Smell

Obviously this is the sense we deal with the most at Lore, being a perfumery and all.

The sense of smell is an ancient one - organisms developed it very early on as a way to detect different chemicals in our environments that might indicate hazards or opportunities, thus aiding us in survival.

When we smell something, our olfactory receptors send that information to the thalamus, the brain’s information relay station. Unlike other senses however, our olfactives have a particularly direct pathway to the limbic system (the amygdala and hippocampus) which are the parts of the brain responsible for learning, memory and emotion. This is why scent is particularly powerful at triggering strong emotions and memories.

As opposed to other sensations that are more easily described - for example, we can describe something we see by identifying colours or shapes, or something we hear by assigning musical notes to it, the sense of smell is much more abstract and difficult to describe. This is where engaging the other senses, or at least referring to them, can assist us in understanding what something smells like.

In talking about fragrance at Lore, we try to take a holistic approach, aiming to evoke multi-sensory vignettes with our perfume descriptions. That said, a written or spoken description of a fragrance can never truly replicate the experience of actually smelling one, and the fact that all of us experience scent so differently doesn’t help! We think this is actually what makes the sense of smell so fascinating. There’s so much that’s unknown about it, but what is knowable is how it makes us feel.

Namedrops edp

The Raconteur

As you can imagine, it was pretty hard for us to pick a fragrance that represents the sense of smell, given we have over 500 perfumes in our store. So, we wanted to choose something that really highlights the subjectivity of olfaction and illustrates how people can experience the same scent in a variety of different ways.

For us, the answer to that is a molecular musk fragrance. Molecular musk aroma chemicals were invented as an alternative to natural, animal derived musks, allowing for large-scale, consistent production of cruelty free, vegan fragrance. The thing about molecular musks, being synthesised, is that they don’t really remind us of anything we come across in our day to day life, they’re kind of in their own fragrance category. This means that the way people experience them can vary pretty broadly. It’s also important to note that they really only come to life after making contact with the skin, where they interact with body heat, hormones, and other factors, meaning they can smell slightly different depending on who is wearing them. (Keep this in mind if you find them hard to pick up on a non-skin surface). So, not only can they smell different to each person, they can smell different on each person.

Adding a molecular musk to a fragrance is like adding a magical secret ingredient - they contribute to a composition with their own scent, they enhance and amplify the other notes in a fragrance, and help perfumes to stick to the skin for longer. Is there anything they can’t do?

Namedrops by The Raconteur contains Iso E Super, a molecular musk invented in 1975 whose popularity has continued to grow ever since. Some people find it woody or earthy, some people say it smells clean like fresh laundry, others say it smells musky like human skin, and some say they almost can’t smell it at all. Basically, everyone experiences it quite differently.

Namedrops doesn’t just contain Iso E Super though…

NOTES

Tasmanian Mountain Pepper, Sandalwood, Vanilla, Mixed Spices, iso e Super

more about the scent

On first spritz, Namedrops appears to be a simple, musky Iso E Super scent, but as it warms up on the skin, the mixed spices and pepper become more prominent.

The native pepper smells a little like a mixture between juniper, ginger and Sichuan pepper, meaning its character is sharp, bright and aromatic. The native Tasmanian Mountain Pepper in this fragrance is a truly unique note that the folks at The Raconteur worked on tirelessly - it proved quite difficult to extract the fragrance from the pepper via typical perfumery methods, until they tried the CO2 extraction method, making them the first perfumers in the world able to extract photorealistic fragrance from the actual botanical. Blended with the more unique notes however are the more familiar notes that are pretty much universally loved - creamy sandalwood, sweet vanilla, and invigorating spices.

The result is a scent that when worn, elicits a your-skin-but-better feel, which is fitting because the inspiration behind Namedrops is all about self-confidence. A fragrance enhancer for those who talk big game, Namedrops is supposed to be your coat of armour to layer with any scent to boost its performance. Or, you can wear it by itself to really get people talking.

Being a niche perfumery, we want to encourage people to really step out of their comfort zone and challenge themselves when it comes to trying new fragrances, and are very excited by anything innovative and unique, which we can safely say Namedrops is.

Now, go and grab your friend or partner or coworker, make them try on Namedrops and compare your olfactory experiences, our favourite science experiment that doesn’t need a laboratory!