On the scent trail

It's a pleasant afternoon in London, which is something a tourist here should not take for granted. My dear friend Howard W. has arrived to escort me through Mayfair on our adventure. Like bloodhounds, we are on the trail of scent, but with a different task in mind than hunting foxes. Our goal: to find the most remarkable perfumeries in London's west end that still make their very own unique perfumes.

The first stop is Penhaligon's, 20A Brook Street, a perfumerie that looks like a movie set in an early Harry Potter film. In their own words "Penhaligon's is where the aristocratic luxuries of yesteryear become covetable necessities for the modern lifestyle". Their tradition of making perfume dates back to the 1870s, with the creation of one of the world's first ever citrus scents, "Blenheim Bouquet", in 1902. You can still purchase it in its original-looking glass bottle (for 55 pounds, not too much when you consider its history). Winston Churchill was one of Penhaligon's coveted customers.

From Penhaligon's, we follow our noses along to the thoroughly modern Miller Harris, situated at 21 Bruton Street. This address does little to reveal their enchanted location: just an angel's step from Berkeley Square (where the nightingale sang). Here, after spending a few moments sampling the lovely scents, we are in for a pleasant surprise. Lyn Harris, the perfumer herself (and owner) is on premises and comes up to meet us and discuss perfumes. She is a 'nose', one of the select few who have trained for years in the ancient art of composing perfumes. Of course, it's not only training, but the rare gift of talent that counts. Thoroughly modern Miller Harris does have a website, but I would strongly recommend visiting the lovely premises (and nearby Berkeley Square, of course). Lyn had never heard of our two-phase mouthwash, so Howard and I trotted down towards Picadilly to Boots (decidedly proletarian) to pick her up a bottle of Dentyl pH (her breath was pristine, in case you're wondering).

We then sat ourselves doon in Berkeley Square and had spicy corn soup procured from "Pret a manger".This was not our first choice. I would have much preferred their delicious mushroom soup, but it is only offered on certain days, and we were out of luck. The good thing about bad soup is that you do get used to it about halfway through. And we did.

In order to "zero" our palette, we then scurried over to the lovely Chocolate Society (32-34 Shepherd Market), a real chocolate shop which makes its own chocolate everything. My own favourite is their chocolate-filled (and covered) prunes, which are pricey at 1.75 pounds, but highly memorable. After hot chocolate and some lovely chocolate pastry, the soup was a distant memory.

And then back to our tour. The third, and final, call on the scent trail, is the famed aristocratic "Floris", of 89 Jermyn Street (pronounced 'German', which is ironic considering all the damage the Germans inflicted on Mayfair back in WWII). Here again we were lucky enough to meet their new perfumer, Shelagh (the Welsh form of 'Sheila'), who explained that Floris is still owned by the family that established it nine generations ago. Shelagh even let us sample some of her recent creations. By the way, as with Miller Harris, one can order one's own "bespoke perfume", just as lords and ladies did hundreds of years ago. This entails the creation of a unique perfume for an individual customer based on his/her memories, personality and preference. This process can take about half a year, and runs about 2,500 pounds. Pricey, but you do get your own distinctive perfume in the end, and don't have to fret about smelling it on others.

Soon, we will be offering all kinds of expertise on everything that smells (perfumes, deodorants, bad breath, personal care products, etc.), on our website, smellwell.com, which is now under reconstruction. So please be nosey...

Thank you Howard W. for this breathtaking visit to your fine scented city!

Smelling well

Smelling well is very important in modern society. We interact with hundreds of people each day, we smell them and they smell us. Smelling well is critical to our success in life. We are less likely to date or to hire people with bad smell. Most of us would avoid being treated by a dentist who has a bad odor.

Of all our senses, smell is the most mysterious. We can detect thousands of different odors, yet have trouble naming them. Although dogs are better sniffers than we are, the molecular receptors in our noses are remarkably sensitive. Certain molecules can be sensed and identified, even when they are surrounded by ten million molecules of regular air (or more!).

Smell is intimately related in our brains with memory. That is why a smell can sometimes evoke a distant memory from childhood that would otherwise be lost in the sands of time.

Smells are also intimately involved with our adult sexuality. Like other animals, we also judge potential mates by their body odor. Perhaps that is why, for thousands of years, we have been preoccupied with perfuming our bodies. Usually, for this purpose, we employ extracts of flowers (which are actually the sex organs of plants) or attractive odors from the scent glands of animals (musk). Perfumes are a multi-billion dollar business. Oddly enough, many of the aromas used in fragrances these days are synthetic, and are manufactured using petroleum as a starting point.

Natural body odor can be a sexual turn-on (I agree with Desmond Morris on this), but in modern "civilized" society, body odor (commonly referred to as "b.o.") is generally considered offensive. Most body odor comes from the armpits ("axilla"). In primitive society, molecules wafting from our armpits probably conveyed a variety of behavioral signals (we call such molecules 'pheromones'). Scientists are currently studying this subject, and have found that armpit secretions can modulate menstrual cycles in other women. They may also affect physiological properties and brain activity. So "b.o." may not be as bad as we think. Some scientists (myself included) think that the adult armpit is like a radio station, in which the axillary hairs are smell antennae that emit a variety of sexual and other messages that we may not even be aware of. Since the smell that each of us emits is unique and related to our wellbeing and genetic makeup (as with animals), our smell 'fingerprint' may help us identify suitable mates. It may also serve as an identification mechanism in the future. Most people (especially women, who smell better than men) can pick their mate's t-shirt out of a heap of clothing worn by strangers.

Most offensive odors are the product of microbial activity. Microbes cause bad breath, body odor, foot and shoe odor, wet towel odor, the stench of feces and sewage, and the smell of rotten food. Some scientists think that our aversion for these smells may be a primitive warning sign to avoid dangerous food and water, and to stay away from others with infectious diseases.

Our life experiences also conditions our smell preferences. We bond with our mothers by smell shortly after birth. We learn to love the odor of a good cheese, even when it smells like an open sewer. People who grew up on a farm, may even long for the odor of a barn or chicken coop.

Commercial companies know just how important smell is in our makeup. They turn scents into dollars by adding attractive fragrances to practically everything. They trick us into spending more money in supermarkets and malls, convince us that instant coffee is as good as the real thing, and even upgrade lousy whiskeys.

Smells, despite their great importance, are elusive. They don't have names like colors do. We say, "That smells like a …" And scientists around the world are still searching for that attractive molecule that will make us irresistible mating partners. Stay tuned, and keep on smelling.