Can you really improve your sense of smell?
Turns out it’s the only sense you can. So I rocked up at the Perfume Society’s event, which lifts the lid on techniques used by perfumers as they train to memorise the 4000-odd notes that make up their artist’s palette.
The workshop was at Jovoy in Mayfair – it’s got an intimidating-looking storefront that belies the affable service inside.
Jovoy boasts a LOT of exclusive lines. So it’s worth calling on the friendly staff to help you navigate the array of expensive-looking (and actually expensive) scents.
“What’s the best one?”, I overheard a shopper asking (handled with amusingly good grace, not that I was earwigging). As a rule, I’d suggest giving more of a steer on your personal tastes. But this actually wasn’t that silly a question. Among their massive selection of fragrances, many seem to pitch in the same field – oodles of oud, blinged-up bottles, eye-watering price tags. They’ve got the Mayfair-tourist marked. But there are three things I loved:
- Free sample service. Maybe we got some special treatment, but I’ll love anywhere that lets me walk out with a little clinking organza bag of freebies
- Stacks of blotter strips and PENCILS galore
- Bottles labelled with core notes. It really helps you shortlist your testers. Plus, you can play Note Bingo – sniff blind, then turn the bottle over to see if you’ve won.
After a good nosey about, a velvet rope was lifted and we went down to the workshop.
We kicked off with the jelly bean experiment. You hold your nose, chew a jelly bean, then let go of your nose to experience the rush of flavour. It’s designed to show how important smell is in how we experience taste.
I’ve done this exercise before at 4160 Tuesday’s workshops, and I would never have got through a childhood of cheese-based teas at friends’ houses without this little trick. But I’ll never turn my nose up at a jelly bean. And it doesn’t hurt to remind yourself of the interconnectedness of our senses – and to be on-our-knees-grateful for the incredible olfactory powers we hold in our schnozzes.
The next couple of hours were an exploration of those very super-skills. We blind-sniffed our way through six wildly different fragrances, spending time with each one to ponder on its innate character. Not the notes, nor the composition, but writing freely about its colour, associations, emotional make-up.
The idea is, there’s no wrong answer – it’s all about your personal experience. What smelled to me like a gardener’s gloriously grubby fingers repelled the next person by its similarity to bathroom cleaner. But the practice of free-association and most importantly, WRITING IT ALL DOWN is what, with practice, creates memory pathways, training your nose to pick up and grow to understand perfumes and the artistry behind them.
The idea of smelling stuff to get better at smelling stuff seems obvious. But it doesn’t work unless you do it. If nothing else, the Perfume Society’s workshop is a great opportunity to spend quality time with perfumes you might otherwise have overlooked, and to practice the practice of sniffing, among lovely people who love perfume. That’s a very pleasant way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
The Perfume Society hold workshops in London and around the rest of the UK. Places are £10 for members and £25 for non-members.
Nose Dives 