The sensation of scent-invoked memory is generally referred to as the ‘Proust Phenomenon’, an ode to French novelist Marcel Proust. Proust was particularly interested in the mechanics of his own being, and the role memory played within it. So much so, that he wrote a colossal seven volume long novel, “À La Recherche Du Temps Perdu” (‘In Search of Lost Time’, first translated into English as ‘Remembrance of Things Past’), published between 1913 to 1927.

In volume one, Proust beautifully conveys a moment he experienced while sipping a cup of tea mixed with crumbs from a madeleine cake. It’s worth noting, while this is the most famous literary example of this phenomenon, Proust was actually describing a flavour memory. This example has evolved over the years to describe odour memory as well, as many correlations can be drawn between the two due to their very close relationship. 

“And once I had recognized the taste of the crumb of madeleine soaked in her decoction of lime- flowers which my aunt used to give me... immediately the old grey house upon the street, where her room was, rose up like the scenery of a theatre to attach itself to the little pavilion, opening on to the garden... so in that moment all the flowers in our garden and in M. Swann’s park, and the water-lilies on the Vivonne and the good folk of the village and their little dwellings and the parish church and the whole of Combray and of its surroundings, taking their proper shapes and growing solid, sprang into being, town and gardens alike, from my cup of tea.” 

Throughout history, psychologists and neuroscientists have worked to further understand and replicate the Proust Phenomenon. They’ve been able to confirm that scent triggers autobiographical memories to a greater degree than stimuli to other senses. Smell is the only sense able to bypass the thalamic relay (the ‘hub’ responsible for forwarding information to relevant parts of the brain), and our olfactory system has primary access to regions of the brain typically found to be active during emotional processing, long term memory formation, and higher-order cognitive reasoning and evaluation.

Simply put, memories are more vivid if there is an associated odour. Scents are particularly good at evoking nostalgia, and all the different emotions that come with it. Isn’t the human brain incredible?! 

On a similar wavelength, Kavi Moltz from modern perfume house D.S. & Durga put it perfectly.
She says —

“Perfume is armchair travel.”

The idea of utilising scent to ‘travel’ to a particular place, time, emotion, or memory is fascinating. As I’m someone who falls into the camp of using perfume as an accessory, swapping between them as one would a pair of shoes or a handbag, this concept is especially captivating.

I adore waking up in the morning and deciding on a perfume based on the weather, my outfit, then most importantly, my mood, and whether I want to accentuate how I’m feeling or influence it to change. One of my favourite pastimes is browsing perfume stores, sampling anything that strikes a chord with my heart or mind. Years of paying attention to perfume have left me with a knack for recognising a particular concoction when someone enters a room, often deciphering who it is before my eyes have looked up at them. 

That being said, my love for fragrance isn’t strictly perfume focused, some of my favourite scents are everyday things — the way my parents’ home smells when my family is cooking, my cats’ soft fur, wood fires, and the earth just before and after rain. My affection for these aromas influences the kinds of perfumes I wear, and since I can’t carry my parents’ home or a wood fire everywhere with me, I look to perfumes to evoke the memories and emotions associated with these scents. 

My favourite scent is the flower gardenia, they smell like my grandparents’ garden in summer and evoke the memory of being really little and picking them with my grandmother to put around the house in preparation for Christmas.

My second favourite smell is jonquils, as they remind me of family holidays to the southern highlands where I would have to smuggle the flowers into the car because my dad hated them, so they are like my childhood forbidden scent haha. I also used to cover my apartment in them when I lived in Amsterdam because I couldn’t afford any nice homewares, so stolen sidewalk flowers were what I used to brighten the place up. Also, garlic cooking in olive oil absolutely slaps, 10/10 scent every single time. 

This is probably a bit unusual, but my favourite scent is my dog’s paws! It reminds me of when he was a puppy, when I first adopted him & his paws smelled like corn chips. I would even miss that smell while I was at work haha, my first baby made a real impact on me.

With perfumes, I usually go for something I’ve smelled on someone else first — perfume always smells different when you’re wearing it! I’ve been wearing Lancôme Miracle exclusively for most of my adult life now. I think my earliest memory of scent is probably of a 90’s Cupcake Doll I got as a kid for Christmas! It smelled like cupcakes! I think I’m drawn to sweeter scents like vanilla etc, I even use Palmers Cocoa Butter as body moisturiser because I love smelling a hint of chocolate on my skin. 

My favourite scent I could think of is onions and garlic cooking in a pan, also a nostalgia attached to this because I remember not being able to sleep and sitting on the stairs watching my parents cook and smelling the onions and garlic and always thinking they were cooking something AMAZING and they’d say, “It’s just onions and garlic”!

I don’t wear perfume really, but I love coconut scented things so much (I also love eating coconut), so all my body wash, moisturiser, hair stuff is coconut scented! Another scent memory is just the smell of libraries and book shops, I love books, old & new, and being a bit of a shy nerd when I was little, the library was my happy place. 

My favourite scent is lavender. I use lavender oil as a perfume, in a diffuser, I rub it on my feet if I’m having trouble sleeping (it works!), and I constantly find dried up bits of lavender flowers in pockets of my clothing from picking it on my walks. I find both the smell and rituals around it really soothing for my anxiety — it grounds me in my body and helps me be more present. 

My favourite sent is apple and cinnamon. My Gran used to make me warm apple cider as a kid and she was pretty much my best friend growing up, so any time I smell it I think of her and feel like I'm in her house again. My favourite perfume changes but I alternate between Chloe and Daisy. 

One of my absolute favourite scents is Frangipani flowers, but funnily enough, I can't stand fake frangipani smells. I think I love it so much because I lived in and visited Thailand a lot growing up so it reminds me of warm weather and happy memories. I like to take a deep breath every time I walk past a tree in bloom.
My current perfume of choice is Jo Malone's Wild Bluebell. Before that, it was their Orange Blossom scent. I love a soft fresh smell and don't like anything too sweet or strong. 

My favourite scent in the world is roses. There’s just something so romantic, sweet, and classic about roses. I love romance and old world glamour, and roses are so symbolic of that.
I circulate between three different perfumes, and I do like the idea of overlapping some of them. I don’t like cheap, sweet scents. I like to smell expensive. 

The smell of rain is probably my favourite! It’s just so soothing and evokes feelings of excitement and connection for me. When I was a kid I used to go and run and dance in the rain and I think smelling it now, it takes me back to that feeling of childhood freedom! 

My favourite scent is old books in the library. We didn’t grow up with much and couldn’t afford new books, so the library was like Disneyland. Every time I smell old books that have been in storage for a while nowadays it takes me back to that time!
I don’t wear perfume often (I feel like I always get feasted on by mosquitos when I do) but I’m drawn towards woody and earthy smells. 

My favourite scent is jasmine. It reminds me of spring approaching and warm days playing in the backyard with my family. It is also a small flower so easy for little Kitty to play with! I used to 'bake' mud cakes outside as a kid and decorate them with jasmine flowers for my Mum.

I don't really wear perfume but I love when other people do! If someone has a perfume I always end up tying scents to my memories with them and how I perceive them. 

One of my favourite scents in the world is Lebanese allspice, called Baharat. It reminds me of home, and early memories of my family cooking fragrant Lebanese dishes. It’s used in so many different types of Lebanese dishes, especially meat based ones. Traditionally, if the meat was a bit gamey, say if it were sheep or goat, it could have a funny aftertaste, so Baharat takes that edge off and gives it such a beautiful aromatic scent and flavour. If I smell it cooking combined with a bit of onion or garlic, it takes me right back home to my village in Lebanon.

In a perfume I look for floral scents that aren’t too sweet, I really like a musky/smokey floral. Some perfumes that come to mind are Agent Provocateur’s Pink Fatale, and Juliette has a Gun, — they’re quite floral but not too sugary or citrusy, they’re very fresh and light. I love a unique scent like that, though I also love oud, smoke, and frankincense scents — it’s close to my heart culturally as they’d burn it in Lebanese churches. 

My favourite scent at the moment is the Innisfree Green Tea Lotion. I like scents that are related to nature, freshwater, tropical forests, after the rain etc. It makes me feel connected to the earth. It gives me a feeling of being reborn. What I look for in a perfume is kind of the same, that’s why I like Cool Water.

Growing up poor in the Philippines, the earliest scent that I’d say I'm still drawn towards is the smell of mosquito coil — we used this every night before going to sleep and we needed to make sure it was not placed near flammable items to avoid unwanted fire. Also, liquid gas. We used to light some gas lamps whenever there was power shortage (which is very common in our area).