Love from the first…smell? Part I.
Many of us believe in love from the first sight, but not many people know, there is actually love from the first…smell! Although the ancient people considered it to be more reliable and stronger, than any other love. In the Russian language there was even a word combination “to smell together”, meaning finding a proper partner.
When we meet an unknown person, we try to remember and analyze his smell – of course subconsciously – and our brain finally gives us a command – “yes, this is a good person” or “no, I don’t like him”. Our eyes can only fix outside features, but smelling gives us a more detailed description of a person’s inner world. Several chemical laboratories have proved, that it is possible to find the one, you’ll love forever, with the help of smell. It occurs, that in a man’s nose there is a small device, something like “the second nose”. It is a small skin bad with the diameter of 3-4 mm, located deep in the nostril. Unlike the “first” nose, that reacts on all the scents, this device shows its reaction only to sexual attractants – pheromones, that produce our “sexual” scent. But for our “first” nose pheromones do not have any smell – except the smell of sex!
When our “second nose” smells pheromones, it gives an impulse to nerves, and then – to the brain, that analyses the smell and produces the result. If the result is positive, we say to ourselves “This is true love!”
Of course, such a research had to be supported experimentally. For example, in one airport scientists have spayed a female attractant on a chair. And men, led by their “second” noses, nearly rushed to this chair, though a lot of other spare chairs were available!
A related experiment was also held with the help of a male pheromone. The clothes of a plain, average man was sprayed on with a male attractant. When he and the group of handsome man went into the streets, women tended to ignore the attractive men and turned their attention to the boring, but sexually-smelling man.
A guide for noses is created in Japan!
An unusual web-site was created in the internet by the members of a Japanese Perfume-Lovers’ Club (Nioi-bu). Not only does the new service provide the visitors with detailed descriptions of various scents, it also gives the exact coordinates of smelling objects on the world map.
The club opened in December 2008 and today includes about 200 active members. According to the creators of the project, their task is to give the internet the only thing it lacked before that – the sense of smell.
Though the web-site exists only in its Japanese version, there is no doubt, that this fruitful idea will find wide support in other countries.
There are many services in the net, that are dedicated to historical places, places of interest and sights, marked on the map. However, this site is absolutely unique. Those, who love fresh and simple scents, will learn from it, where to find fresh linen odorant, the scents of greenery or fresh soap. Gourmets will learn all about the smells of exotic dishes. And extreme-lovers, will find the smells of dung, old woman or dirty socks.
Some descriptions are not only concrete, but at the same time very poetic, like, for example, “the smell of verbena soap near a nunnery in Paris”. Some offer very complicated cocktails, like “incense, fresh greenery, mud and wild dogs” – a perfume description of the capital of Thailand. Today the portal contains 160 coordinates of different smells, starting from the smell of “rice, boiling in a pot” and ending with “long-time worn socks”. For example, in a Japanese town of Fujisava one can easily find the scent of manure, and in the place called Kamakura it is easy to meet cats with the worst mouth smell.
The projects works on the principles of openness – anyone can join it, in case he wants. A newly found scent is included into the database and marked with a flag on Google Maps. Today there are more than 160 scents marked in this way, and their amount is growing steadily.
Whatever you call the rose…or How perfumes get their names. Part II.
Eastern motives are one more bright idea of naming the perfumes. Perfume and East are strongly associated with each other. When we speak about perfumes, we start imagining the spices of east and the magic charm of eastern bazaars.
Some perfumes get the names, that are associated with nature. Harmonical nature is the eternal source of pleasant names. The Yves Roche company, the head of which is so passionate about nature protection, launched a perfume called Nature and a series of related skin care means.
Our mood and our feelings are an endless spring of inspiration for perfume creators, seeking for a proper name. The theme of feelings is first and foremost the theme of love, where a woman usually dominates. Being aimed at a woman, perfumes strive to underline her attractiveness, charm, unpredictability, cheerfulness and tenderness by their names.
Naming the scents after gems and precious metals has also become really popular. For example, Paco Rabanne launched two scents named Calandre and Metal, that have gained immediate success.
Another idea is to name the scents after geographical names – usually the exotic names and places prevail. However, in this sphere Paris stays on top – being the symbol of high fashion and perfect style, Paris is also a brilliant name for a scent.
Whatever the rose smells…or How to name a perfume? Part I.
What name must a perfume have? What task does the name have and at what is it aimed? Why is the name so important?
Of course, the name has to be catchy, bright, remarkable and to bring some associations. It is not easy to find a word, that would not only satisfy all these criteria, but would also reflect the image, the perfumer wants to create, and would carry a part of the perfume magic.
The easiest variant is to use the name of the perfumer or producer, or any of the trade mark owners, like Cardin, Armani, Gucci, Givenchy, Azzarro. Sometimes only the initials will go: K.L. by Karl Lagerfeld, Y by Yves Saint-Lauren. In this case the addition of a number to the perfume’s name will carry an element of mystery: Chanel № 19, Azzaro 9. For example, Kenzo company includes the name of the company in the majority of perfume names: Kenzo pour homme, EauparKenzo and so on. Sometimes the company, that produces fragrances, names them in honour of the founder or owner of the company: see Nina by Nina Ricci.
The most brilliant example of a surname’s use in the brand of Dior – this name is short, but catchy, and it sounds pleasantly. What is more, it is really useful for various modifications, like Diorema, Diorella, Diorissimo. Salvador Dali company seems to be also inspired by this idea – it explains the creation of Dalissime and Dalimix fragrances.
The magic of numbers is also of great importance. Chanel № 5 still remains one of the most popular perfumes in the world – probably because of the lucky number 5. They say, m-lle Chanel has organized the whole life of hers around this number, which in numerology means developed intuition and an ability to take risks.