Scent and Sensibility

“What can you do with your nose?”

That was the question psychologist Donald Laird posed in a 1935 study, where he and his colleagues asked 254 participants to note moments when a scent stirred a memory. Hundreds of anecdotes followed: from a whiff of perfume reviving the discomfort of an awkward dance class to the smell of wool recalling a long-lost uncle’s overcoat. Smell, Laird suggested, is an “avenue into the mind.”

We often underestimate the power of olfactory memory. Unlike other senses, scent bypasses the thalamus and can instantly ignite vivid recollections and deep emotions bound to that smell. This direct pathway makes fragrance a uniquely powerful trigger for personal, often emotional, memories, where sight alone may fall short.

Those moments feel frozen in time, lying dormant until a single breath of fragrance brings them back to life.

Photography: Vladimir Martí
Creative Direction: Kim Payne