Dr. Joachim Mensing knows a thing or two about perfume—he’s a fragrance psychologist so he def knows his Chloés from his Diors and his Britney Spears Fantasy from the best gardenia perfume picks. A lot goes into how and why we choose the perfumes that we do. We’ll let him do the talking…
Why do we want to use perfume?
“Fragrance and perfumes are offers for personal transformation, intended to bring us from our ACTUAL SELF—how we feel, closer to our IDEAL SELF—how we would like to feel. Behind them is the secret wish to transform ourselves unconsciously to give us for example, a more feminine, more sensual, more dynamic or self-confident appearance than what we really feel. They also create a certain atmosphere and emotional setting.”
How do we select our fragrances?
“To choose a perfume is a very complex situation that we can only explain to a certain degree. The reason is that we smell with our emotional center in the brain and have associations with our long-term memory. I encounter this phenomenon every day myself.”
“The decision seems to be somehow irrational and is taken spontaneously and connected with the remembrances and feelings that we had and would like to re-experience again. They seem to appear out of the blue. The fascination for a certain fragrance is hidden in our subconscious and linked with desires and moods that are difficult to articulate.”
What are the differences between a spring and a winter fragrance?
“A typical spring fragrance smells mostly of fresh notes that belong to the type Citrus Green…The citrus green fragrances reach out to a more extrovert personality who wants to feel more dynamic and energetic…On the contrary, a typical autumn/winter-fragrance shows the longing for romantic sensuality. It is the wish for more emotion, tenderness and comfort.”
Interview via BeautyPress.com
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