understanding how our olfactory system works, we know that key parts of our brain are stimulated when we breathe in odour molecules and their signals get passed on to our brains. Our hippocampus fires up, connecting the scents we smell to our memory, recalling experiences we’ve had in the past or forging new ones. Our amygdala engages our emotions, reacting to each smell we take in – sometimes, that’s as simple as whether we love the smell in our environment or are repulsed by it, and sometimes the emotional reaction we experience can be much more complex. Knowing this, getting the scent of a product right can impact the way the user feels when they apply it.

The benefits of the right scent 

To ensure that the fragrances used in a product create the atmosphere and emotion exactly how the product intends to, perfumers should work closely with the product inventors.

For instance: a cleanser has the pure function of cleansing the skin. But it can also be seen as a product to soothe the mind, step down busy thoughts in the evening and bring a state of relaxation often longed for in our lives. That should be considered when choosing the right fragrance for such a product, to make sure that the physical benefits go hand in hand with intended emotional effects. That could mean choosing essential oils, that additionally also have physical benefits, like when lavender is used to soothe the mind, the skin will also receive those soothing effects.

However fragrances are formulated, it’s important that all materials used for the fragrance have a history of safe use, proof that they’re good for the skin and that they do not contain any impurities such as heavy metals, residual solvents or reagents.