TREND: A Wave of Scent Innovation Fueled by the Pandemic

Fragrance is being developed and applied for wellbeing in dramatically new ways

Back in 2019, one of our key trends was how fragrance was getting a wellness makeover. With a new understanding of scent’s role in our mental and physical health, there was a new wave of functional fragrances and scent-for-wellbeing applications starting to rise.

The pandemic has kicked research into how scent impacts human health–and innovations in how scent can be deployed for wellbeing–into higher gear.

Several forces are at play. Study after study shows how profoundly scent is linked to emotion, and with global depression and anxiety crises, more companies developed–and more people snapped up–fragrance products designed to improve their mental wellbeing in the search for some at-home self-care.
As CB Insights reported, if perfume sales were down in 2020, sales of aromatherapy and home fragrance products reached record levels last year. For instance, sales of incense rose during the pandemic, with new products that are a far cry from the ‘70s patchouli fogs: sophisticated creations with natural ingredients and old-world craftsmanship.

The Trends in the News

What Can Covid-19 Teach Us About the Mysteries of Smell?––The New York Times

COVID-19’s strangest symptom–losing one’s sense of smell–has opened up new doors to understanding our most neglected sense. If you want to understand our long cultural history that has denigrated the importance of the sense of smell and the mounting research on how smell is a “startling” and complex superpower–read this article! It covers so much: from how the human smell system involves 400 receptors that can detect as many as a trillion smells; how unlike sight, which needs to pass through various parts of our brains to reach our memory or emotion centers, smell has a uniquely direct pathway; and how our olfactory receptors are even closely tied to our immune systems, alerting tissues when there are pathogens nearby.

Functional Fragrance: Scent Is Being Elevated as a Channel for Health & Wellbeing––Wunderman Thompson

The pandemic has brought a heightened focus on the link between olfaction and wellbeing. Doctors are prescribing smell training (“physical therapy for your nose”) to COVID-19 patients experiencing a loss of smell. Brands are harnessing functional fragrance to lift our moods and reduce our anxiety. For instance, Rochas’ new scent “Girl” positions itself as the “first 100% feel-good perfume", a natural, vegan formula formulated to relax wearers.

These perfumes will make you more creative––Financial Times

For the last 40 years, perfume was all about sex and attraction, but innovators are reimagining scent’s power in self-discovery, personal creativity, and expanding the mind and trying out new ideas. DS & Durga’s fragrance encapsulates “all that we love in music, art, nature and design”; cult brand Escentric Molecules’ “Beautiful Mind” series is inspired by dance and writing and Aesop’s new perfume line “Othertopias” was specifically designed to incite dreaming.

The Power of Scent Technology for Enabling Immersive Wellness––Design Well

A look at how tech is now catching up with the power of scent. The future: technologies that can create immersive sensorial spaces and personal “wellness zones”–whether via TVs, home entertainment theaters, or other smart devices. For instance, Scentscape, from tech firm Hypnos Virtual (seeing some significant investment), uses AI to create “scent tracks” akin to a cinematic musical score–so it can trigger an endless array of mood-altering olfactory sensations.

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