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Perfume is more than just a lovely smell. Many of us associate certain scents with different stages in our lives – the fragrance we wore on our wedding day, or the scent that instantly reminds us of that summer holiday we took in 2008.
Rihanna has revealed that the nostalgic memories one perfume conjures up for her aren’t positive ones. At all.
“There was… one point where my makeup artist was wearing a perfume I used to wear with an ex,” the 27 year old told E! at the launch of her new perfume, RiRi.
“And I was like, ‘Don’t. I know exactly what you’re wearing. Don’t wear that tomorrow because I don’t want to think about that’.”
While she didn’t mention which ex in particular she was talking about (we have strong feelings that it could be Chris Brown), it’s certainly something we can all identify with.
Referred to as “scent association”, the concept originally came from a theory known as the “Proustian phenomenon” inspired by a character created by French writer Marcel Proust who suggested that distinctive smells are more powerful than any of our other senses in recalling memories.
So how does it work? Experts have previously suggested that the scent connection could be linked to how close together our olfactory bulb (which helps us to process smells) and amygdala and hippocampus brain regions (which control emotion and memory) are. (Post continues after gallery.)
Rihanna + purple = LOVE
A 2012 study by researchers at Utrecht University in The Netherlands found that memories triggered by scent, rather than by music or other senses, were more detailed, unpleasant and arousing than memories evoked by sound.
“Our findings do extend previous research by demonstrating that odour is a stronger trigger of detailed and arousing memories than music, which has often been held to provide equally powerful triggers as odours,” they said.
Rihanna’s way of combatting that “ex scent”? Creating a line of her own perfumes. Nice move.
What particular smell reminds you of special time or place?
