Good or bad, scents are a huge part of our lives. Good fragrances can uplift the spirits and introduce a new energy to both living and working areas, while foul smells can ruin the mood. But did you know that you can also use scents as an interior design trend? Well, it’s true!
As the work-from-home culture becomes the new normal for many of us, the line between working and living spaces is often blurred. To set the definitive boundary between various rooms and set specific moods, scent-scaping has come to our aid. It has emerged as a hot new interior design trend in the past couple of years.
As smell is said to be our strongest sense, ingenious use of fragrances can impact our state of mind and affect the ambiance of your home or office. The art of scent-scaping understands that and employs your preferred aromas to evoke certain kinds of energy or feeling, thus helping you focus on the task at hand.
If you have ever come across the evocative novel “Perfume” by Patrick Suskind or its movie adaptation Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, you certainly know how overpowering olfaction can be. The brilliant story discovers the power of scent and its ability to impact our emotional state and mold our lives.
While scented candles and essential oils work wonderfully in your home, do not forget the most fragrant item – fresh flowers! Fresh flowers not only infuse the room with sweet aromas but also offer an aesthetic charisma.
What is Scent-Scaping?
Pamela Dalton, Ph.D. and member of Monell Chemical Senses Center says, “Scent-scaping has been used to describe the process of filling a space with scents.” It gives you an opportunity to divide an area and the day by merely using your favorite smells. Wouldn’t it be easy to perform your daily tasks if you can compartmentalize each room or each time period in your mind? Just imagine!
Also a form of decorating, the trend not only affects the ambiance but also your health as it can significantly help reduce stress. The sense of smell is connected to the part of the brain leading to instinct, memory, and emotion, and can affect us without our awareness.
Through scent design or scent-scaping, you can create a customized atmosphere, using fragrances ranging from clean to soothing to set the mood in every room and time of the day.
What is the Significance of Scent-Scaping?
This new interior trend is most helpful to those who want to change the vibe around them while navigating the modern work-from-home culture. According to Farah Arshad, Head of Design at DUSK.com, “This mood-boosting technique is particularly beneficial for people working from home. By having a different aroma in each room, it encourages people to compartmentalize the space for different purposes such as work or relaxation.”
Apparently, it is not a novel idea, the concept of using fragrances to influence our spirits goes back to ancient times when fragrant oils were employed to stimulate a soothing and reverent air in various rooms. Currently, we use scented candles, flowers, oils, and reed diffusers in our interiors to set distinct vibes.
Many interior stylists are employing this trend as a form of creative expression. Exhibiting an extension of your home décor, scent-scaping is being used in the same way that one would arrange art, pick wall colors and choose textures, to add a fresh element. Many designers are collaborating with perfumers to create bespoke bouquet of aromas to help elevate the experience going forward.
How to Scent-Scape Your Home?
Scent-scaping helps you compartmentalize each room of the home through pleasant smells and you have absolute control over the fragrances you choose. You don’t need to choose complementing aromas, you can pick any fragrance that you would like in a specific area – for instance, you will have a certain smell for the bedroom and the study. There are no rules, as scents are personal and vary from person to person.
However, there are a few things to consider when scent-scaping, such as the positioning of the fragrances around the house, the degree of the scent, and the ingredients of particular fragrances. Since you would not want to place a strong smell that could disturb your sleep near the bed.
One of the great spots for placing a diffuser is near a door, ensuring that the sweet odor will be picked up as soon as you enter the room. If you are choosing candles, you can opt for vanilla and jasmine notes that are easy on the nose. Lavender is known for encouraging rest and aiding sleep, making it a good option for the bedroom.
Smells with floral notes, herbal teas or creamy woods can create a more relaxed feel, making them perfect for lazy evenings. Fresh, fruity, and zesty notes can be employed in kitchens and offices, where lots of energy and attentiveness is required.
Identifying Scent-Scaping Fragrance Zones Based on Time
People often wonder whether they can fragrance-zone based on time rather than a room? The answer is yes! Using a different scent at different times of the day helps elevate your frame of mind and wellbeing in a subconscious manner that’ll help you reach your full potential.
For example, you can start your morning workout with fresh fruity fragrances like citrus and grapefruit, or add a few drops of lemongrass in the diffuser to refresh and reinvigorate. Then, you can begin your workday in the office with invigorating whiffs such as coffee or peppermint that evoke freshness and motivation. During the midday, you can use frankincense, rosemary, and peppermint notes to keep the energy levels up. Evenings can be reserved for calming fragrances, such as lavender, to aid relaxation.
Moreover, the candle industry is offering wax accents infused with festive flavors, seasonal flairs and aromas that will ease your mind. During your work hours, you can light candles filled with refreshing notes. Scented candles that induce the vibes of holidays can be used during Christmas or around New Year’s. With endless options, you can scent-scape your space based on distinct times of the day or the year.
Benefits of Scent-Scaping
In the tumultuous time we live in, we can choose smells to help us focus on our daily tasks without distraction and reap various benefits that the art of scent-scaping offers. By fragrance-zoning, we ensure that a certain smell can send subconscious signals within our brains to shift to a specific frame of mind, hence helping us in being more productive.
Here are the important benefits of scent-scaping that will encourage you to fragrance-zone your home.
Compartmentalization of Spaces
In these few pandemic-ridden years, we all have had to learn to use our homes for various purposes. Be it work or workout; everything had to be done inside the house, making it important to set good boundaries. Using varying scents, you can differentiate between areas for work and space for relaxation. You don’t need to transform a room by knocking or putting up walls, simply light a candle and you are good to go!
Boosts Energy
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “The world belongs to the energetic.” Various fragrances can introduce a different kind of energy or vibe to your home. It helps to curate these smells to evoke certain energy in individual corners of the house. For instance, you can use rosemary, eucalyptus, or bergamot notes to uplift your spirit and stay energetic throughout the day. A blend of sweet orange, mandarin, and bergamot also offers uplifting wafts.
Reduces Stress and Creates Calm Environment
Pleasant scents can induce fond memories and introduce a sense of calm in an environment. Candle aromatherapy helps create a productive, calm, and stress-free vibe in your home. It allows you to be more focused and productive in the task at hand. A soothing aroma can calm your nerves after a tense work session and help you with a stress-free sleep.
Boosts Concentration
The midday blues are quite common and can lessen productivity. Essential oils can help you reach that extra boost required. You can employ blends of frankincense, rosemary, and peppermint that’ll help you increase focus and stay alert during your work hours. If you are engaged in physical activity such as intense workouts; fragrances like citrus, grapefruit, pomegranate, and vetiver are stimulating and fresh and can help increase concentration.
Transforms Moods
Freud once stated that scent is one of the quickest ways to trigger an emotional response. He was right! Fragrances can influence your emotions and moods instantaneously. There is a smell for every feeling that can help you achieve various states of mind including calming, relaxing, invigorating, nostalgic, or energized. Bouquet containing fruity and spicy notes like rose, cinnamon, jasmine, and clary sage are perfect for creating a soothing vibe.
What fragrances to use in Scent-Scaping
According to Joe Coggrave, Beauty Buyer for Skincare & Fragrance at John Lewis, in 2020, ogling searches for scented candles increased by +182 percent and for reed diffusers by +1017 percent. Aside from fragrant candles, you can enhance the ambiance of your home with incense, essential oils, and aroma diffusers.
Through scent-scaping, you can make your morning coffee and toast feel like an indulgent breakfast on a vacation. A whiff of lavender, eucalyptus, and mint can refresh and rejuvenate your mind, body, and soul. To help you pick out the best fragrances to scent-scape your home, we have listed some of the most popular bouquets that can elevate your everyday experience at home.
Pastel de Nata Soy Wax Candle
Offering refreshing notes of cinnamon, lemon and Tahitian vanilla blended perfectly; this handmade soy wax candle will create a vibe akin to sitting in a Portugal café enjoying a freshly baked Pastel de Nata sprinkled with cinnamon. It comes in reusable glass, tin, or ceramic vessels that can be used for decoration as well. The invigorating combination of scents will wake you right up in the morning.
Buy: $15
Aromatherapy Associates Revive Morning Bath & Shower Oil
When it’s hard for you to wake up in the morning, experience the refreshing and invigorating powers of grapefruit, rosemary, and juniper infused in Aromatherapy Associates Revive Morning Bath & Shower Oil that will wake you up fresh and hearty. These zesty citrus notes will help energize you for the day first thing in the morning. Include this perfect pick-me-up in your bath rituals to boost energy and stay alert all day long.
Buy: $71
Diptyque Baies Scented Candle
Light this Diptyque Baies Scented Candle in the evenings and create a calm environment. With a bouquet of roses and blackcurrant leaves, the French brand offers this luxurious fragrant candle, which is made from vegetable and paraffin wax and has a lead-free cotton wick. The candle comes in a sleek mouth-blown glass votive with a shiny finish. The intoxicating fragrance will ease your mind and offer a soothing aroma.
Buy: $70
MadebyZen Olly Ultrasonic Aroma Diffuser
To boost concentration and keep you motivated, you can also get an essential oil diffuser. The MadebyZen Olly Ultrasonic Aroma Diffuser comes with a built-in Bluetooth speaker to play soft, soothing tones as you meditate. This beautiful ceramic design will fill your space with uplifting aromas at the touch of a button. With four time settings, it gives you complete control for how long your diffuser will release the scent.
Buy: $94
This Works Travel Diffuser
This USB-powered portable and chic essential oil diffuser has a light and compact design, allowing you to carry it along to the office or on your weekend outings. This Works Travel Diffuser is great to create an instant ambiance for rest and relaxation. It will radiate your choice of essential oil fragrance to leave you in your own fragrance zone, even when you are traveling.
Buy: $34
Aromatherapy Associates Deep Relax Sleep Mist
Formulated with vetiver, sandalwood, and chamomile, this soothing mist is perfect for evoking a relaxing aroma to ease a busy or anxious mind. These pleasant smells are also great for sleep and respite. You can use this Deep Relax Sleep Mist from Aromatherapy Associates to scent-scape your bedroom and encourage restorative sleep.
Buy: $40
NEST Classic Candle
If you are looking for festive aromas, this decorative scented candle is perfect for you. It comes in a luxury size with a blend of pomegranate, mandarin orange, pine, cloves, and cinnamon with subtle notes of vanilla and amber. Made from premium wax, it has a burning time of 50-60 hours and will make your home smell like a Christmas morning.
Buy: $44
Jo Malone ‘Pomegranate Noir’ Scent Surround Diffuser
With rich juices of pomegranate, spiked with pink pepper and Casablanca lily, this scent surround diffuser from Jo Malone London offers warm, earthy aromas combined with smoky guaiacwood and patchouli. The diffuser comes with 10 reeds and adds an enveloping whiff to any space, making it perfect for cold evenings.
Buy: $118
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