How to use scents to change your life

Got writer’s block? Memorizing your private key? Follow your nose.

Hi there,

Hope y’all are staying safe from both fire and ice, depending on where you’re at this winter. And, hopefully, this quick newsletter will offer you a whiff of indoor adventure on the go that will broaden your experiences until spring comes again.

My sense of smell intensified when I was pregnant with my son. It transformed the way I experience the world, like a colorblind person suddenly perceiving red. Even though the intensity faded after birth, the new awareness lingered. I quickly learned I was not alone in experiencing scent as a multifaceted sensation.

If you’re writing code or a poem and feel stuck, you only need a few minutes to get your head back in the game. I recommend moving your body for a quick stretch, drinking a whole cup of water, and then taking at least 60 seconds for an inspirational sniff before sitting back at your desk. You can sniff coffee beans to clear your palette first, or in between multiple inhales, if you want to get fancy.

Dozens of art and history museums around the world have hosted exhibits that revolved around olfactory experiences, from the Denver Art Museum to the Mauritshuis Museum in the Hague and The Institute for Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania. The Japanese artist Maki Ueda is one of many known for using scent as a medium for immersive artistic experiences exploring technological, political, and environmental themes. Many more artists and curators have used scent these days to deepen the experience of concerts or visual exhibits, such as the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s Van Gogh exhibit in 2021. Some have used corresponding scents with a visual depiction or created historic scents to help museum participants imagine what a space smelled like so many moons ago.

Many curators around the world now see scent as an artistic medium in its own right. In 2012, the Museum of Art and Design in New York hosted “The Art of Scent, 1889-2012” exhibition, recognizing scent as a stand-alone medium. Museums like Musée du Parfum in Paris, the Osmothèque archives in Versailles (France), the Olfactory Art Keller in New York, the Institute for Art and Olfaction in Los Angeles, and the Fueguia 1833 galleries in Buenos Aires, Tokyo, London, Mexico City, and Seoul, all underscore an artistic appreciation for the diversity of scent experiences.

“It’s the shift from simply ‘that smells good’ to ‘what is this trying to tell me?’ that transforms you from a passive consumer to an engaged participant in the art,” chemist and scent artist Aliaksandra Basalayeva told me via email. By day, she’s a researcher at the AI startup Osmo, helping computers learn to smell.

(Aliaksandra Basalayeva mixing scents in her studio, image via the artist)

“Our perception of scent is conditioned by many factors, and, as social creatures, the exercise of intentional smelling is best done in a group setting. Some magic always happens when several people sit down, smell and discuss what they perceive together,” she added. “It’s like sharing a meal, or going to a museum with someone, or watching and discussing a movie with a friend.”

How to identify smells

Most of the scents used in perfumes, soaps, incense, and other household products fall into one of four categories: Fresh, florals, woody, and amber (formerly called oriental). That zesty tang of citrus? It’s categorized as fresh. Aquatic fragrances, anything inspired by the ocean, is also considered fresh. The warm and spicy scent of cinnamon? That would be a gourmand scent, a subcategory of amber.

Most products you buy are actually a combination of multiple scent chemicals, even if one is dominant. These formulas typically have a top note, the first sensation you’ll notice when sniffing a perfumed wrist. Florals and fresh scents tend to be used as top notes, breezy and quick to reach the nose. They also fade the fastest. Then comes the middle notes, the bulk of the recipe, which you can think about like the guitar or piano of the fragrance, it defines the melody. Then comes the base, the part of the scent that lingers and gives the fragrance depth. Woodsy notes, musk or amber scents are most likely to be used (sparingly, because they’re heavy chemicals that threaten to overcome the rest) as base notes.

Keep in mind that your experience of scent will probably be influenced by your other senses. For example, if you smell the same scent from a red bottle or a green bottle, you’re more likely to associate it with the smell of strawberries or grass, respectively. Likewise, if I tell you “this is an aged cheese from Amsterdam” or “this is from a garbage bin,” my description may determine whether you salivate or gag when I offer you a hefty sniff. And, last but not least, our sense of smell and touch are intimately intertwined. That’s because inhaling can trigger your trigeminal nerve, which is why you might sneeze if you smell black pepper. The trigeminal system is also why menthol smells cool. So keep your surrounding context in mind when you want to experience a smell, stripping away (or leaning into) anything that might bias your perception.

Slow down for a minute and close your eyes the next time you sniff. If you wear scented deodorant or cologne, sniff at different times throughout the hour. You may notice the scent evolves within the span of a minute or two, rippling through the symphony of top, middle and base notes, plus the changes in reaction to your body chemistry. That is why no scent will smell identical on the skin of two different people.

Use smells to improve your memory and productivity

Smell can go beyond pleasure, it’s also an underutilized biohacking tool.

Brown University Professor Rachel Herz, a neuroscientist focused on smells, wrote in her book “The Scent of Desire” that students can use this context-dependent memory trick to improve their test scores: Sniff a unique scent while studying, then bring or wear that same scent to the test.

Humans can only remain aware of a scent for around 15 minutes until we stop noticing it, so best to put it on in the car or right before the test. It should be a scent you won’t encounter every day. This way your brain associates it with the knowledge you want help remembering. The same trick can be useful for memorizing a private key to a bitcoin wallet. In that case, it might be wise to use a common scent you would find in almost any city, like lavender or nutmeg. I’d never recommend solely relying on memory. However, memorizing your wallet info (while also having it recorded somewhere safe) means you can access funds anywhere in the world, even if your house burns down or you travel for an emergency. I personally like private keys that are strings of words, not the other forms like QR codes or strings of random numbers and letters, because memorizing a nursery rhyme or poem feels familiar to me. To each their own.

Furthermore, you can also use scents to biohack your own emotions. This can be useful where you’re not sure what challenge you’re going to face. Use a specific scent in times when you feel confident and smart, then keep a small amount in your bag. Studies conducted at the University of Cincinnati support Herz’s theory of scent-correlated productivity, demonstrating that uplifting fragrances can increase students’ typing speed, for example. It can be a confidence boost in a bottle.

“My studies have shown that odors can literally be transformed into emotions through association and then act as proxies for emotion, influencing how we feel,” Herz added. “No other sensory system has the kind of privileged and direct access to the part of the brain that controls our emotions.”

Find inspiration in the smells all around you

Next, try tapping into your sense of smell to enhance your other senses and create deeper memories. Perfumer Chavalia Mwamba of the Pink MahogHany™ Fragrances in Texas got started as a child, simply collecting natural materials like pine cones and leaves, then writing down the olfactory profile she noticed when smelling them. As she got older, she learned to deliberately layer scents to heighten her other senses.

pink_mahoghany

A post shared by @pink_mahoghany

Mwamba explained in an email: “As a classically trained musician who has spent years listening for subtle shifts in tone, dynamics and phrasing, I believe scent influences an audience's experience of music by engaging a sense that's just as nuanced as hearing. Both sound and scent move in waves…. Just as a minor chord can convey melancholy or tension, a smoky note can transport an audience to a distant memory or exotic landscape. My ear is trained to notice how changes in tempo or harmony can shift the mood of a piece, and I approach scent with the same attentiveness. A citrus note might ‘brighten’ an allegro movement.”

Mirroring these techniques at home can be a free way to explore olfactory experiences as art, even if there aren’t any relevant galleries or museums in your area. Mwamba recommends trying to forget everything you used to know or assume about smells, then start slowly, while keeping an open mind.

“Much like a first date with someone you're eager to get to know - excited, yet careful not to overwhelm them too quickly,” she added.

Create your own scent journey

All right, so you’ve sniffed a bit and decided how you want to use your sharpened sense of smell for both improved memory and tiny bursts of pleasure. What next? Olfactory artist Rachel Barfield, who studied neuroscience and biology prior to deepening her craft at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague, recommends spending a few seconds paying close attention to smells in everyday activities.

(Rachel Barfield offering an interactive lab experience, image via the artist)

“Scents can be used as situational awareness as well as information. The more one broadens their own internal scent library the more information they gain in everyday life,” Barfield explained via email.

One difference between consumer scent and approaching scent as art, she said, is the intention to please versus the desire to provoke or inspire. If you want to create what olfactory aficionados call a ‘scent journey,’ consider what you want to communicate with smell and what order you’re doing it in.

“My personal favorite olfactory installation of my own work would be the piece I did titled ‘One-sided Conversation With A Tree.’ The premise of this work is about how trees communicate with scent molecules in close ranges. And when one tree is isolated further out, as if it's looking to branch out of the network, it still receives information from other trees even if it doesn't respond,” Barfield said. “I portrayed this by having a scent pod pump into four other scent pods in a descending order until the initial smell is recognizable in the last pod.”

Remember that sometimes working with a stinky substance can be a useful trick for a scent journey, creating contrast or evocative deliberation. A scent journey is about layering the impact of multiple inputs for a unique, overarching experience. Amber, pink peppercorn, or moss essential oils can sometimes feel too stinky or peppery on their own. But, when used with care, they amplify other smells dramatically.

“Of course, it's not necessary to only work with unpleasant smells. But working with scents that aren't just fine fragrance materials can lead to so many lovely fragrances,” Barfield added. “Like the smell of a rainforest, or an ocean, or soil, or even a recreation of a battleground.”

I hope all of this inspires you to deepen your experience of the world around you this week. Over the next few months I’ll probably share some book industry research, answer any subscriber questions (feel free to email me!), and offer tips for using bitcoin while traveling. I look forward to continuing this journey with all of you.

Until next time, take care everybody!