Successive confinements and the gradual return to a life we would like to call «normal» have led perfumers to rethink their olfactory writing. Relaxation, soothing, nostalgia, reassurance are among the new expectations of consumers as they leave a world that may seem chaotic. Some ingredients, such as lavender, tea and milky notes, have both olfactory and well-being interests in compositions.
Soothing lavender
Among the emanations renowned for soothing the nervous system and promoting inner calm, lavender. A shrub with tender blue or purplish flowers native to the western Mediterranean basin, lavender was already used by the Romans to preserve linen and as a bath perfume. A medicinal plant, it is interesting for treating mood disorders, anxiety and sleep disorders. Very often used in men’s perfumery, it is now more and more used in mixed or feminine creations because the troubles linked to these problems have no gender.
The de-stressing tea
Consumed for breakfast, lunch, snacks and even in the evening after dinner, tea is the most drunk beverage in the world. Everlasting and timeless, the tea note has never lost its notoriety with perfumers who like it black for its smoky, leathery and woody side, or green for its vegetal and herbaceous facets, like matcha present in many recent creations. This daily addiction is also explained by its capacity to get closer to nature and cultivate the spirit. Tasted quietly, it is known to have de-stressing and relaxing properties, and the theine it contains promotes concentration.
Reassuring milky notes
Nostalgia of childhood, a reassuring caress, a journey into the past, the milky notes evoke mother’s milk, the original food, the emblem of comfort and innocence. They offer a bit of softness, like the sensation of skin-to-skin, reminiscent of those privileged moments between a baby and its parents, and sweetness in this chaotic adult world shaken by the pandemic.
Because perfume is the strongest link with emotion, those highlighting milky notes elegantly emphasize the reminiscence, conscious or not, of the tender years of baby to the snacks of our childhood, in which it is good to take refuge in times of need.
