“Allowing myself the freedom to switch up my fragrances lets me experience the world differently each day.”
Our sense of smell is closely and intimately linked with memory, more than any of our other senses. So much so, that upon a single whiff, we can instantly be transported to a specific person, place, or moment in time (for better or for worse). This is actually due to the anatomy of our brain. Smells are processed by the brain’s olfactory bulb, the structure that sends information to the other areas of the body. And the olfactory bulb is directly connected to the amygdala and hippocampus, the parts of our brain that process memory and emotion.
So if you’re someone who wears a signature scent — that is, a fragrance you spritz on each day, without fail — you can be assured that when people who spend time around you get a whiff of that scent elsewhere, they’ll be reminded of you. (Really — their brains are wired for it.) Alternatively, if you prefer to rotate scents, you’re setting yourself up for a lifetime of scent associations — tied to vacations, relationships, new jobs, heartbreaks, and everything in between. No matter which way of wearing scent you subscribe to, it’s easy to see why fragrance is one of the most emotional and evocative ways that we use beauty products to connect with the world and the people around us.
Below, we spoke to six perfume pros — from world-renowned perfumers, to TikTok creators whose scent wardrobes are nothing short of impressive, to podcast hosts who explore the stories behind the fragrances we love — about how and why they wear scents the way that they do, whether that’s a signature scent or rotating fragrances.
Fabrice Pellegrin, Principal Perfumer and Director of Natural Product Innovation at Firmenich
“I…
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