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Perfume and Aromatherapy

By Keesa Renee DuPre

There is a small but growing movement in perfume circles towards combining perfume and aromatherapy. Perfumes have always included essential oils; rose oil, sandalwood, lavender, patchouli. And aromatherapists and herbalists have always known that the smells of some of these essential oils have effects on the human mind and emotions. Lavender, for example, is soothing and relaxing. It acts as a nervine, calming overwrought emotions and promoting restful sleep without the aid of sleeping pills. Citrus fragrances, such as orange or lime, are invigorating, promoting energy and vitality. Rose oil is sensuous and seductive, as are lily-of-the-valley and sandalwood.

As holistic health awareness grows, more and more people are seeking to add aromatherapy to their daily lives. And since perfume is often already part of their daily lives, the connection between the two is easily made. Many companies are now advertising their perfumes as "Aromatherapeutic" or "Holistic."

But are aromatherapy perfumes any different from the normal perfume you purchase in the store? That depends. Some are, certainly; many perfumes are blends of many different scents, with no one identifiable herbal scent dominating. Some, in fact, contain no herbal essential oils at all. Perfumes such as Spark and Obsession, for example, while lovely scents, are not truly aromatherapeutic.

But with other perfumes, those which draw heavily on single herbal scents or blends of herbal scents…these perfumes are often aromatherapeutic even if they aren´t marketed as such. The power of aromatherapy is in the smell, and the only difference between a rose-oil-based perfume and a rose-oil-based aromatherapeutic perfume is—you guessed it—the name. It´s all in the marketing.

So which perfume scents work well as aromatherapy? How can you choose them, and how do you know which scent to wear on a given occasion? One way, of course, is simply to test the scents you like to wear. Dab a bit of scent onto your wrists, then bring your arms together, wrists facing upwards, and bend your elbows so that you bring your hands a few inches away from your face. Your lower arms should be pressing against your chest, almost as if you were hugging yourself, and your wrists should be right below your nose. If you like, you can rest your fingertips lightly against your forehead. Your hands, lightly cupped, should be in front of your eyes. You are basically using your hands and arms as a cocoon; you want to be able to lose yourself in the scent.

Take three or four slow, deep breaths. Revel in the scent of your perfume. Think about the undertones, the basenotes, the way it makes you feel. Let your arms drop to your side and take a moment to examine the way you feel. Sensuous and desirable? Warm and loving? Fresh and energized? Relaxed almost to the point of being asleep? Because different people´s body chemistry is different, different people will react in different ways to different scents. This makes the wrist test one of the best ways to choose your individual aromatherapy scent and learn how you—as an individual—react to different fragrances.

Whenever you go shopping for a new perfume, use this method, if you feel comfortable using it in public, to test the scent. How does it make you feel? That is the key question in aromatherapy. Balancing mood and emotion through fragrance is your goal; determining how a fragrance affects your mood and your emotion is the means to that goal.

Aromatherapy and perfume are a natural pair. There´s no wonder that they´ve been used together for centuries; the only wonder is that it´s taken this long for the idea to become popular with the American public!

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Written by: Keesa DuPre
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