Scent Layering and Aromatherapy: The Art of the Individual
These days Madame Arcier has about 8 Aromatherapists working for her in the clinic, each averaging about 5 clients a day. Much of her time is spent in formulating the essential oils, and their beautiful smells always travel with her. She often dashes around London in taxis, and on one occasion the taxi driver was so enchanted by her “perfume” that he asked her to make it up for his wife. Naturally, she had to disappoint him as there was no way of knowing which combination of smells had impressed him so much!
Excerpt from PROFILE – MADAME ARCIER, Aromatherapy Quarterly, Issue 17 Autumm 1987
I had noted the Scent Layering trend on social media this Spring when I came upon this article in the archives. Scent layering like it’s a new thing? Whilst acknowledging that it dates back to the Ancient Egyptians, the current hype is new. I’ve seen articles suggesting two or three perfumes to layer your own unique scent – even a dual bottle with two pumps and two different perfumes. Madame Arcier carried a bottle of Bulgarian Rose to clean the environment around her, and worked with essential oils so much as well as using them herself, that she carried her own remarkable personal scent via all of these individual layers
The truth is that we are all carrying our own personal scent layering, intentionally or not, through our own habits. What soap we use, shampoo, fabric softener… not only through the individual items we use to scent our clothes or clean our skin, but through our own body chemistry interpreting those smells in our own unique way.
It’s something I have felt personally connected to all my life; as a child I would make note of the way certain people smelled before working out it was the fabric softener on their clothes. I have always been a bit obsessed with it as an adult! Choosing between two or three depending on the time of year and if it is time for a change. I often find myself spending time in the aisle of the supermarket sniffing new blends to try out.
As a young teenager a family friend came to stay and she had a large vanity box filled with different lotions, soaps, shampoos, haircare, the lot… it was the most personal care I had ever seen one person own at the time. I loved it when she said I could help myself – what a delight! Another family friend took me on her shopping trip one time where she really put a lot of importance on the soap and haircare she purchased. It’s something that stuck because as soon as I was in charge of my own shopping, I always maintained large selection of shampoos and conditioners, soaps of different scents and body sprays.
This was all topped up with my perfume – Nina Ricci, Premier Jour – my choice of scent for my twenties. An alcohol-based perfume has a certain lift to it — the alcohol evaporates and helps the fragrance project, so it can follow you into a room or linger after you have left, so close up, a shift of hair would release a scent of conditioner, movement would release the fabric softener… all overlayered with a perfume that would linger behind me wherever I went.
This wasn’t something I was necessarily aware of at the time, there was a point where one of my daughters was with me at a gathering of work friends and a colleague sitting next to her noted “you use the same shampoo as your mum” that I realised I carried an identity with the scents I chose to use – not just with the perfume (though I do recall another time where it was noted I’d left my scent behind) and at a later date, the same daughter staying over during a university break came downstairs from raiding the bathroom and I noted “wow, is that what I smell like when I come down from a bath” – I hadn’t even worked with aromatherapy at this point, just a genuine love for all things that smell good…
And then came the introduction to aromatherapy. The natural oils, the difference between cheap low grade lavender and the high altitude good stuff is notable. Variations of rose or ylang ylang… the building blocks that create a fragrant mood elevator using nature’s ingredients. Why a certain selection of scents can enlighten your morning and bring peace to your bedtime routine. The chemistry of the formulations blended with the essential oils releases the aromas in the best way possible. The bath oils that give that throw of aroma in the same way as a perfume, with all natural oils that absorb into your skin. The body oil that nurtures the epidermis as it slowly sinks into the skin leaving the aroma of the essential oils to absorb gently. More importantly, the core difference of using all natural essential oils carries the natural properties that they contain, versus synthetic materials in many products is noteworthy. Oils also behave differently. They sit closer to the skin, warming slowly with the body and releasing their scent in a quieter, more intimate way.
Learning more about the work of Madame Arcier, and using her formulations and techniques, has evolved my own view of the personal scent layering trend — we all do it. It’s not a trend; it’s a symbol of self-care. When you smell good, you feel good.
Each of us has our own preferences, our own routines, and our own chemistry. Layer by layer, they become something individual.
