
Here’s why your lockdown fragrance will remind you of these strange times forever.
We’ve spent more time at home than ever before this year. We’ve adapted to a new way of life that revolves around looking out for ourselves as well as others’. We’ve learned to boost our own moods, to boost others’ moods from afar, and we’ve certainly learned how to live our lives through screens. We’ve learned that one of the hardest things, albeit one of the best things we could do was to get up and search for some kind of normality in our days. Whether that meant getting up and dressed or working out, putting makeup on, or, if like us, it meant spritzing ourselves every morning with our favourite fragrance. The latter has resulted in us officially having a ‘lockdown fragrance’.
Our lockdown fragrance might have been whatever you had in our fragrance wardrobes. It might have been our all-time favourite scent in order for a daily pick-me-up. Perhaps it was something you treated yourself to in an online shopping splurge while the shops were shut. Whatever it was, it will now hold a whole new connotation to it.
How memory and fragrance work
Our sense of smell is the most powerful of our five senses. It can trigger memories and take you back to places that your other senses aren’t always capable of doing. Nick Davies, a leading UK Psychotherapist and Hypnotherapist, has previously spoken to us about why and how our scent sense is so evocative. He enlightened us and our knowledge of why the fragrances we use and smell can be so important in the future. The reason for this all depends on what part of our brain the scents go to. He said, “our oldest scent, the sense of smell is the only one that bypasses the thalamus and goes straight to the cortex or amygdala, which is part of out limbic brain responsible for threat detection and response, depending on whether it is perceived as a threat or not.” So, this is why certain smells remind us of the first memory that we have of them.
So, essentially, if we’ve subconsciously associated a particular fragrance, the one that we’ve worn on a daily basis throughout, with working from home or furloughed days, zoom chats and habitually tuning into the Government’s daily update every day for three months, it’s no surprise that in the years to come, a whiff of this scent will more than likely bring you back to your front room. This is your lockdown fragrance.
Why it isn’t a bad thing
While this year might not have gone to plan, and it hasn’t always been the most enjoyable time, but the memory of it doesn’t need to be disregarded and written off. We’ve been through a global pandemic, a time where not a single one of us knew what the outcome would be, and we should look back on this year and be proud of ourselves for it. You never know, in years to come you might even reminisce on it and feel nostalgic to the slower pace of life. It’s been an eventful year, but it doesn’t need to stored as a bad memory.
Our lockdown fragrances
These are the fragrances that will always take us back to summer 2020.
Scott: Tom Ford Noir Extreme Chloe: Dior Joy Hannah: Narciso Rodriguez Pure Musc Emma: DSQUARED2 Wood Pour Femme Chloe: YSL Libre
Feature image: Jess @ Harper Sunday from Pexels
All prices are correct as of date published.