Benefits of Fragrance: Scent and Wellness

Do you ever wonder why fragrance can make you feel good? Your sense of smell happens to be connected to the most primitive part of the brain which intertwines emotion and memory, so when a scent is inhaled it can trigger an instant emotional response or nostalgia for a memory. With this knowledge we can use fragrance to control our mood, remind us of people and places we love, and even help specific aspects of our mental health.

Ensuring your home is always your comfort zone through fragrance.

In response to the working from home movement, Fragrance Zoning, otherwise known as Scent Scaping, is a concept developed to create boundaries at home, to ensure work and personal spaces stay separate. It might be used to divide times of day, or different rooms in the house, choosing certain home fragrance scents to create desired atmospheres.

Using home fragrance such as scented candles, incense, room sprays and diffusers, specific scents can be chosen to set a mood in a particular space, or mark different parts of the day. For example, you might use a clean, citrus scented diffuser in the bathroom, and burn a calming, lavender scented candle in the bedroom. If you work from home in your living space, we recommend burning our Frankincense & Myrrh Incense Sticks during working hours, as frankincense essential oil is known to improve concentration and productivity. To break up the space in your personal time, burning candles creates a soothing, evening mood. We suggest our rose scented candle; rose oil has great benefits, known for its cheering and nurturing properties, needed after a tough day at work.

When creating a scentscape at home, lighting a scented candle has many benefits. The wax is suffused with essential oils, and when burned, the heat from the flame brings out these fragrant notes and releases them into the surrounding atmosphere. As well as the comfort the gentle flickering flame creates, specific smells can be chosen for their beneficial properties. If you’re looking to improve concentration, cinnamon is known to boost cognitive functioning and memory, and on the flip side, to de-stress, floral and herbaceous notes such as rose, geranium and lavender help to quiet the mind after a busy day. Popular candle smells this summer are taken from nature, such as flowers, plants and juicy fruits. To create your summer scentscape, we recommend burning different scented candles that work well together. Fruity and citrusy fragrance oils mix well with floral scents, to create an overall summary scent sensation.

Discover the amazing psychological benefits of fragrance.

As described previously, your sense of smell is closely linked to the part of the brain that responds to emotion and memory, which means using fragrance in your environment can be a very effective and evocative way to put your mind in a better state. Our ancient ancestors, dating back to the Egyptians, realised the medical value of aroma, extracting essential oils from plants and flowers, and burning natural material to release their uplifting, soothing and healing properties. Aromatherapy is a holistic healing treatment, which uses essential oils from a huge range of plants, selected for their specific mental health benefits; some key, overarching benefits include calming the brain and reducing stress.

Essential oils are the raw and natural product extracted from different plants, whereas a fragrance is a manufactured product that often uses essential oils alongside other fixatives and solvents, designed to be worn on skin leaving no greasy residue. Essential oils are also added to candles, diffusers, incense, beauty and bath products, so that the benefits of fragrance can be experienced in a multitude of ways, at home, out and about and in well curated public spaces.

Endless smells can be used in fragrance, but to help make things simpler, there are just four overarching scent categories, which can be broken down into subcategories. These main categories are named Fresh, Floral, Woody and Oriental. Each category has distinctive characteristics and benefits.

The Fresh Fragrance Family includes subcategories of green, marine, citrus, aromatic and fruit. As suggested by the name, notes in this family are highly refreshing, clean and energising, picture the zingy burst of a lime when it’s first sliced. Fresh smells tend to trigger the release of dopamine and serotonin in the brain, which has an uplifting effect on your mood, as well as reducing stress and anxiety. Within this category, some scents such as citrus are bright and zesty while other smells such as oceanic can promote tranquility, due to their calming association with the sea. In the Czech & Speake collection, Ausonia is our marine scent which combines the Atlantic breeze with clean smelling pine.

As you might expect, the Floral Scent Family is made up of flowers, with subcategories of floral, soft floral and oriental floral. Like the fresh family, the smell of flowers is highly uplifting. Think about inhaling a rose in full bloom – its sweet and addictive scent makes you feel good and peaceful in that moment. As well as an overall uplifting a relaxing feeling flowers provide, specific varieties can offer slightly different benefits. For example, the aroma of orange blossom is warming and heady and can promote sensuality, while May Chang has a lemony freshness that has a euphoric effect, recognised for calming anxiety.

The Woody Fragrance Family contains notes taken from trees, seeds, roots and in some cases plants, if they have an earthy quality. Sub categories include woods, mossy woods and dry woods. Some common woody notes include rich and creamy sandalwood and cooling cedarwood, while on the more mossy side, amber and oakmoss. Woody fragrance notes have great comforting benefits, providing feelings of being grounded and cocooned. These smells are particularly yearned after during the harsh winter months. Many fragrances from Czech & Speake contain woody notes, including our most iconic No.88.

The Oriental Fragrance Family contains sweet and spicy notes, with subcategories of floral oriental, soft oriental, oriental and woody oriental. These notes come from materials associated with the East such as incense, sweet spices and exotic flowers and trees. Due to the generally spicy quality, oriental fragrances provide warmth, while their hidden depth offers sensuality. Oriental fragrances tend to have soothing benefits that calm the mind, which can be linked to the East’s ancient use of fragrance for meditation and healing.

We’ve selected a handful of our most uplifting fragrances, highlighting their key notes with beneficial properties.

Our No.88 has a complex mix of notes ranging across the fragrance families, with soothing, grounding and uplifting essential oils. The ideal feel-good fragrance. Discover the key wellness notes below…

This citrussy essential oil has antibacterial properties which makes it a natural cleanser. When inhaled, the bright scent can trigger the release of serotonin and dopamine, which are key hormones to regulate mood. Bergamot has also been proven to reduce stress and anxiety.

Geranium essential oil, taken from the herbaceous plant, is a popular choice in aromatherapy for its ability to reduce stress, anxiety, fatigue and tension as well as enhancing concentration and cognitive function.

Rose Otto, extracted from the petals of roses, is a wonderful mood booster and relaxant. It’s sweet, delicate aroma energises and soothes by encouraging you to breathe in deeply and slowly.

Our lavender scented Oxford & Cambridge fragrance uniquely combines soothing lavender with stimulating peppermint and rosemary. A perfect fragrance to wear in the morning, to start your day with energy and a calm and collected mind. Discover the key wellness notes below…

Lavender essential oil, taken from the herbaceous flower has long been recognised for its healing, calming and sedative properties, most commonly used to help aid sleep.

The zingy and fresh scent of herbaceous peppermint is a stimulant. When inhaled, it clears the respiratory tract, stimulates circulation and boosts energy. The aroma is useful for alleviating jet lag, or simply giving you more energy in the morning, which can improve your overall performance that day.

Rosemary has a distinctive herbaceous aroma with the impressive ability to improve mental activity. The essential oil can improve thinking, concentration and memory.

Containing medicinal, woody notes alongside soothing plants, Frankincense & Myrrh is the perfect fragrance if you want to feel grounded and relaxed. Discover the key wellness notes below…

Frankincense essential oil is extracted from the resin of the Boswellia tree. Its earthy, sweet scent was recognised by our most ancient ancestors for its huge spectrum of aromatic benefits, and has remained popular ever since. Its grounding aroma provides comfort, reduces stress and improves concentration, memory and relaxation.

Similar to frankincense, myrrh essential oil is taken from a gum-resin of a thorny tree species. With a woody, warm and medical smell, myrrh promotes feelings of being grounded, and helps to lift negative moods.

Camomile essential oil comes from an aromatic flower in the Daisy family, and is best known for its highly relaxing benefits, helping to balance emotions. Much like lavender, chamomile is calming and often linked with improving sleep quality.

Our Neroli fragrance has a very simple blend of citrus and floral notes, but these flowers in their simplicity, have a big effect. It is the scent you need if you want to feel uplifted. Discover the key wellness notes below…

Neroli essential oil, taken from the blossom of the bitter orange tree, is uplifting by nature. When inhaled, the scent may help to release serotonin which eases cortisol, the stress hormone, and ultimately decreases anxiety.

Ylang-ylang essential oil is taken from the bright yellow flower of a tropical tree. Much like its sunny appearance, ylang-ylangs’s scent has many positive benefits such as alleviating stress and anxiety and improving your mood, which is great for self esteem.