Welcome to the world of functional fragrance
Where neuroscience and scent combine to manipulate your emotions.
Have you ever imagined feeling any emotion you want just by spraying perfume? Unlikely. But what if you were told it’s possible? Functional fragrances, an emerging perfume category, has not only transformed the way scents are created, marketed, and used but also how they make us feel. These functional fragrances claim that you can transform your mood and experience the feeling of being in love, joyfulness, confidence, or even a more fulfilling sex life with just a spritz.
Aromatherapy has long claimed that scent can affect our mood. Now, perfumers are intentionally using specific notes to influence our emotions. Rather than simply blending different notes for a scent that delights, perfumers are creating fragrances that can evoke memories and trigger emotions. From new fragrance brands to legendary heritage houses, companies are using the power of neuroscience to revolutionise the art of perfumery.
Charlotte Tilbury, beauty entrepreneur and makeup artist, recently launched a new collection of fragrances infused with emotion-boosting molecules. “I have always been fascinated by the invisible power of fragrance, captivated by its magical ability to unlock memories and emotions,” Tilbury told The Australian.
“When I began the creative process, it was the six universal feelings that came first, the emotions I knew I wanted to bottle: love, happiness, energy, serenity, empowerment, and seduction. I then shared my vision with some of the world’s greatest perfumers, master perfumers, Anne Flipo and Dominique Ropion, and the wonderful Juliette Karaguezoglou, whose perfumery is informed and inspired by emotions and memories,” said Tilbury.
The range comprises six fragrances, each aptly named to conjure a specific feeling in your life. There’s Love Frequency for love, More Sex for seduction, Joyphoria for happiness, Magic Energy for energy, Calm Bliss for serenity, and Cosmic Power for empowerment.
Tilbury worked closely with Celine Manetta at IFF (International Flavours & Fragrances), who had conducted studies in science and psychology that helped support the perfumers in creating the collection. “Through my collaboration with IFF, I have been able to use their cutting-edge technology through their SCENTCUBE algorithm, which is what we used to identify perfect ingredient combinations,” said Tilbury. The IFF SCENTCUBE uses artificial intelligence to analyse data and give perfumers ingredient combinations that are proven to enhance specific emotions. “Over the past 40 years, IFF has tested thousands of fragrance notes in an unconscious study into brain emotion — what you cannot control — and a conscious user study into scent emotion based on how you feel and what you say,” explained Tilbury.
In 1960, Marilyn Monroe famously told Marie Claire that the only thing she wore to bed was Chanel No.5. Today, fragrances created specifically for sleep have become one of the biggest sub-categories of functional fragrances. Sleep perfumes have gone viral on TikTok, with content creators sharing their favourite scents to spritz onto your pulse points and pillowcase for your restful night yet. The phrase “Perfumes for Bedtime” now has over 6.6 million views and counting. Beauty content creator Caroline Stern shared the perfumes that she sleeps in with her 176.6k followers, swearing by 11 11 by Lake and Sky as the scent that she would choose if “she had to sleep in one scent for the rest of her life.” In case you’re curious, other popular scents that function to help you drift off to sleep include Diptyque L’ Eau Papier, Jo Malone London Moonlit Camomile Cologne and This Works Deep Sleep Pillow Spray.
From sleep to seduction, functional fragrance categories are becoming more niche. But for brands who are new to the category, creating a scent that triggers a release of dopamine is the usual entry point. Founder of fragrance brand By/ Rosie Jane, Rosie Johnston, recently launched Missy, the brand’s first functional fragrance. “It’s my very first functional fragrance and it just makes me and everyone that smells it happy, even if they don’t want to wear it,” says Johnston. Before the launch of Missy, By/ Rosie Jane had always been a casual fragrance brand, “but this just has a real usefulness that I don’t think I’ve had in any of my other fragrances,” she says.
“It’s a fragrance that’s going to hopefully invoke some sort of emotion, the way aromatherapy essentially has.” Like Tilbury, Johnston hopes that her latest fragrance will call in positive feelings and emotions to those who wear it. “In Missy, clarity and joyfulness is the mood that is injected throughout the whole fragrance, and of course, the notes of pineapple coconut, all of these technical molecules that are designed and studied through neuroscience to bring on this feeling of lightheartedness.”
But will the rise of functional fragrances bring an end to signature scents? Johnston doesn’t think so. “I think signature fragrances will always exist, now it’s just broader,” she explains. “The idea of a signature scent in the original term was just like one, right? And even for me, that’s how I started — Leila Lou was my signature scent. I was a makeup artist and I wanted to create a fragrance that people would remember me by that they would be like, ‘That’s the makeup artist that smells so good.’ That’s how the whole idea of my line started.” Much like signature style, she believes that people will always go back to their favourite scents but may experiment with new ones from time to time. “That’s what I think the new era of fragrance and perfume wearing is,” says Johnston.
Whether you wear perfume for personal expression or functionality, find a fragrance that you love, and it will inevitably bring you joy — hopefully in the form of someone stopping you on the street to say, “You smell so good!“
