Sense of Smell is Underrated - Noses and Natural Perfume

We take our noses for granted.  We know when they’re displeased (i.e., passing the garbage dump along 880/Dixon Landing Road in Milpitas), we know when they’re overjoyed (baking banana bread, anyone?).   Aside from detecting food and foul, how often are you aware of that bump on your face?  If I asked you what you were seeing or hearing right now, you could tell me.  What about smelling?  You might say “nothing.”  Or, “air.”  But think on it further, you might be able to come up with something.  Lemons.  Furniture cleaner.  Dust.  Just being aware of something is the first step towards knowledge.  I learned that in yoga class but it applies here.

Humans can distinguish between 10,000 odors.  The area of the cortex that processes smell is also important for storing memories and processing experiences. That’s why a a smell is particularly good at evoking memories.   Know why food tastes good?  Your inhaling the scent amplifies what’s on your tongue.  Food just doesn’t taste as good when your nose is stuffed up.    It amazes me that for such a complicated sense, we have such few words to describe smells.  We employ the adjectives used to describe taste (citrusy, sweet, sour, etc.), and then there's always the metaphor (smells like a dirty diaper).

Bees smell with their antennae

(Incidentally, has anyone watched Smilla’s Sense of Snow?  Apparently Inuit eskimos have forty something words to describe different types of snow.  I can only think of three: icy, fluffy, powdery.  But I digress.)

As babies our noses are key to survival.  Eyes haven’t focused yet.  Babies follow their nose to the milk supply.  As we get older, we rely less on our noses.  The internet doesn’t smell.   Ipods and TV don’t require your nose.   But so much of life can be enhanced by simply smelling what’s around us.  And the more we smell, the better we smell.  Ha ha.  Seriously, I wonder if we can develop our noses to smell things like fear, sadness.  Someone needs to do a study.

Come smell the love at our natural/organic perfumerie: Mermaid Lane Perfumes.