Scent has a powerful effect on us, one that we often overlook.
Scent can invoke memories and thoughts and influence learning, and we are usually unaware of it. Think about what the scent of fresh baked cookies does for you. You not only think about cookies, but you are suddenly transported to a cozy and homey type of place in your mind. Scent makes us feel things.
This is usually the inspiration behind a perfume or fragrance blend. When a candle maker makes a candle that smells like fresh baked cookies, it’s because they want you to enjoy the scent and feel that cozy, homey feeling that comes with that memory/thought. You buy it because you want to feel that. Perfume is the same. A perfume is designed to make the wearer feel a certain way. Perfume can make us feel beautiful, energetic, peaceful, desirous, sensuous, adventurous, and the list goes on!
When I make a perfume or fragrance blend I love to invoke the memory of a place. The place inspires the scent. My Road to Hana perfume was inspired by my trip to Maui and my journey along the road to the town of Hana. This is also how I came up with the idea for my holiday perfume, Snowy Solstice Woods.
The Winter Solstice is such a time of reflection, rest, and preparation for the upcoming Spring Equinox that follows. There are so many delicious scents that are associated with the winter solstice: pine trees, cinnamon, and wood smoke are a few that come immediately to mind.
(Ooo, that would make an interesting accord…. Wait, what’s an accord?) Briefly, an accord is the blending of more than one scent together to make a new scent (usually two or three individual scents. A fragrance is then made up of accords.)
While at the Pasithea's Garden table, I began to comb through my inspirations that I save from time to time. The Snowy Solstice Woods accord was in my notes and when I wanted to create a holiday scent, I knew what it would be. Snowy Solstice Woods is actually an example of how both the idea of a place and the enjoyment of a particular accord helped create a whole perfume.
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