The powerful ingredient the $55b perfume industry banks on
The link between memory and smell is nothing new but it takes more than that to keep a luxury fragrance making millions for decades – or even centuries – after it was created.
Early-childhood memories are behind Christian Dior’s first fragrance, Miss Dior.
The olfactory nerve, located at the back of the nose, is the place where receptor neurons transmit information about smell to the brain. It’s where odours, once inhaled, are given context and meaning, then filed away as part of our personal history.
It’s why seemingly ordinary sensory details – freshly mowed grass, drops of rain – can throw us into a tumult of nostalgia, why a spritz of your grandmother’s signature scent is strangely transcendent. Memories surface when we smell whatever gripped us at the time. It’s one reason the global fragrance industry is valued at $56 billion – our deepest emotions are swirling around in those bottles.
