AS I SEE IT
BY MARIANNE HERON
Smells can be the most wonderfully evocative things. A whiff of golden gorse or peat smoke bring me right back home to Ireland when I have been away. But I am less than sure about the great waft of products advertised on our screens which are designed to cover up odours of one kind or another.
Air fresheners and fabric conditioners aim to please by disguising lingering pongs or adding a supposed freshness to laundry. Houses tend to have their own distinctive aromas. I tried to analyse the smell of my own place when I open the front door after being outside. Probably down to a blend of muddy gardening boots, printers ink from newspapers with undertones of furniture polish. Washing the hall tiles with floral disinfectant changes the aroma but smells are a matter of individual taste and one visitor thought the place smelt like a doctor’s surgery.
Some products I suspect, though, are playing on our social anxiety about rooms redolent of lingering cooking or clothes that are less than pristine. It’s the cover-up element that bothers me a bit, if your denim jacket is no longer fresh shouldn’t you be washing it rather than spraying it with chemicals to disguise the situation?
Or if your trainers, runners sneakers or whatever are embarrassingly odorous why not give them a good scrub, change your socks and do something to treat your bromodosis, aka stinky feet. And what about spraying the sofa in case it smells of dog as this must be overwhelming for a dog who has something like 300 million olfactory receptors compared to a mere six million in humans and should have its own comfy bed.
All those makers of scented candles, perfumes, sprays and laundry products are onto something though. Smells play an important part in our emotional lives. A smell experienced years ago in association with a pleasant experience or a frightening one gets filed away in the brain and when re-experienced can bring memories flooding back.
The way it works is that odour molecules sniffed up our noses, then bind to match receptors like keys in a lock and olfactory sense neurones fire off messages to the olfactory bulb and on to different parts of the brain. The result: experiencing different types of smells can affect our emotions and mood.
Loss of a sense of smell – known as Anosima, one of the possible side-effects of Covid – can be curiously disorientating. How do you know your toast is burning for example or how strange not to be able to savour sizzling garlic or the scent of new-mown grass? Bad smells can be a warning too, designed to keep us safe – that chicken or fish is off ‘faugh’!
Alluring scents are one of the biggest sources of income for fashion houses like Dior and Chanel, makers of the top selling Chanel Number 5. Perfumes play an important part in our rituals – how many of us spray on perfume before going on a date or a dress up occasion? Wicklow based Fragrance of Ireland was started 40 years ago by brothers-in-law Brian Cox and Donald Pratt to fill the gap in the market for an Irish-made scent. Their successful unisex fragrance Inis was inspired was designed by a perfumier to evoke the sense of a summer’s day by the sea.
Adding scent is one thing but I wonder is it such a good idea to cover up personal smells, given the part they play in the mating game. At a sub- conscious level our individual smells play a part both in initial attraction and in long-term relationships. Apparently we choose mates who have similar immune genes known as Human Leucocyte Antigens (HLA) without realising we are sniffing out prospective partners and then sticking with them.
Preventing body odour with deodorants is one thing but spraying delicate bits of intimate anatomy with chemical sprays to cover up hot, sweaty smells doesn’t seem ideal. Our body odours are unique, our own particular bouquet isn’t an indication of personality but is down to factors like genetic makeup, diet and personal hygiene.
Confuse the issue with artificial products and how are you going to tell whether you have picked Mr Right or Ms Wrong?
