Fragrance etiquette: How smells work

Content

• Nice thing: How smelling works
• Rosemary: a fragrance that makes you smarter
• Career factor smell: How smells affect
• Pheromones: exude dominance
• The Proust Effect
• Artificial fragrance: career kick from the bottle
• Smells influence willingness to help
• Interesting facts about the perfume
• Top note
• Heart note
• Base note
• Tips for the perfect scent impression
• Two tips for applicants

Money doesn't stink - but success smells. Our nose usually decides whether we can literally smell someone or not. The hair is particularly influential.Their scent surface is not only huge, we also come into contact with them frequently. Every time we greet or congratulate our friends, colleagues and acquaintances, take them briefly in our arms and maybe throw a few suggested kisses left and right over their shoulder, we sniff their forehead. With different effects. How smells work ...

Nice thing: How smelling works

Smells target our brains directly. About the Limbic system, the control center of the brain Flavors Instincts such as hunger or tiredness influence sexual behavior or sympathy - even before we even consciously perceive a scent. This makes the sense of smell the most immediate of the five senses.

Every living being separates you Scent from. These are tiny Moleculeswhich, through inhalation, find their way through our nasal cavity to the olfactory mucous membrane.

On this there are millions of cells that dissolve and register the scent molecules. There are receptors on the cells that recognize the molecules. If such a receptor recognizes a scent molecule, it becomes a Stimulus triggered. The stimulus is passed on to the olfactory bulb, the transition to the brain. There it is processed and triggers certain reactions.

For example, if the smell is pleasant, the Salivation triggered. Humans can perceive over ten thousand different smells in this way.

Even that memory is guided by fragrances: they bring back memories, for example.

A light touch of spiced candy or mulled wine and we think of Christmas. Other odeurs are known to have the Affect performance:

• Lemon flavor for example promotes concentration.
• lavender helps to solve math problems faster and more error-free.
• Vanilla or ylang-ylang can reduce stress.
• peppermint is supposed to enliven the spirit.
• Jasmine scent supposed to let you sleep better.

Rosemary: a fragrance that makes you smarter

Rosemary makes you smarter - if you believe the research by Mark Moss and Lorraine Oliver from Northumbria University. They tested the cognitive performance of 20 test persons (admittedly not a really representative selection) and exposed them to differently strong influences of a certain aroma.

It was shown that this scent could actually increase the performance of the test subjects - both in terms of speed and precision.

Career factor smell: How smells affect

However, vapors that our bodies excrete through sweat have a much stronger effect than artificial aromas. With him we send over so-called Pheromones or Sociohormones invisible messages.

In fact, we talk when we sweat. These chemical ciphers are primarily intended to attract and seduce. Warn or discourage others, while others act directly on body functions.

Pheromones affect ours Judgment. For example, test persons were shown photographs of women, men, animals and buildings to which they were asked to assign various attributes. Under Influence of the pheromone androstenol (Main message: youthful fertility) the assessment of the buildings hardly changed, the animals were already considered more careless, but the people were promptly viewed as ...

• more sensitive
• smarter
• sexually more attractive
• friendlier and
• more trustworthy

... felt.

Pheromones: exude dominance

The equivalent of androstenol is the sociohormone androstenone, which is primarily Aggression and dominance sprayed.

When examining prison inmates, a US forensic pathologist found that especially the big boys in the violent offenders wing and the prison director lost a lot of it.

By the way, women find this thick air attractive:

• During a scientific Experiment in a waiting room The test subjects mainly sat on the chairs that had previously been sprayed with androstenone.
• The attempt was made with Phone booths repeatedly, and here too the women not only used the prepared cells more often - they also telephoned longer.

In both experiments, the men reacted in exactly the opposite way. Apparently they wanted one territory avoid that was occupied by someone who is more dominant than themselves, the researchers concluded.

It is the law of Alpha gene: There can only be one at the top.

Those who exude dominance at work are more likely to convince female colleagues, but power struggles are programmed between two similarly inclined men. Between them the proverbial chemistry is wrong - if they can smell each other at all.

Only about 60 percent of the population perceive androstenone, the majority are men. Women who take the pill react weaker or not at all to certain pheromones, because the haze of these attractants is often only a few centimeters.

The Proust Effect

The writer Marcel Proust is said to have a weakness for Madeleines had. Especially for her gorgeous lemony and rumy scentwhen the shell-shaped biscuits come out of the oven.

For him, however, the aroma was more than just pleasure - according to legend, it was also creative stimulus for him, which is why this type of olfactory doping is also used Proust effect is called. The author dedicated several pages to the pastry in his work “In Search of Lost Time”.

Also Friedrich Schiller used the nasal doping: he always turned a putrid one Apple on his desk because he could only write when it smelled of apple. Smells have always been used as a source of inspiration, which is also supported by the meaning of the word in the sense of inhale.

Artificial fragrance: career kick from the bottle

It is excellent to manipulate with smells. In the process, science has found that men are for such Stimulants Not only are they more vulnerable than women, they also react more violently to it.

In his study for the US University of Purdue, Professor Robert Baron examined the Effect of perfumes in job interviews. According to the results, male recruiters classified perfumed candidates as less well-groomed, less intelligent, more unfriendly and also less attractive than those without eau de toilette.

The women reacted in exactly the opposite way.

You can hardly control it because they Associationswho are awakened by a smell cannot be suppressed. Young, strong, experienced, confident, playful, soft, sensual, masculine: the right fragrance can underline or ruin your personal statement.

Also in one Job Interview the choice of fragrance can be decisive. Like everyone else, HR managers and bosses decide spontaneously and subconsciously who they - in the truest sense of the word - can smell good.

Each fragrance has a different effect, because the memory associated with a smell is not the same for everyone. A generally good choice for this groundbreaking occasion are fragrances that combine dynamic eloquence with intuitive sovereignty. Do it Perfumes with citrus in the top note and wood in the base note.

Smells influence willingness to help

What brings other people to you help? The research duo Roxane Saint-Bauzel and Valérie Fointiat from the University of Lorraine carried out a series of experiments to find out.

They let a young woman through one with a pile of papers Pedestrian zone walk. It should seem a bit disoriented and ask a few passers-by for directions. Just a small favor that, of course, some strangers were happy to do.

But as soon as she moved on, it happened: the pile of papers on her arm tumbled off her arm. What a mishap! Would the orientation aids from before help her a second time?

The researchers carried out this experiment three times and each time the woman smelled different:

• Sometimes she smelled vanilla.
• Sometimes she smelled Fighter - a laurel plant that smells pungent and eucalyptus-like.

During the third control run, the decoy did not ask for directions, but dropped the papers straight away. But it was all the more astonishing how strong the scent of the tester affected the Helpfulness which affected passers-by.

The Result:

• The young woman smelled of vanilla, helped her all 70 percent local passers-by picking up the leaves.
• If, on the other hand, they steamed like camphor, they only helped ten percent.
• And that wasn't even better than that Control group.

Interesting facts about the perfume

The term "perfume" has its origins in Latin and means "through smoke" and refers to the earlier use of incense.

A perfume is a liquid fragrance mixture consisting of alcohol, water and essential oils. The scent is created by different components, so-called Scent notes. The basic structure of most perfumes looks like this:

• Top note

  This is the scent that is perceived immediately after application. It is the first impression and has a significant influence on the purchase decision.

• Heart note

  It unfolds after the top note has evaporated and reflects the character of the perfume.

• Base note

  It unfolds at the end and forms the end.

Tips for the perfect scent impression

The general rule is: Use your fragrant statements skillfully, but always unobtrusively! And this is how it works:

• Choose for everyday office life and in Customer contact light fragrances. Fruity, floral and woody notes are better than heavy, oriental fragrances.
• Exception: on cold autumn and Winter days the perfume is allowed to provide some warmth. Therefore, heavier fragrances are also allowed during the dark season.
• Pay attention to the focus and take advantage an eau de toilette at work. This contains far less fragrance oil than an eau de parfum or an elixir and therefore has a lighter effect.
• Try it out once Natural spray. This type of atomizer gently sprays the perfume onto your skin in a wider cloud.
• Use your perfume in moderation and not all over the body. Also the application of a complete Fragrance series shower gel, body lotion, deodorant and perfume can easily be perceived as annoying in your environment.
• Change your perfume from time to time, otherwise your nose will get too used to the scent. The danger: Overdose.
• Due to the natural fat content of the skin, the scent disappears after a certain time. Give a splash in your hairso the perfume lasts all day.
• The fragrance will also last longer if you use it on the back of the hand instead of spraying on the inside of the wrists. Especially when working on the computer, the product no longer rubs off.

PS: A fragrance only really develops in Combination with body heat. So be economical with the product and give it time to fully develop.

Two tips for applicants

• Women: Boss “Nuit pour Femme” offers the perfect composition for the applicant.
• Men: Applicants can score points with the olfactory stimuli of an Armani "Acqua di Gio".