How to choose a fragrance for someone else

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH LUSH
WORDS BY CAIT EMMA BURKE

The lowdown on selecting a scent you know that special someone in your life will love.

Whether it’s the aroma of baked bread wafting through your house, a pile of freshly cut grass on a summer’s day or the ocean’s salty, enveloping smell, scent punctuates our lives in meaningful ways and adds depth and detail to our memories. I often find myself transported back to a specific time or place through scent and as a longtime perfume lover, I was curious as to why.

As it turns out, scent is processed by our olfactory system which is directly connected to the hippocampus and the amygdala – the brain’s memory and emotion centre. It is this connection that causes the deeply intertwined relationship between scent, memory and emotion.

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In other words, when you process a scent and commit it to memory for the first time, you automatically connect it to what you’re experiencing emotionally and physically for the first time. For me, the scent of my grandma’s shortbread biscuits will forever be associated with warmth, safety and comfort – my brain made that association early on in my childhood, so shortbread is an unequivocally ‘happy smell’.

Lush Product Perfumer Emma Dick knows more than most about this topic. “Smell is one of the most powerful senses. You can catch a whiff of something in the air or the scent of a product and immediately have an emotional response to it. Perfume can have an effect on your mood, emotions and energy levels. With a clear rise in the levels of stress and anxiety, more people are looking for essential oils and products to boost their emotional wellbeing,” she explains.

Given the intriguing relationship between scent, emotion and memory, it’s no wonder that fragrance can also be incredibly nostalgic. You’ll often see people picking out dedicated wedding perfumes, or buying a new fragrance for a particular holiday, with the idea that the scent of it will forever bring back those special memories.

The issue, of course, is knowing exactly which fragrance to pick. Chatting again to our friends at Lush, I asked for some tips on where to start. This is when I learned about Lush perfume consultations. Essentially, you can head into any Lush store and request a perfume consultation. The staff there will take you through a journey of questions to help narrow down your ideal scent.

When buying for someone else, they recommend thinking about a special memory you have together and what scent you might associate with it. For example, do you have a special place you go to or an activity that you love doing together? Do they have a favourite flower or a particular feeling that they always remind you of? In a consultation, the Lush team will use these unique characteristics as inspiration to find a gift that feels truly personal.

If you want to make the gift into a true experience, you can also bring your loved one in-store with you to go through the process of discussing your favourite memories and picking out your fragrance gift together.

Getting a perfume consultation

Melbourne-based content creator and designer Priya McPherson recently attended a Lush perfume consultation with her mum ahead of Mother’s Day. “To be honest, I’ve had trouble thinking of a unique, creative, and inventive Mother’s Day gift for a few years now. I wanted something that would both express my gratitude to my mother and be a keepsake that the two of us could cherish. When I discovered Lush’s free scent consultation, I realised it was just what I was looking for,” she tells me.

A highlight of the consultation for Priya was the way it allowed her mum and her to reflect on their experiences together, particularly how memories, emotions and scents “brought us back to one another”. After trialling multiple scents – Cardamom Coffee was a close second, the cardamom scent reminding them both of the chai drink Priya’s grandma makes them each morning – they settled on Lord of Misrule. Priya tells me they were drawn to it because “It combined my tones of floral and lightness with the earthy notes that best matched Mum’s smell”.

So would she recommend a perfume consultation to other mothers and daughters out there? “I, without doubt, would do this consultation again, because it not only allowed Mum and I to reflect on our cherished moments together but additionally it created a new enduring memory. It was an unforgettable experience that I highly recommend to all those looking for an unforgettable Mother’s Day gift this year.”

Check out Lush’s full fragrance collection here.