SENSORY OVERLOADTheStar.com | living | Scents & the CityScents & the CityA brief history of some common scents
The Plague: Most plague victims emitted a strong and objectionable odour, so flowers (posies) were carried to mask the smell. Plague "doctors" wore elaborate bird masks with perfume in the beak to cover up the smell of decay.
Pomanders: Perfume balls carried on the person or placed in a vase were thought to purify the air and protect against infection.
Deodorant: The first one was invented in Philadelphia in 1888. Mum, which stands for "Morning Until Midnight," was originally a cream applied using the fingers.
Smell-O-Vision: In the 1960s, Scent of Mystery arrived in movie theatres, with "Smell-O-Vision," a scented movie-going experience. It produced any of 30 scents, triggered by the soundtrack.
Scratch 'n' sniff: The 1970s saw the introduction of scratch-and-sniff stickers. The fragrance in the stickers was put into tiny microcapsules that would burst and release their scent when scratched.
Smell 2.0 DigiScents: A company founded in 1999, DigiScents planned to create a digital language for recording, recreating and transmitting fragrances, and was preparing to sell a small computer peripheral device, called the iSmell, that would act as a personal scent synthesizer.
Axe body spray: A phenomenon that has transformed schools into scented battlegrounds. Teenage boys apply it heavily, encouraged by a marketing campaign that suggests women find the aroma irresistible. Kipling Collegiate recently banned scents on its students.
Making scents: A study by Will Dember of the University of Cincinnati showed scents such as lily of the valley and peppermint make people more attentive. Shimizu, a Japanese construction company, invested in a scented air conditioning system it believes will prevent workers from making mistakes.
Compiled by the Toronto Star library
-->Toronto fragrance expert finds garbage strike almost more than a sensitive nose can handleJul 23, 2009 04:30 AMComments on this storyDavid Graham(5)
Fashion Editor
Marian Bendeth is having a terrible summer.
The Toronto-based fragrance expert is being victimized, she says, by the civic workers' protracted strike that has some quarters of the city stinking to high heaven. If you think your nose is being assaulted by the piles of stewing garbage, imagine how Bendeth feels.
"I'm cursed," she says. "I smell everything much more intensely than most people."
It can be painful to have such a trained nose, she explains. "I pick up every odour."
It's also depressing, says the global fragrance authority.
"I'm constantly stopping to refresh my nose," masking the smell of decay with sweeter fragrances.
"But it's hard to get away from it," from the food decomposing in her kitchen's recycling bin to the garbage steeping in her garage. Bendeth has devoted her career to the study of scent and, as the owner of Sixth Scents, consults with clients around the world. The most common reaction to a negative odour is depression, she says.
"The sense of smell is connected to the limbic system, which also governs emotions," she says. Emotionally speaking, decay is synonymous with disease, fear and death.
But while some people become sad in reaction to rotting food, says Bendeth, others may turn hostile.
Urban studies on the effect of general deterioration in modern cities, from graffiti-covered buildings to garbage-lined streets, reveal that crime rates escalate in areas of neglect. In 1982, criminologists George Kelling and James Wilson unveiled their "broken window" theory. It suggests that neighbourhoods that are well-kept – in good repair and free of garbage – are safer, less likely to attract crime. While the theory applies more to the visual of garbage than the smell, Bendeth remains convinced much of this hostility is a reaction to the stink – the signifier of death.
In a foul-smelling environment, "people become argumentative and irritated by the slightest thing."
She employs an old-fashioned tactic to find relief. "I bury my nose in the sleeve of my shirt" so the smell of pure cotton will distract her.
Her advice to others? "Some people might want to carry a cotton hanky sprayed with their favourite fragrance."
After all, you can only hold your nose for so long.
The genesis of the perfume industry can be traced to a time when bad smells needed to be masked.
Bendeth rattles off a chronology of perfume's role over the centuries. From the Egyptians and Romans, who used incense, to the fragrant pomander bowls employed in Europe during the Plague, perfume has provided the perfect cover-up.
But it was Paris that became the world's centre for perfume design and production, perhaps because the city had such a potent reputation for smelling bad, particularly as it has been documented throughout the 18th century.
The subject was thoroughly covered by Alain Corbin in his treatise The Foul and the Fragrant – Odour and the French Social Imagination. In it, Corbin refers to Paris as the centre of stench.
Though the fragrance industry has ancient beginnings, it wasn't until the 18th century that perfume became a truly commercial concern. Somewhere between the miasmas of Paris in the 1700s and the launch of Chanel No. 5, an olfactory revolution took place.
Few people appreciate that transformation more than French perfumer Christophe Laudamiel. As a marketing sideline to the 2006 film Perfume: The Story of a Murder, Laudamiel created a series – "a coffret" – of scents that were then produced by fashion designer Thierry Mugler. They were based on specific smells that had been described in Patrick Suskind's 1985 novel Perfume, the basis for the movie.
From the irresistible smell of a freshly bathed baby to the squalor of Paris almost two centuries ago, Laudamiel replicated the everyday aromas of Paris in 1735.
The book follows the career of an 18th-century French perfumer who becomes a serial murderer in his quest to create the perfect scent.
Laudamiel, who worked for the giant fragrance company I.F.F. (International Flavours and Fragrances), has designed fragrances for clients including Tommy Hilfiger and Aramis. He is uniquely aware of the power of good and bad smells. Last year, he and partner Stewart Matthew launched Aeosphere LLC, a company dedicated to fragrances – personal and environmental.
The truth is, there are no bad smells, insists Laudamiel. Just like there are no bad colours, he explains, people have uneasy associations with certain colours and smells and carry that prejudice throughout their life.
"Because we don't learn scent in a conscious way, our first experience becomes very entrenched," he says. That said, "I still don't like the smell of garbage."
Scent is an associative game for Laudamiel. "When I'm in a restaurant and I smell stinky feet, I'm offended. But when I see a block of parmesan cheese at the next table I'm relieved."
In fact, garbage "notes" are important in perfumery, he says. For example, the scent of chocolate has animal traces. "If you remove this note from chocolate, it smells like a piece of plastic."
As well, black currant has a hint of urine. Papaya and gooseberry reveal notes that smell like vomit. He compares it to including salt in a cake recipe. It's key to the character of the final product.
"But garbage is a mishmash of everything," he acknowledges. "Particularly during a garbage strike, people should switch their fragrances regularly. You get used to the fruity scent after a while and you don't notice it any more."
Surround yourself with fragrances that "wrap" bad smells. For the smell of rotten vegetables, seek a fruity perfume. Bad meat, try something sweet like vanilla. Smell something fishy? Look for a fresh and watery fragrance.
And finally, Laudamiel warns – stay away from lavender during a garbage strike. Garbage and lavender do not go together.
I particularly enjoyed the history of fragrance use in this article. For centuries, people have used fragrance to make their surroundings more pleasant. There are many emotions connected to different smells and the culture we are raised in makes a huge impact. I hope you enjoy the read as much as I do!
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