A Journey Through Scent: Emotion, Memory, and the Invisible Art

Have you ever been transported to a different place and time by a mere fragrance? This feeling came to my mind as I stepped into the perfumery Skinlife, in the heart of Lisbon’s Chiado district, just a week ago. A sanctuary for scent enthusiasts, this perfumery promised an odyssey through the art of olfaction, where each fragrance held the power to wake up vivid emotions and memories.

In this reflection, I want to take you on a journey through the world of scents, my passion and my recent experience at the perfumery Skinlife.

Part 1 — Context : The power of the invisible

Before we enter the perfumery together, one question:

Did you know that scents take a direct route to the limbic system, including the amygdala and the hippocampus, the regions related to emotion and memory? We can’t filter scents and if —or how — we want them to make us feel. They work their magic subconciously and we often don’t even notice it.

Illustration of how scent can evoke emotions and specific memories, like the one of your granmother’s cookies and your nostalic secure feeling

Scent is a time-traveling machine in that sense and a source of passion, fascinationand creativity for me.

Now, let’s enter Skinlife together…

Part 2 — Expanding: Bal D’Afrique — A Creative Ode to a Vibrant Continent

One scent that stood out during my “exploration” was Bal D’Afrique by Byredo, a fragrance that embodies the spirit of creativity and innovation. Byredo’s founder, Ben Gorham, has crafted an olfactory narrative that transcends the traditional boundaries of perfumery, and Bal D’Afrique is a prime example of this, as he explained:

“Bal d’Afrique is one of my earliest fragrances. At the time of its formulation, I was obsessed with the translation of memories into scent. (…) it’s an imaginary journey as well as a complete celebration of how I see African culture and its influence.” (source)

what I saw in the store from the outside…and what it felt like on the inside

This fragrance blends notes of African marigold, bergamot, bucchu, lemon, black currant, along with violet, jasmine petals, and cyclamen, grounded in black amber, musk, vetiver, and Moroccan cedarwood. How does Byredo manage to evoke such a vivid picture of emotions and scenery in our minds with mere scents? It’s through their commitment to storytelling, where each fragrance is not just a scent but a narrative woven from qualitative raw materials, inviting us to explore and imagine.

Part 3 — Taking it to a deeper level : The Essence of Byredo’s Creative Philosophy

Byredo’s approach to perfumery mirrors the principles of design thinking and subjective interpretation, in my opinion. I admire the brand’s creativity in how it challenges conventional notions of fragrance, inviting us to see scents as a medium for expressing identity, experiences, and emotions.

As I left Skinlife, the essence of Bal D’Afrique lingering on my wrist, I was reminded of the boundless possibilities that lie in the art of scent. Byredo, with its daring and imaginative creations, exemplifies how perfumery can transcend the act of smelling to become a form of emotional and artistic expression. In the world of Byredo, scents are not just perceived; they are felt, experienced, and remembered, each bottle a testament to the brand’s vision of creativity and innovation. It’s a vision that invites us to explore the world not just through our eyes but through our noses, discovering new landscapes of emotion and memory with every breath.

It’s a reminder that creativity is not just about what we can see or touch; it’s about evoking feelings, crafting experiences, and, most importantly, embracing the subjective nature of our perceptions.

I invite you to go on a scent exploration and discover memories you didn’t know you have. Where will you go?

Maybe Casablanca?

The outside and the inside of the fragrance