The use of Fragrances Today

Today, fragrances have evolved into an entire multi-billion industry with diversified players, and even more evolved uses. Fragrances are largely marketed today as fashion essentials, with highly niche uses and applications. The following sections discuss how fragrances are used today, and their significance. Fragrance has become a lot about the individual and has become a highly personal essence as the succeeding sections will show.

Social Applications of Fragrance

On an individual level, fragrance makes us smell good. Today, fragrance is applied to make people, places and objects smell good. Hence we have air fresheners to infuse a room with a fragrance, and we also have fragrances for cars and other closed spaces. Fragrances are also now important ingredients in hygiene and personal care. In oral care, mint is used to give a sweet, balmy breath. Fragrances for hair exist, used in shampoo. Fragrances are also used in body moisturizing creams, hand wash, skin oils, nail polish, and even lipstick. Scented jewellery has has also grown in popularity, and scented candles have replaced the burning of incense in some cultures.

Seduction

“Seductiveness is embedded in the history of perfume, that’s why it has lasted across the globe and across millennia.”

– Mandy Aftel (Perfumer)²⁶

Fragrance has a long history with sex and seduction²⁶. The link between fragrance and seduction has two dimensions to it. The first comes from the scientific link between the olfactory sensations and the limbic system described in the beginning, and the second stems from the rise in the use of sexual content in advertising media since the 1980s. Both of these dimensions have played a role in developing the perception of fragrance as something that aids in increasing one’s sexual attractiveness. Both of these dimensions are explained below:

Scientific perspective of fragrance and seduction

The seductive power of fragrance can be linked to pheromones³⁰. These are chemical secretions or excretions, which trigger a social response in other members of the same species. In the animal kingdom, honeybees release pheromones to entice a swarm into an empty beehive. Sexual pheromones also exist in the animal kingdom. Pheromones are like hormones, but they act outside, rather than inside the body, thus affecting the behavior of others. These are hormones, which stimulate sexual appetite. Interestingly, pheromones are triggered by scent. The use of fragrances that trigger the release of pheromones thus attempt to influence sexual desire. As research into pheromones continues to grow, the known and recognized pheromones also continue to grow. While there is a considerable amount of debate over human pheromones, research into pheromones continues to discover more and more. Pheromones are primarily received through olfactory sensors, and studies suggest that they are excreted by several areas of the body including the skin, sweat glands, saliva and urine²⁹. Much of the debate is around the substance called androsterone – a pheromone that seems to give men ‘sex appeal’²⁹. It is said that men release this pheromone through their skin and hair. It is also present in sweat under the armpits of both sexes, which makes the practice of hugging something that can trigger sexual attraction as it brings those armpits closer to the pheromone and gives a desirable effect.

In that regard, it is not surprising to find that pheromones are used today as carriers of some fragrances. A lot of popular perfumes are marketed based on their ability to appeal to the opposite sex, and thus it makes sense to have pheromone-perfume combinations. In fact, some fragrances are explicitly advertised as pheromone fragrances such as Raw Chemistry’s ‘Pheromone Cologne’ – which comes in two variants, for men and for women. The fragrance for men is meant to attract women, and the fragrance for women is to attract men. According to the manufacturer²⁸, the product contains ‘over 50mg of pharmaceutical human grade pheromones’.

The influence of advertising

Professor Tom Reichert of the Department of Advertising and Public Relations in the UGA Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication said that advertisers use sex to attract consumers to buy their products. This is because sex attracts attention, and people are hard-wired to notice sexually relevant information²⁶. In that regard, advertisements with sexual content tend to get noticed more than others. Sexual content has pervaded advertising across different classes of products, from fashion wear and accessories, motor vehicles, men’s tools, alcohol, financial services, and even food! Consumers form impressions about brands, in part due to the images used in their advertising.

The use of advertising to influence perceptions of fragrance as ‘seductive’ is captured in many of the brand names used for modern perfume brands. Historically, perfumes had brand names that were as neutral as possible, an example being N^o5 by Chanel, which is over a century old. However, after the legendary perfumer passed on, and as the advertising began to take more ‘sexual’ overtones, the Chanel fragrance brands began to take on suggestive names such as ‘Allure’ (launched in 1996), and ‘Chance’ (launched 2002)²⁷. With the passage of time, fragrance brand names in the perfume industry became more and more overt, with names like ‘Guilty’ by Gucci, ‘Pleasures Intense’ by Estee Lauder, ‘Dark Temptation’ by Axe, and to top this list, ‘Pure Aphrodisiaque’ by Agent Provocateur, which also features a highly suggestively shaped bottle³¹.

The use of such branding and advertising aims to influence or play on the idea of placing personal attractiveness as important in fashion. In that regard, fragrances are largely marketed as tools to make one more personally attractive to the opposite sex, thus fuelling the use of fragrance in seduction.

Escape

“To be overcome by the fragrance of flowers is a delectable form of defeat”

– Beverley Nichols

Fragrances are also used today as a means of drawing oneself away temporarily from the distractions of reality and routine, often to enjoy a sense of undisturbed, calm relaxation. In such ‘escapades’, fragrances are used in some form or another. An example is taking a warm shower in a mildly scented shower gel, or a bath in scented, aromatic bath foams.

Quite often, when people smell fragrances, the eyes are closed in order to shut out other senses and enjoy the beautiful moment of smelling a pleasant fragrance. Typically, when our brain detects a desirable sensation through the senses, such as a beautiful sight, a warm feeling on a cold day, or a pleasant smell, we tend to desire to prolong our exposure to that sensation. This, in a way, helps us to rejuvenate and energize our senses, and could explain the demand for long lasting fragrances. Al Haramain’s oudh and bukhoor range is an excellent choice for a peaceful, tranquil time of personal meditation. One can light up the bukhoor / oudh and allow the experience to relax and rejuvenate the mind.

Self Expression

“A good fragrance should have a certain personality that makes people identify the scent with you”

– Shakira (Columbian Singer)

The notion of a ‘signature fragrance’ denotes a fragrance that shows one’s individuality. While one of our basic needs is the need to belong and identify with a particular group of people, we also have a need to show off our uniqueness. In the fashion world, this is particularly so, whereby even within the guidelines of forms of fashion peculiar to a particular culture, individuals still love to be identified through distinct variations. In that regard, fragrances are also used by people to express their uniqueness. Just as many tailor-make shoes, clothes and jewellery, wearing them with pride, fragrance also can be a means of expressing oneself, and one can have different fragrances to wear each day in order to match a mood, occasion or personal feeling. Al Haramain’s chic collection features a wide and ever growing range of perfumes, which identify with different groups of consumers according to their individual personalities. The fresh, exciting fragrance of the L’Aventure range, for example, appeals to the outgoing, adventurous men and women.

Popular Culture

Today, celebrities and popular personalities have delved into the world of fragrances as a means of increasing their influence among their fan bases. Popular personalities have wielded such influence over their followers so much that fashion labels have been branded after them, largely in partnership with fashion production companies wishing to cash-in on the popularity of a personality. A 2013 report by the British ‘Daily Mail’ newspaper estimated footballer David Beckham’s shirt and boot sales at one billion British Pound Sterling. With celebrity brands being big business, it is not surprising that celebrities have signed contracts with fragrance companies to associate their names with signature scents.

Faith Hill, an American Singer, actresss and record producer, released a fragrance in 2009 titled ‘Faith Hill Parfums’ – and released a second one a year later. Other notable celebrities with branded fragrances include Sarah Jessica Parker, Maroon 5’s Adam Levine, Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Christina Aguilera, Beyonce, Paris Hilton and the late Michael Jackson. Some celebrity fragrances even come with other bundled cosmetics such as shower gel and other branded fashion accessories.

The celebrity fragrance trend is not akin to the USA only. The trend also extends to Australia, with entertainer Kylie Minogue having her own fragrance. Colombian singer and dancer, Shakira, also has an interestingly named fragrance, ‘Dance’ as one of her scents. In Asian countries, this influence is slowly spreading. Sports personality Wasim Akram of Pakistan launched his own fragrance called Wasim Akram 414 in 2016. Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo also launched a fragrance, and Indonesian actress Nadine Chandrawinata also is the name behind ‘Sea Gipsy’ launched in 2014.

Such celebrities use their influence to sell the brand, and fragrance lovers buy the fragrances more for their memories of the personality, than for the fragrance notes themselves. Celebrities have been used by companies to influence fashion trends, and now celebrities themselves are influencing fashion trends through fragrance. It has become a multi billion-dollar industry and nowadays, people buy fragrances because of their association with a particular brand.

Thus fragrance use has evolved over time, and many of the early applications of fragrance are still applicable today, although the evolution has been more on the manufacturing technology, cultural applications and market dynamics. Fragrances are still used in religion, personal hygiene and home & fabric care, although wider applications continue to develop. It is expected that the fragrance industry will continue to develop with newer innovations, and that fragrance will become more and more indispensable part of human life.

   

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