Article: Suzanne Duckett from Ideas
Image: Fairlady

Have you ever smelled a fragrance and labelled it as being too old (it reminded you of your granny), or too young (too flowery and in your face)? If so, you’re not alone.

According to a recent study on the effects aroma has on perception of age, certain smells can radically influence a person's judgment.

According to Dr Alan Hirsch, a neurologist and psychiatrist at the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago in the United States, who conducted the study, how we decide a person's age is a general feeling based on a combination of things.

Some are obvious, such as how a person speaks, walks and dresses, but there are also the subliminal indicators, which take into account how people smell.

"The subjects in our study were asked to estimate the age of models in photographs while wearing masks impregnated with different aromas," says Dr Hirsch.

"Those smelling pink grapefruit reduced the subjects’ real ages by an average of six years – and some by a whopping 14 years," he says. The reason for the change in perception isn’t altogether clear.

One idea is that the smell of a pink grapefruit is so stimulating and invigorating that it triggers a more positive mindset, making the 'sniffer' less critical and prompting them to put everything and everyone in a more positive light.

"Another possibility," says Dr Hirsch, "is that the smell of grapefruit affects the parietal lobe – a part of the brain that helps us gauge things such as size, spatial awareness, and the aesthetics of age. The bottom line is, if you want to appear younger to others, wear perfume with pink grapefruit in it."

Put zest in your step
Professeur des Parfums, Roja Dove isn't surprised pink grapefruit provokes such a positive response."Citrus notes have been used for centuries to revive, uplift, inject life and boost vitality," he says.

"Think about the effect of someone peeling an orange in a stuffy room – it instantly recharges the stale, stagnant air. Citrus notes are mainly used in the top notes of a fragrance. This means that – like that orange – the burst of energy is short lived. You have to spritz little and often to keep your youth boost going."

Certain floral notes can also take years off a fragrance and its wearer. "Freesia, peony, lily of the valley and orange blossom, in small quantities, give a wonderful vivaciousness to a scent," says Roja Dove.

"They’re used in abundance in perfumes targeted at the youth market. But, like fruity notes, they're quite volatile, which creates a feeling of movement and energy."

However, the new generation of fragrances aimed at the adult market ensures that you don't end up smelling like a flower shop or a fruit stall. Although they have nuances of airy, youthful notes, they still contain richer base notes for sophisticated sensuality.

Fragrance facelift
"Sticking to a fragrance, especially a distinctive one from a bygone era, is like forgetting to update your clothes, and it can speak volumes about your age," says Will Andrews of P&G Prestige Products, the company behind many well-known fragrances, including the Hugo Boss range.

"It's important to treat your scent like a fashion item and move with the times," he says. "Just as we associate flares with the seventies, power suits with the eighties and minimalism with the nineties, our noses are like personal historians.

"Certain smells have the power to transport you back to another time, place – or even a person." That is why many fragrance houses are updating their golden oldies. The art of a perfumer, like a good fashion designer, is to weave modern touches into a classic.

Smart olfactory creative types still use the classic base notes many of us have loved for some time. These notes, such as vanilla, tonka bean, musk and ambergris, are the ones that help to build a blockbuster. Only now perfumers are using lighter, softer, less in-your-face versions.

"Fragrance formulas, like the cut of a good suit or a little black dress, are being pared right down, but behind the scenes they are still, essentially, complex structures that whisper rather than shout: the epitome of modern sexiness," says Roja Dove.

The best example of a fragrance facelift is Estée Lauder's Youth Dew Amber Nude. Tom Ford, the man famous for his ability to inject youth, life and lust into slightly world-weary fashion brands, such as Gucci, has turned his hand to beauty and fragrance.

Having engineered Gucci’s 10-years-younger reinvention, he has now put the youth back into the iconic Youth Dew. The revamped version still has the potent, floral, spicy heart of jasmine and ylangylang, but has been given a nip and a tuck with the addition of, yes, that magic pink grapefruit again, plus a dark chocolate note to replace the headiness of the original vanilla.

Spray it on gently
According to Will Andrews, our olfactory sensitivities deteriorate with age, with some of us demonstrating a reduced sense of smell by the age of 35, half of us by age 65 and 75% of us by the time we reach 80.

This might explain why many older men and women splash on fragrance like it's going – or, in most cases, gone – out of fashion.

So if you don't want to smell old before your time, hold back on the overgenerous spritzing. Most important of all, before you ask for another bottle of 'the usual' for your birthday this year, remember that beauty is in the nose, not just the eye, of the beholder, and there are more subtle ways of injecting youth into your looks than plumping for Botox.

Switching to a 'younger' perfume is guaranteed to spritz modernity into your world.