There’s a perfume my mother wore when I was very young, maybe two. I found it years after she stopped wearing it, Elizabeth Arden’s Sunflower Eau de Toilette ($29.50-39.50)—I even remember how the bottle looked, down to the sunflower-colored liquid inside it. One smell and I was right back in her arms, young enough to feel safe and comforted knowing that my mom could handle everything. That moment was sparked by the relationship between fragrance and mood, and it’s a feeling that many perfumers are diligently trying to replicate.
But how do they do it?
How do you go from mixing ingredients like sunflowers and gardenia or tobacco and musk to invoking the feeling of romance, comfort or desire?
We dove deep into the world of fragrance creation to find out and to bring you the expert-approved mood board to help you find the scent that fits exactly how you feel.
How Fragrance and Mood Interact
The creation of a perfume is kind of like mixing magic. While some of them start with a scent in mind, other perfumers are trying to craft a place, a memory or a mood. Creating a fragrance that’s transformational or that takes you somewhere you’ve never been before is as close to magic as I can think of, anyway. And as you can imagine, it can be difficult to try to evoke a feeling through scent. As people, we’re motivated, inspired and swayed by a lot of different things, and fragrances themselves can smell differently from person to person.
“I think fragrance has changed a lot in the past few years,” says MOODEAUX founder and CEO Brianna Arps. “We’re not trying to aspire to one thing any more, especially since fragrances all smell differently on us anyway.”
According to Yvan Jacqueline President-Americas FFD for Parfums de Marly- Initio Parfums Privés, the art to connecting a fragrance to a mood involves combining the obvious with the subtle and unexpected. “Citrus notes like bergamot, mandarin and grapefruit are known for their brightness, versatility and freshness,” Jacqueline explains. “The secret is to associate those scents with the ingredients like geranium or vetiver to smooth the sharpness of the citrus while incorporating woods for depth and long-lasting sillage, as seen with Perseus.”
Why Start With Mood?
Starting from the point of view of an emotion can make it easier for consumers to identify the fragrance they’re looking for, and it also opens up the opportunity for that fragrance to be gender neutral.
“Flowers are for everyone, moods are for everyone,” explains vice president of global new product development at Jo Malone London, Celine Roux. “It can be daunting to search for a fragrance; it’s easier to say that you’re looking for something warm and comforting or uplifting and invigorating.”
“Expressing moods in the perfume world is limitless,” Jacqueline says. “At Parfums de Marly, we are extremely proud to offer a wide possibility of feelings and messages in our collection as you can wear perfume for so many different reasons such as to seduce (Delina Exclusif), to feel energized (Perseus), to feel happy (Delina), and to boost confidence (Haltane).”
Often, fragrances are built through storytelling, to help the consumer identify all key points the fragrance is trying to convey: it’s inspiration, it’s mood and it’s message.
“We begin by sharing a symbolic story linked to the desert,” cofounders of AYOND, Shani Van Breukelen and Porter Yates explain. “We use its ingredients or specific moments in time to create a unique scent that supports the desired emotional state. Rock Rose, for example, captures the desert’s ability to renew by depicting how the flower emerges after a wildfire, bringing life back to the arid landscape. The scent of Rock Rose has a quiet strength that revitalizes the spirit.”
I’m Feeling…
