The gentle lull of orange blossoms in early spring. Pungent spices and sweet onion mingling in GHEE. The earthy embrace of the air after the first rain in months. When your nose guides you on a walk, it invites you to take a moment outside of your mind. To just be.
“Scent is the closest thing we have to pure attention. We've evolved to notice new smells in our environment. It forces us to be present, to slow down, to engage with what we're smelling,” TRACY WAN, a Toronto-based freelance writer and scent consultant, reminds us.
Living in the internet world as we do, where the senses can become dull, only reinforces our need to pay attention to smell. When we linger in fragrance, we sink into textured memories and connections that transcend words. It’s no surprise that the Heart Chakra, fragrance, and memory all interact with each other in tangible ways. This Beyond the Surface story, featuring our community’s scent-laden memories, examines the power of fragrance and connection.
How fragrance enhances the ‘self’ in self-care
The Heart Chakra, also known as Anahata, is located at the center of the chest. It’s responsible for emotional well being, self love, and the ability to connect with others. Scent can balance and enhance our sense of self, adding a sensory layer to self-care or providing emotional release. It can imbue meaning into the everyday, whether it's spritzing something on to embody a specific mood or or the incense we light as a grounding ritual. For Tracy, “[Fragrance is] a helpful meditative practice in my daily life — when I need to still my mind, when I need to be returned to my body, I smell.”
Fragrance is a “main character aura” enhancer. ALIYA VARMA, a marketing professional living in Montreal, shares that fragrance is part of her self-care and the finishing touch before she heads out the door. Aliya says, “I actually feel I missed a key part of my routine, if I do not apply a signature scent. Luckily, I have a travel size perfume in every purse if that happens.”
While scent is all around us, it goes beyond the physical and immediacy of life. “When we wear a scent, we return to the body. It’s an act of adornment that reminds us, subtly, that everything is impermanence.” TANAÏS, a New York-based perfumer and author, notes. “That feeling of ascendance, of sealing yourself with the protective aura of a perfume, fortifies the heart in a world that often makes us feel powerless. When we wear a perfume, we remember our body, our spirit.”
The love you give or receive is laced with scent
The smells we associate with our loved ones can have a strong influence on our psyche. Peace, joy, longing sadness, anger, bittersweetness. Even catching a whiff of a deodorant worn by an ex lover can change our emotions so quickly and deeply. We experience this regularly with music, too. When the Heart Chakra opens up, it allows us to give and receive love freely, fostering deeper connections with others.
Tanaïs weaves stories into the fragrances they create at Studio Tanaïs — and also sources inspiration from the impact of loved ones. They share, “I’ve made two perfumes for my life partner Mojo, and they are both commemorations of experiences we’ve had, both spiritual and difficult. [One of them is] ANCIENTS, a bhumigandha, or earth perfume, recalls meditative walks through the coastal redwood forests of California, the eternity in those forests away from the grind of daily life imprints itself on you. As we have both deepened our Buddhist practice, I think a lot about how meditation opens up the heart, and teaches you to surrender and to have acceptance for what simply is.”
“A perfume is a palette that tells a story, of a moment, a memory, and there’s a conversation the perfumer is having with the wearer,” Tanaïs says. This forms a profound, invisible human connection that often goes unnoticed. Even before we light that seasonal candle in the kitchen or spray on a perfume sample at the pop-up market, there are intentions mixed into these fragrances in the creation process.
Nostalgic scents and transportive memories
Our brain’s olfactory bulbs are responsible for processing smells. They are directly connected to the limbic system: the part of the brain governs emotions, mood, and memory. So, when we inhale a particular scent, it can evoke powerful emotional responses or trigger vivid memories. Scents can bypass the rational parts of our brain and go straight to the areas that influence how we feel.
Jasmine flowers evoke transportive memories for both Tracy and Aliya. Tracy says, “It reminds me of the part of my childhood I spent living with my grandfather, who kept a beautiful jasmine plant on his balcony and would dutifully tend to it every day. Whenever I smell jasmine, it transports me back to him, to a time and place that doesn't exist anymore, and I will forever be grateful to it for that.”
“Indian homes often have these large copper bowls that are filled with fresh jasmine and their scent fills the space. Many of my family members in Canada also grew these in their homes and it is the dreamiest fragrance that brought me such peace,” Aliya adds.
“Cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, ginger, and star anise oils are the base oils of our CHAI LIP BALM,” Ghee’s co-founder Varun Sharma notes. “It smells just like a cup of chai I once had from a street vendor in Delhi and I wanted to recreate that.” He took special care in formulating this lip balm to ensure that the scent experience for the wearer was just right, without any off-putting artificial scents.
Fragrances that remind us of Love
Aliya recommends: “Anything that has a warm spicy scent reminds me of love, there is a certain warmth that transports me to a wine bar that plays soft music and has a laid back yet chic atmosphere. It makes me feel like I have it all together in a way. Currently, I find myself turning to RETROSPECT by MERIT Beauty to embody that.”
Tracy recommends: “Lately I've been enjoying the enveloping feeling of HOW YOU LOVE by Jazmin Sarai. It's a honey-drenched, breathy floral with warm musk and creamy sandalwood. It smells incredible on a sweater or a scarf, and feels like having a big sister.”
Tanaïs recommends: “LOVERS ROCK and HEART CHAKRA by Studio Tanaïs each feature an illicit (and historically beloved) heart note — tobacco and cannabis. Lovers Rock is warm, sexy, spicy and inviting, inspired by an old lover of mine who wore oils from a local Muslim shop in Brooklyn, the same oils sold by street vendors in Harlem. It’s more of an afterhours, deep winter, cuffing season vibe. Heart Chakra feels like opening a fresh bag of flower, and catching a whiff of fruit, evergreen and florals as you roll a spliff. It’s joyous, it’s dank, it’s a bit of a vision quest to open up your creativity.”
Ways to connect with our Heart Chakras through scent
Aromatherapy. Essential oils like lavender, rose, and eucalyptus are the perfect aromatherapy accompaniment to meditation. Add drops of your essential oil or two, of choice to a small roller ball bottle, dab it on your wrists, and breathe it in for grounding. Aliya suggests, “Before falling asleep, I use a room mist that has a calming lavender scent.”
Go on a walk. Notice the scents around you. The smoke from a woodburning fire, cooking aromas if it's close to dinner time, the scents of nature in your area, like star jasmine and pine. Log them down in your Notes app or journal. If it’s snowing where you are, this is a good one for springtime or to wander around your home, lighting candles along the way.
Host a scent exploration. Grab your friends, bring your favorite perfumes & candles, and compare notes. All you need are strips of card stock to spray the scents (or spray them on yourselves) and coffee beans to refresh your nose’s palette.
End Note: Our past, present, and future
"I walked past someone today wearing a perfume I used to love. For a second, I wasn’t here; I was in a different year, in a different place, next to a different person. It’s strange, how a scent deftly holds time better than a memory ever could.”
Ifenimi, a writer and self-described sleep advocate, TWEETED THIS recently. Her words had the effect of stopping time and creating dimensions during an unsuspecting doom scroll.
We invite you to take a pause and experience the texture of scents you love, connect with your heart, and step into different versions of yourself.
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Image Credits:
Photo 1 & 4: Tracy Wan (@invisiblestories)
Photo 2: Aliya Varma (@aliyalately)
Photo 5: Valerie (@thenichesampler)
