Our senses are our fastest portal into our being. What we see, smell, touch, hear are fast tracked and bypass our thinking which can automatically block us. Smell takes a direct route to the limbic system, which includes the amygdala which is involved in emotion and associative memory. And the hippocampus, which is involved in long-term memory including episodic memory. Olfactory signals very quickly get to the limbic system.
A great example of this from as far back as the 19th century: Hervey de Saint Denys has begun to be known for his introspective studies on dreams. D'Hervey was also one of the earliest oneirologists (specialists in the study of dreams), and is nowadays regarded as "The Father" of modern lucid dreaming. In 1867 there appeared as an anonymous publication a book entitled Les rêves et les moyens de les diriger; observations pratiques (Translation: Dreams and the Ways to Direct Them: Practical Observations). D'Hervey started recording his dreams on a daily basis from the age of 13.
Léon d'Hervey de Saint-Denys wanted to see if he could target specific memories in his dreams through scents. To test this hypothesis, the nineteenth-century Parisian purchased a different perfume each time he travelled. He'd douse a handkerchief in the perfume, and each day in a particular place he'd smell the handkerchief.
Returning home, he'd wait a few months and then have a servant shake a few drops of the perfume onto his pillow. As a result, he'd dream of the place he'd been when had smelled that perfume. Taking this a step farther, he starts having the servant put drops of two different perfumes on the pillow.
Amazingly, he described combining elements of both trips in his dream. With this informal experiment, Saint-Denys reported that he could engineer his dreams. The scents he had connected with certain memories during the day were reactivated by the same olfactory cue as he slept.
We initiated a group experiment with Clothilde’s clients the evening we spent together in their garden. We started by creating this wellbeing link to that moment there using our Solid Perfume Verde. Perhaps some had already created this for themselves in the past by using our Balancing Face Oil, we consciously wanted to create a deep link to this self-care moment and the scent of our Verde. My recommendations were to take the fragrance on holiday with them, to use it as part of their sunset routine - to anchor it in the magic of that place - and then, later on to be able to recall it, to call on it mindfully when we need it if we are stressed, tense, unable to relax - and/or if we want to wander and travel in our dreams we can open the door to and help our subconscious go back to our individual ‘happy places’.
As an important side-note: the more deeply you sleep, the better your skin will look and feel.
