Bringing the outside indoors is a proven way to promote relaxation. Whether it's houseplants and flowers, organic colours and earthy, fibrous textures, or just sunlight, the natural world is proven to reduce stress and improve mood, connecting us with our primal, nature-dwelling selves. But what about smell? Despite its primacy in the animal kingdom, as humans we tend to be out of touch with the so-called ‘fifth sense,’ although its effects are not something to put one’s nose up at. From candles and diffusers to pot-pourri and room sprays, there are myriad different off-the-shelf home fragrances, each one designed to imbue your home with a delicious and inviting scent.
Charlotte Semler, co-founder of natural-fragrance brand VERDEN thinks it is paramount to incorporate the perfume of nature into our interiors. ‘Natural fragrances connect you to the earth and makes you feel better in a profound way, like a magic potion. It is good for our mental health,' says Charlotte. Whether its woods and smoky greens in their Arborealist products, summery citruses in their D'Orangerie products or spring florals in the new Hortosa range, the scent VERDEN products, which includes hand washes, diffusers and candles, all draw from the natural world. Beyond immediate relaxation, as anyone who has read Proust will also know, smell and taste (which are closely interlinked) – are connected to memory. Whereas we constantly override visual cues with new symbolic associations, we are less likely to do this with smells, making their effect often powerful and involuntary. Charlotte was inspired to set up VERDEN after a trip to a beach in Denmark from her childhood and its distinctively joyful associations. ‘Most people will have that from some place in their lives,’ says Charlotte. The trick is to ‘find a fragrance that makes you feel how you want to feel,’ that reminds you of a place of happiness and tranquility.
New kid on the block, Ffern also has nostalgia at the root of its mission. The brainchild of brother and sister duo Owen Mears and Emily Cameron, the idea was born from homesickness, as on moving to university, Owen found himself craving the familiar scents of home. The brand has since become one of the most in-demand fragrance houses around, creating limited runs of seasonal perfumes and scented candles. It has recently launched it's ‘Winter ’25' scent: a heady mixture of coffee, olibanum and Peru balsam, packaged up in a deeply stylish recycled and reusable steel vessel.
Aromachology is the particular study of human smells and its influence on human emotions. Whereas the more well known area of aromatherapy looks at the effect of smells on physiology, aromachology explores our psychological response. It was armoachology that led Brendan Murdoch, founder of anatomē, to create a range of candles and oils that promote wellbeing and particularly sleep (influenced by his own insomnia). Forget your usual lavender oil: the scents are deeply complex containing up to 28 different extracts: ‘a lot of aromatherapy oils don’t have a precise sense structure,’ he says, with ingredients including Himalayan Lavender, Blue German Chamomile and Somali Frankincense. Brendan explains that it takes time for smells to rewire our neural pathways, but that through practise we can create new, positive memories of smells which can serve healthy sleep and relaxation: ‘It’s about familiarity and ritual,’ he says. ‘Associating a scent with different moments and training your body to respond.’
Whether it is one of the delectable candles listed above, or a different vehicle for scent (see the wondrous and ever-popular Santa Maria Novella Pot Pourri, or the plug-in scent diffusers from Diptyque), each of these brands has captured what is so important about home scents. It is not necessarily about making our current setting a lovely, aromatic one, but about filling it with smells that remind us of some of our happiest memories. Be it the sweet, crisp smell of Autumn apples, the honey-like scent of sweet peas or the floral magic of a loved-ones perfume. Being greeted by these nostalgic fragrances can have a transformative effect, and during the cold winter months, anything that makes our homes cosier and more inviting is certainly a good thing.
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