The Secret to Beauty is Uncovered — Pleasant Smells

The beauty industry is worth billions of pounds every year; lotions and treatments are purchased in an attempt to improve our attractiveness — whether to find a life partner or employment, or just to increase our self-confidence.

One of our most powerful senses is our sense of smell. A recent report has suggested that pleasant smells can change how we react to each other. Let’s look behind the headlines and see how the sense of smell can affect our lives — and possibly our attractiveness.

It’s only a Smell — isn’t it?

When we experience an odour it is not only the actual small that affects us — but the experiences and emotions we associate with that particular odour. In fact, it is our emotional response that is the strongest when it comes to reacting to odours — and sometimes you cannot control the response.

Our smell receptors, or olfactory receptors, are connected to one of the oldest parts of the brain — the limbic system — which is also the part of the brain that processes our emotional thoughts. The naming of a smell occurs in another part of the brain, the cortex. By the time the cortex has named the odour, our limbic system has already determined our emotional response — and we have no control over that response, it has been built from our past experiences.

Perception and Smell

Evidence shows that pleasant smells affect our mood — with nice smells having a positive effect on our mood. But this isn’t the full story. Researchers have shown that a placebo effect can also change our mood.

Studies have shown that the suggestion of a pleasant odour can cause a response in people, with reports of increased well-being and a positive mood. When a placebo has been used, for example an odourless spray, subjects responded when informed that the sprays had a pleasant odour; however, the response was greater when real fragrances were used —  showing that actual smells elicit a greater response than suggestions of pleasant smells.

Does this make us more attractive?

Smelling more Attractive and Younger?

A recent study carried out at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, and published in the journal PLOS ONE, looked at how odour affected the emotional and cognitive responses in young adults. The subjects assessed the attractiveness (emotional response) and age (cognitive function) — two different processing pathways — of females whilst subjected to a range of odours from pleasant to unpleasant.

The team found that pleasant odours affected how attractive a face was perceived. When it came to ages — they found that pleasant odours strongly affected visual age clues. One of the co-authors, Jean-Marc Dessirier, has commented that ‘These findings have fascinating implications in terms of how pleasant smells may help enhance natural appearance within social settings’.

Next time you’re getting ready to go out, would you try a 150 year-old perfume to make yourself more attractive? Read about making an old perfume come alive in How to Recreate a 150 Year-Old Perfume.