Scents vs Smells

8/3/2019 Scents vs Smells

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Citrus

Citrus scents are good for an energy-boost. They also can put you in a better mood. Examples of somecitrus fruits are oranges, grapefruit, lime, clementines, lemon, mandarin, and tangerines.

Lavender

Lavender can " reduce heart rate, lower blood pressure and relieve stress, anxiety and depression". It also

promotes sleep. So if you've had a bad day, light up a lavender-scented candle, sit back and relax.

Pine, Mint, and SageThese three scents lift your mood and make you feel more perky.

Green Apple, Banana, and Peppermint

These scents can reduce your food cravings. They stimulate the brain and make you feel fuller.

What is the role of a perfume in our daily life? If I say it is the mood energiser or a mood lifter, please dont

laugh it because studies have shown that scents play a big role in enhancing the mood of a person. Different

scents affect different people in different way. Scents never refers only to body perfumes but it can be the scent

of candle, soap, body wash, lotion, shampoo, etc., that can make you feel cheerful.

We canuse different scents for different occasions as mood lifters. Different scents have different impact ondifferent crowd. We can use scents for lifting our energy level, for relieving the stress, for creating a cheerful

surroundings, for a romantic evening.Citrus scents like lime, orange, or grapefruits are known to enhance

energy levels whereas the scents of mint, sage or pine are uplifting and creating a fresh environment. Some very

familiar scents like lavender, sandal wood or vanilla can help you to relax your stress after a hectic day

Jasmine, rose or gardenia scents can create a romantic evening for you with your partner. Sometimes, the sweat

smells the best and can be a mood lifter between the partners.

Scent Expert's Answer

Thanks for your question. I think the power of scent is something a lot of guys (and girls) out there dont knowmuch about. Aromatherapy and the effect scent can have on yourmood and behavior is considered a mystery

by many, but the bottom line is that your girlfriend isnt as crazy as you may think. Im here to break some of

the popular myths about scent and its effect on your mood and I'll also give you some great tips and tricks to

tempt both of your noses.

Nose 101

First and foremost, appealing to your subconscious sense of smell isnt just a gimmick or a marketing ploy to

sell products to people like your girlfriend. Our sense of smell is powerful and research suggests that certain

scents can influence your mood, memory, emotions, mate choice, sexual arousal, performance, and more. It

may sound crazy, but its true.

Basically, your nose sends information it gathers to both the primitive and complex parts of your brain. A strong

sense of smell was one of the main survival tactics of early humans. Just think of the food you eat: the smell of

good food is appealing, while the smell of rotten grub will make you push your plate away. Scent experts use

these physical and emotional reactions along with scientific research to determine the effect of certain smells.

Smell And Emotion
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If your girlfriend claims certain scents affect her mood, chances are shes right. Studies have actually shown

marked differences in brain waves and physical activity after people have been exposed to different scents.

Another thing for you to keep in mind is that, in general, women have a stronger sense of smell than guys,

which means she likely has a reaction every time she smells you. This of course leads me to ask whether you've

ever considered the effect eau de you has on your lady? Chances are if shes dating you, she likes your smell,

but keep in mind that different colognes, deodorants, soaps, body sprays, and shampoos will cause her to have

an emotional and physical reaction.

Our brains are hardwired to associate different scents with different feelings and emotions -- research actually

suggests that 75% of the emotions we generate on a daily basis are affected by smell. More than likely, most of

your memories are also tied to a certain scent. Moms apple pie, your girlfriends (orex-girlfriends) perfume

and the scent of your childhood home are all stored in your brain -- just one whiff of a familiar smell can trigger

a very distinct reaction, good or bad.

Scents You Need To Know

By now, youre (hopefully) starting to realize that scent is powerful and it can definitely impact yourmoodin a

variety of settings. If youre looking for a way to create a romantic mood for a date, need something to calm

you down after a long day at the office or want to pump yourself up for a long run in the park, here are a few

tips that you can put to use:

Chocolate scents can trigger arousal

The smell ofchocolate can cause the same arousal and mood effects as eating a piece of the sweet stuff. Before

a romantic date or night on the town, apply a chocolate-scented fragrance and youll smell irresistible to your

girl.

Lavender can increase relaxation

Lavender's stress-reducing abilities make it a popular ingredient in bath salts and gels, and lavender-scented

fabric softener on your sheets can help you get a good nights sleep. If your girlfriend has had a particularly

stressful day, spray some lavender on the bed and around the apartment to calm her down.

Peppermint can increase focus and athletic performance

Take a whiff of peppermint oil or eat some peppermint candy before a long workoutor day at the office for that

extra push you need to excel.

Citrus scents have been shown to increase happiness and lift feelings of mild depression

If youve had a bad week at the office or a fight with your girlfriend, place citrus scents around your apartmentto pick up your mood and get you back on track.

A Smelly Mood

Long story short, the human nose is an incredible machine, and the scents you encounter on a daily basis have

the power to influence your mood and behavior. If your girlfriend is using different smells to improve her

mood, be sure your scent is sending her the right signal. Trust me, shell take notice.
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The Smell Report

The human sense of smell

Although the human sense of smell is feeble compared to that of many animals, it is still very acute. We can

recognise thousands of different smells, and we are able to detect odours even in infinitesimal quantities.

Our smelling function is carried out by two small odour-detecting patches made up of about five or six million

yellowish cells high up in the nasal passages.

For comparison, a rabbit has 100 million of these olfactory receptors, and a dog 220 million. Humans are

nonetheless capable of detecting certain substances in dilutions of less than one part in several billion parts of

air. We may not be able to match the olfactory feats of bloodhounds, but we can, for example, track a trail of

invisible human footprints across clean blotting paper.

The human nose is in fact the main organ of taste as well as smell. The so-called taste-buds on our tongues can

only distinguish four qualities sweet, sour, bitter and salt -all other tastes are detected by the olfactory

receptors high up in our nasal passages.

Variations

Our smelling ability increases to reach a plateau at about the age of eight, and declines in old age. Some

researchers claim that our smell-sensitivity begins to deteriorate long before old age, perhaps even from the

early 20s. One experiment claims to indicate a decline in sensitivity to specific odours from the age of 15! But

other scientists report that smelling ability depends on the persons state of mental and physical health, with

some very healthy 80-year-olds having the same olfactory prowess as young adults. Women consistently out-

perform men on all tests of smelling ability (see Sex differences).

Schizophrenics, depressives, migraine sufferers and very-low-weight anorexics often experience olfactory

deficits or dysfunctions. One group of researchers claims that certain psychiatric disorders are so closely linked

to specific olfactory deficits that smell-tests should be part of diagnostic procedures. Zinc supplements have

been shown to be successful in treating some smell and taste disorders.

Although smoking does not always affect scores on smell-tests, it is widely believed to reduce sensitivity.

A recent study at the University of Pennsylvania suggests that, contrary to popular belief, blind people do not

necessarily have a keener sense of smell than sighted people. In their experiments on blind and sighted people,

the top performers on most tests were (sighted) employees of the Philadelphia Water Department who had been

trained to serve on the Departments water quality evaluation panel. The researchers conclude that training is

the factor most likely to enhance performance on smell tests. (University of Pennsylvania researchers are

probably fairly clued-up on this subject they designed the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification

Test (UPSIT) which is the standard test used in almost all experiments.)

The importance of training in the development of smell-sensitivity is confirmed by many other studies.

Indeed, this factor can sometimes be a problem for researchers, as subjects in repetitive experiments become

increasingly skilled at detecting the odours involved.
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Smell-sensitivity researchers have to be very careful about the odours they use in experiments, because a smell

is not always a smell. Many odorous substances activate not only the olfactory system but also the

somatosensory system -the nerve endings in our noses which are sensitive to temperature, pain etc. This is

why anosmics patients who have completely lost their sense of smell can still detect menthol, phenylethyl

alcohol and many other substances. In a study testing anosmics ability to perceive odorous substances, it was

found that many so-called odours are in fact affecting the pain- and temperature-sensitive nerve-endings, rather

than the olfactory receptors. Out of 47 odorous substances, anosmics could detect 45. (Only two substancescould not be detected by the anosmic patients: these were decanoic acid and vanillin, which affect only the

olfactory receptors, and can thus safely be classified as pure odours.) Some unpleasant smells do more than

just annoy or disgust us, they actually cause us pain.

Children

Although smell-identification ability increases during childhood, even newborn infants are highly sensitive to

some important smells: recent research shows that newborn babies locate their mothers nipples by smell. In

experiments, one breast of each participating mother was washed immediately after the birth. The newborn

baby was then placed between the breasts. Of 30 infants, 22 spontaneously selected the unwashed breast.

Other experiments have also shown that babies are responsive to very faint differences in body odour, but it is

believed that infants are highly sensitive only to specific smells, rather than a wide range of odours.

In terms of odour preference, however, one significant study showed that 3-year-olds have essentially the same

likes and dislikes as adults. Experiments conducted in the early 70s and replicated in 1994 revealed that children

do not develop sensitivity to certain odours until they reach puberty. In these studies, 9-year-olds showed a

pronounced insensitivity to two musk odours, although their ability to detect other odours was the same as that

of postpubescents and adults.

Emotion

The perception of smell consists not only of the sensation of the odours themselves but of the experiences and

emotions associated with these sensations. Smells can evoke strong emotional reactions. In surveys on reactions

to odours, responses show that many of our olfactory likes and dislikes are based purely on emotiona

associations.

The association of fragrance and emotion is not an invention of poets or perfume-makers. Our olfactory

receptors are directly connected to the limbic system, the most ancient and primitive part of the brain, which is

thought to be the seat of emotion. Smell sensations are relayed to the cortex, where cognitive recognition

occurs, only after the deepest parts of our brains have been stimulated. Thus, by the time we correctly name a

particular scent as, for example, vanilla , the scent has already activated the limbic system, triggering more

deep-seated emotional responses.

Mood-effects

Although there is convincing evidence that pleasant fragrances can improve our mood and sense of well-being

some of these findings should be viewed with caution. Recent studies have shown that our expectations about

an odour, rather than any direct effects of exposure to it, may sometimes be responsible for the mood and health

benefits reported. In one experiment, researchers found that just telling subjects that a pleasant or unpleasant


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odour was being administered, which they might not be able to smell, altered their self-reports of mood and

well-being. The mere mention of a positive odour reduced reports of symptoms related to poor health and

increased reports of positive mood!

More reliable results have been obtained, however, from experiments using placebos (odourless sprays). These

studies have demonstrated that although subjects do respond to some extent to odourless placebos which they

think are fragrances, the effect of the real thing is significantly greater. The thought of pleasant fragrances may

be enough to make us a bit more cheerful, but the actual smell can have dramatic effects in improving our mood

and sense of well-being.

Although olfactory sensitivity generally declines with age, pleasant fragrances have been found to have positive

effects on mood in all age groups.

In experiments involving stimulation of the left and right nostrils with pleasant and unpleasant fragrances

researchers have found differences in olfactory cortical neurone activity in the left and right hemispheres of the

brain which correlate with the pleasantness ratings of the odorants. These studies are claimed to indicate that

positive emotions are predominantly processed by the left hemisphere of the brain, while negative emotions aremore often processed by the right hemisphere. (The pleasant odorant used in these experiments, as in many

others, was vanillin.)

Perception effects

The positive emotional effects of pleasant fragrances also affect our perceptions of other people. In

experiments, subjects exposed to pleasant fragrances tend to give higher attractiveness ratings to people in

photographs, although some recent studies have shown that these effects are only significant where there is

some ambiguity in the pictures. If a person is clearly outstandingly beautiful, or extremely ugly, fragrance does

not affect our judgement. But if the person is just average, a pleasant fragrance will tip the balance of our

evaluation in his or her favour. So, the beautiful models used to advertise perfume probably have no need of it,

but the rest of us ordinary mortals might well benefit from a spray or two of something pleasant. Beauty is in

the nose of the beholder.

Unpleasant smells can also affect our perceptions and evaluations. In one study, the presence of an unpleasant

odour led subjects not only to give lower ratings to photographed individuals, but also to judge paintings as less

professional.

The mood-improving effects of pleasant smells may not always work to our advantage: by enhancing ourpositive perceptions and emotions, pleasant scents can cloud our judgement. In an experiment in a Las Vegas

casino, the amount of money gambled in a slot machine increased by over 45% when the site was odorised with

a pleasant aroma!

In another study a consumer test of shampoos a shampoo which participants ranked last on general

performance in an initial test, was ranked first in a second test after its fragrance had been altered. In the second

test, participants said that the shampoo was easier to rinse out, foamed better and left the hair more glossy. Only

the fragrance had been changed.


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Scent-preferences

Scent-preferences are often a highly personal matter, to do with specific memories and associations. In one

survey, for example, responses to the question What are your favourite smells? included many odours

generally regarded as unpleasant (such as gasoline and body perspiration), while some scents usually perceived

as pleasant (such as flowers) were violently disliked by certain respondents. These preferences were explained

by good and bad experiences associated with particular scents. Despite these individual peculiarities, we can

make some significant generalisations about smell-preference. For example, experiments have shown that wetend to like what we know: people give higher pleasantness ratings to smells which they are able to identify

correctly. There are also some fragrances which appear to be universally perceived as pleasant such as

vanilla, an increasingly popular ingredient in perfumes which has long been a standard pleasant odour in

psychological experiments (seeVanilla).

A note for perfume-marketers: one of the studies showing our tendency to prefer scents that we can identify

correctly also showed that the use of an appropriate colour can help us to make the correct identification, thus

increasing our liking for the fragrance. The scent of cherries, for example, was accurately identified more often

when presented along with the colour red and subjects ability to identify the scent significantly enhanced

their rating of its pleasantness.

Smells we can't detect affect judgments we make about people

Do smells have an impact on how we judge people? Certainly if someone smells bad, we may have a negativeimpression of the person. But what if the smell is so subtle we don't consciously notice it? Research results have

been mixed, with some studies actually reporting that we like people more when in the presence of undetectable

amounts of bad-smelling stuff. How could that be?A team led by Wen Li believes that the judges might have actually been able to detect the odor, and then

accounted for it in their response -- giving a face the benefit of the doubt when there's a hint of bad odor.

But odor detection is a tricky thing. Sometimes you're not sure if your milk or wine has gone bad, even after

giving it a good whiff. The researchers felt that controlling the odors for a study would be the key to getting

good results.

They first determined the odor detection threshold for each of 39 student volunteers. This was done by having

each person sniff bottles containing progressively stronger solutions of three different compounds: Citra("lemon"), anisole ("ethereal"), and valeric acid ("sweat"). The threshold was determined by when they could

detect the odor. Then, for the actual experiment, bottles that were about 100 times more dilute were used.

The students took a good sniff of one of the four samples (plain air was used as a control), then pressed a button

indicating whether they believed an odor was present. At this point, a picture of a face with a neutral expression

was displayed on a computer screen. Viewers rated the face for likeability on a scale ranging from -10 to +10.

Despite the highly diluted solutions (with as little as 7 partspertrillion of an odorant), about half of students were able to detect the

presence of an odor at levels statistically higher than chance. Still, only

four students could pick the odorless bottle, and none could identify

the other odors. But the students who could detect when an odor waspresent were clearly detectingsomething. Was there a difference in

how they rated the faces? Here are the results:
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When the volunteers didn't detect the odor at all, they rated faces as significantly more likeable when they

smelled the pleasant lemon scent, compared to when they sniffed the unpleasant sweat odor (the differencebetween lemon and neutral and control scents was not significant). By contrast, the students who were able to

detect odors showed no significant difference in likeability ratings, no matter what type of odor they smelled.

So when odors are truly subliminal -- when we can't consciously detect them at all -- they do affect our ratings

of others. The authors argue that when we are conscious of odors, we attempt to account for them in our value

judgments. In this case, viewers recognized that the odor was unrelated to the face they were rating, and could

successfully account for that fact. When they weren't conscious of the odor, then processing probably occurredat a different level.

Good smell, bad smell

Take a whiff. Stinky or fragrant? Calming or agitating? When it comes to households smells, it's your

nose and your brain that knows.

WHEN YOU are looking for the best way to rid your home of a particular odor or trying to keep a pleasant

smell wafting through a room, it helps to understand how scent and smell work."Smell is processed by the part

of the brain that handles emotions," said Terry Molnar, executive director for the Sense of Smell Institute in

New York, a division of the Fragrance Foundation, the nonprofit, educational arm of the international fragranceindustry. "It is a matter of association." In fact, even the scent of skunk if it has a positive association can

be attractive to some, say scent experts. But more run-of-the-mill smells within a home everything from

cooking aromas to pet-related odor also influence mood, emotion and energy levels, say olfactory experts

and scientists, those who create fragrances and quantify their effects. In the United States, consumers spend

billions of dollars on home- fragrance products each year, and while the goal is to dissipate musty scents, many

simply mask odors instead of eliminating them.

"Most air fresheners are carefully formulated to trick the brain," said Craig Warren, scientific affairs director for

the institute. Consumers might want to read labels to see if the product they're buying eliminates odors or,

instead, introduces fragrance into the air to blend with offensive odor and change the way the brain perceives it

"The goal is to lower the unpleasant odor without increasing its intensity," Warren said. The human ability to

smell is described as the most primal of the five senses, originally used to seek food and detect danger. In

today's homes, we use our sense of smell in a less primal sense occasionally to detect danger but primarily to

maintain comfort. Humans have about 5 million to 6 million olfactory receptors, compared with 220 million in

dogs and 100 million in rabbits, according to The Smell Report, published by the Social Issues Research Centre

a U.K.-based nonprofit social research organization.

While the human ability pales in comparison, it still plays an important role, affecting more than a person's

nose. "There is an increased awareness of how scents affect our mood," said Tonja Reichley, an herbalist and

owner of MoonDance Botanicals in Denver. Her handmade products, labeled "Chill Out Lavender" and "House

Blessing Spritzer," are made of a variety of herbs blended to appeal to the sense of smell, what Reichley

describes as the strongest and most evocative sense people have.Still, most household odors go unrecognized,

said Terry Molnar.

"When you experience the same smell every day, the brain doesn't register it," she said. "But take a two-week

vacation and you become aware of the everyday aroma in your home."In the book "Your Home as a Sanctuary"

(Ryland, Peters & Small, 2004), author Josephine Collins writes, "We tend to block out unpleasant odors in our

own homes. . . . But bad smells insidiously create a gloomy atmosphere." Collins includes a laundry list of

essential oils to "lift the atmosphere," including jasmine, which she said helps mitigate depression, as well as

eucalyptus, a room disinfectant that encourages clear thinking and soothes heated emotions. Researchers have


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shown that fragrance can elevate mood, improve creativity and enhance sleep, but there is a caveat: Scent is

subjective.

What appeals to one person's nose may offend another, said Molnar, who adds that most scent-related research

has been conducted since 1980. Since that time, much has been learned about ways scent affects people.

Scientists are focusing on the neurology of scent, using MRIs to see which parts of the brain are used when

scent is introduced. A recent report from Packaged Facts, a publisher of consumer goods market-research,

shows that 75 percent of American households use air fresheners, with room sprays leading the category. In

2007, 328 new products were introduced to the market, and analysts expect exponential growth as a result ofincreased use by teenagers and college students. Although Molnar advocates subtle use of scent, she recognizes

that many consumers seek long-lasting, potent home fragrances. She points to fabric softener as an example:

"The scent is overpowering at first because consumers told companies they wanted the scent to stay in clothes."

Strong-smelling scents that retain their potency are almost always synthetic, said Molnar, who recognizes the

popular cachet of natural products. However, she points out that natural and synthetic products can be similar.

"Synthetic fragrances exactly duplicate natural odor molecules," she adds. "They're not nasty petrochemicals.

Everybody wants to be ecologically aware, and they assume that natural is good for the environment, but that is

not true. Natural is not the same thing as sustainable." Craig Warren concurs and adds that 85 percent of

synthetic fragrances are made of molecules identical to those of natural fragrances made from botanicals.

"Natural and artificial fragrance molecules are the same," he added. However, he continues, "Let the buyer

beware. Botanicals are not well regulated, and natural doesn't mean safe." Yet a growing number of consumers

are reaching for products labeled natural. In fact, "natural" and "eco-friendly" product claims showed the

greatest increase from 2004 to 2007, according to the 2008 Packaged Facts report. While natural products lack

the staying power of synthetic fragrances, Reichley opts for purity over potency. "I question anything where the

scent lingers for an extended period of time," she said. "I don't want to inhale anything that isn't pure.

Everything you inhale goes directly into your body. It's processed by your lungs and your liver." The question

of air quality and consumer safety prompted the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental action

group, to file a petition with the Environmental Protection Agency in 2007 after an analysis of household air

fresheners showed potentially harmful chemicals. The petition was denied, but the council plans to work with

the EPA to address concerns.

For those who seek alternatives to commercial products, Warren suggests filling a misting bottle with water and

spraying it into the air. Although it will not eliminate offending odors, water absorbs malodorous molecules and

makes them nonvolatile, he said. Other options for ridding a home of offensive smells include opening windows

to let air circulate and maintaining houseplants, which purify the air. Spider plants, ivy, and ficus trees are a few

houseplants that thrive in Colorado homes, said horticulturist Nick Snakenberg, curator of tropical collections at

the Denver Botanic Gardens.

"Some people say the ratio (of houseplants) needed is extreme and that you can never have enough, but every

little bit helps," he added. "Just like doctors' offices have fish tanks to soothe patients, household plants provide

the same relief. That natural association makes people feel better."

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