“Most people assume we all like the smell of roses and hate the smell of skunk.“ – Rachel Herz PhD, author, cognitive neuroscientist and professor at Brown University

Over many years, as a perfume lover, collector and reviewer, I have discovered one constant  –  some people’s scent solace might very well be others’ perfume scrubbers. For that reason, and for considerations of fairness, I try to approach every new scent with an open mind and exploratory nose. But even with the most careful anecdotal “blind” testing  – no name, no hype, no list of notes, no suggestion of quality, no price tag, no press release, no opinions of fellow perfumistas or self-important critics – I occasionally encounter a fragrance that has, for me, no redeeming qualities whatsoever.  Sadly, sometimes these scents go beyond innocuous, surpassing allergies and migraines, landing in the realm of the foul stenches – the  perfume scrubbers!

Despite offensive aromas, I find myself fascinated that these very same repulsive stinkers often wear beautifully on other people. Factors of personal chemistry, scent memories, emotional triggers, cultural associations of quality (celebrity vs. designer vs. niche) as well as allergies, sensitivities and hyperosmia have been used to explain the phenomenon of perfume scrubbers. A notable example is CaFleureBon Editor-in-Chief Michelyn Camen’s unpleasant close encounter with  Mr. Frederic Malle and the  beloved Carnal Flower, people actually backed out of the room, whereas Robert Herrmann wears this beautifully.) There is no doubt that reactions to and preferences for one perfume over another are psychologically as well as physiologically grounded, but I am finding that there is a lot more to olfactory love and hate than these long accepted dictums would suggest.

Liz Taylor washing her cocker spaniel Amy

I am sure most of us have heard the good news that the human sense of smell is at least as acute as that of man’s best friend.  But there is more! In 2015 Researchers at Duke University sniffed out a reason why we all seem to have a different sense of smell.  They found that it was not just a matter of a vague “like” or “dislike”, but that we are all, in fact, smelling things in completely different and specific ways. The Duke study revealed that at least 400 genes (broken down into their smallest increments of more than 900,000 different combinations) are directly responsible for supplying the code for the receptors in our nose. In 2017 researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute discovered something even more astonishing.  They found that these “olfactory neurons are formed throughout an individual’s lifetime…the olfactory system adapted to the environment, leading to more cells capable of detecting scents to which there has been greater exposure…”

 Our sniffeuse Ida Meister in Savannah smelling honeysuckle©

Real and quick time evolution? Perhaps.  Maybe that explains why last week I couldn’t abide Shalimar and this week I love it? Whatever the case, our perfume preferences  and therefore our perfume scrubbers  may involve much more than what first meets the nose! Not only memories, but also the power of words and images, even such strange things as the common excitement of fear and disgust (the “benign masochism” of University of Pennsylvania psychology professor Paul Rozin) serve to modify our olfaction. Physiological elements such as general health, circadian rhythms and primal protective mechanisms seem inextricably and genetically woven into the texture of our fragrant experience.

“It became clear that the role of genes, especially those that encode olfactory receptors in the genome, is very important in the construction of nasal tissue, but there was a very remarkable contribution of the environment…We found the cellular and molecular construction of the olfactory tissue at a given moment is prepared not only by the organism’s genes but also by its life history.” Professor Fabio Papes, University of Campinas, Brazil

Pepe Le Pew and Penelope Cat

Wow! In other words genetics and environment, experience and physiology combine, from moment to moment, to give each of us a very unique and different olfactory take on the world, a sense of smell that is at once predictable and, like the weather, always changing.  Indeed, today’s perfume scrubbers might be tomorrow’s fragrant loves! Do your perfume scrubbers – change with time, experience and environment or do you find that “once a scrubber, always a perfume scrubber”?  Can you define what makes you love or hate a perfume? What are your perfume scrubbers? Let’s talk about it!

Gail Gross – Senior Editor 

Art with special thanks to Pepe Le Pew!!!