A new slew of scents is prioritizing fragrance and function
Once upon a time, middle school boys drenched themselves in Drakkar Noir cologne en masse and waited for their crushes to swoon.
Arguably, there was a purpose behind that pre-teen mating ritual, inspiring countless awkward hand-holding sessions. In general, though, fragrance has long been seen as simply a lovely add-on, at best an olfactory expression of personality and at worst the cause of allergic reactions.
No longer.
First came the introduction of nontoxic fragrances—already a win. But now, throughout the globe, more and more chic perfumers are taking that progress a step further, creating scents with functional properties that transcend delight. “There is a movement,” says Yasmin Sewell, an energy worker, entrepreneur, and founder of the “potions as perfumes” line Vyrao. “And that movement is driven by people’s need to connect with themselves, their emotions, and overall wellbeing.” Not only do these new purposeful perfumes do no harm, but they are actually designed to help us feel good.
“Fragrance is a force for emotional “Fragrance is a force for emotional wellness. It can change your mood…and wellness. It can change your mood…and bring you back to the present moment.” bring you back to the present moment.”
—Courtney Somer, founder and chief creative officer of natural, New York-based fragrance company, Lake & Skye
Reaching the Brain’s Emotional Center Emotional Center
To be clear, functional fragrance is not the random endowment of meaning on perfume. It’s about harnessing the unique power of scent for an actual benefit. “Smell is the only sense directly connected to the amygdala, the brain’s emotional center,” explains Nora Naisbitt, Swiss CEO and founder of Amatrius, a science-backed, Ibiza-inspired functional fragrance line that launched in 2020 (when health felt particularly paramount). “This allows scents to bypass rational processing, making them powerful influencers of mood, memory, and behavior.”
Scent is, therefore, uniquely positioned to impact our mental and even physical health—which is often the driving intention behind functional fragrances. For Courtney Somer, founder and chief creative officer of natural, New York-based fragrance company, Lake & Skye, for example, wellness is not only core to her scents; in many ways, it came first. After struggling with health issues, she dove deep into nutrition, meditation, yoga, reiki, and aromatherapy, which inspired her to create natural products that could help herself and others. “I saw Lake & Skye through the holistic lens of how everything you put in or on your body works together to heal,” she explains. “Fragrance is a force for emotional wellness. It can change your mood…and bring you back to the present moment.”
Back in 2015, Somer’s inaugural offering—still the brand’s cult-favorite—was her 11 11 Fragrance Oil Rollerball, a fresh scent easy to take on-the-go and intended to promote calm, boost confidence, and be a “gift you give yourself” throughout the day. Emphasizing mindfulness, the product’s name is rooted in the idea of making a wish—the magic of catching those repeating numbers on the clock.
Each scent created since Somer’s first—including the ones found at her hospitality entrepreneur husband’s new Hudson Valley retreat, INNESS—has been formulated with a similar sense of intentionality beyond scent, including her most recent spinoff, 11 11 Vanilla, which adds warmth to that staple with notes of vanilla creme, marshmallow star apple, and musk, promoting comfort and ease.
“It was never about the perfume,” concurs Sewell. Her fragrance line is also fueled by a greater purpose—channeling good energy. Informed by principles of neuroscience and energy amplification, each of her eight eau du parfums uses color, crystals, natural ingredients and, of course, scent to spark specific channels of high vibration and positivity. And, though it might sound woo-woo to the untrained ear, in fact Vyrao’s three newest launches—The Sixth, Sun Rae and Mamajuju—were created in partnership with the Science of Wellness Program at International Flavor & Fragrances (IFF), integrating its 40 years of research into the interplay between fragrance, emotion, and wellness.
Yasmin Sewell, founder of the “potions as perfumes” line Vyrao
A Time to Spray and Play
Sewell sees Vyrao as a multidimensional wellness brand and, like many of its functional fragrance peers, she’s on a mission to create fragrances that are better for us—and for the planet. “This is our year to spray and play; some incredible scents are coming,” she enthuses. “We all want lovely tools to feel better.”
Play often evolves into something greater. Just ask LA-based Maison Louis Marie founder and creative director, Marie du Petit Thouars, who fell for fragrance during her childhood in Belgium, after spending countless hours in her grandfather’s nursery and her mother’s greenhouse experimenting with aromas. “These early explorations were more than just play,” she says. “They were a formative journey into the world of botanicals and scent creation.
Today, I aim to craft products that not only reflect my heritage, but also…offer others a sensory journey that is both intimate and universal.”
Since launching in 2013, Maison Louis Marie has employed ethical practices and nontoxic ingredients, upping the ante beyond lovely aromas. “Functional fragrances are designed to deliver specific therapeutic benefits, such as reducing stress, enhancing mood, or even improving sleep quality [by] incorporating ingredients known to elicit particular physiological or psychological responses,” she explains. “For instance, certain essential oils are utilized for their calming effects, to promote emotional wellbeing. By carefully blending natural ingredients, fragrances [can] align with the body’s needs.”
Its No. 04 Bois de Balincourt fragrance, for example, features sandalwood, known for its grounding and calming properties, ideal for decompression. The collection’s latest addition is No. 14 Icila, named for the French word, “ici,” meaning “here.” It includes notes of mandarin leaf, jasmine, Bulgarian rose, dark plum, vanilla flower and more— all meant to inspire mindfulness and gratitude, an appreciation for “life’s fleeting moments.”
Staying in the present is also key for Naisbitt. She too became consumed with fragrance early in life, collecting perfume samples starting at age 10. But it was on a business trip to Istanbul at 24 when her eyes opened to aroma’s power. “At a restaurant, I was given a pashmina to keep warm, and it carried an incredible scent that was completely new to me,” she says, recalling how, eventually, her children came to associate that fragrance with her and ask to smell it when she was away from home. “That scent brought them comfort and calm, highlighting how profoundly our sense of smell influences our emotions.”
Ultimately, when conceiving, she assembled her dream team, involving the man behind that original scent—avant-garde perfumer, Geza Schön—along with Professor Hanns Hatt (a famed researcher of olfactory receptors and brain stimulation in the human body). “Amatrius is not just a perfume company,” Naisbitt says. “It is a platform that unites experts from various fields of holistic wellbeing. Our functional fragrances redefine what scent can achieve.”
Reinforcing Positive Emotional States
Combining the ancient principles of aromatherapy and modern aromachology (or the science of how scent affects feelings and behavior), Naisbitt conceived fragrances as “reminder anchors” to reinforce positive emotional states, emphasizing qualities like elegance and resilience in equal measure. And she observed that people chose scents olfactorily based on their emotional states.So, all four offerings—rendered with high-quality organic ingredients—are designed to “meet the full spectrum of emotional and physical needs.” Enjoy Me is meant to energize and uplift, Unplug Me is meant to promote deep relaxation, Recharge Me was created to encourage creativity and openness and Love Me is “a warm embrace in scent form.”
“Fortunately, mental health and overall wellbeing are becoming increasingly important in today’s world,” says Naisbitt. “Having a functional fragrance with you—a bottle that fits in your pocket—…is an empowering tool for self-care.” Abel—a “radical fragrance” brand out of New Zealand—is science-based, but also emphasizes nature. Growing up on a farm, founder Frances Shoemack’s mother was a yoga teacher and prolific gardener. She became obsessed with nature and scent and spent her early career in winemaking, a related craft.
Essential oils, what Shoemack calls “some of the oldest medicines in the world,” have been core to Abel’s perfumes since the brand’s launch in 2013, along with pioneering sustainability. “We see upcycling, biotech, and green chemistry as the future of the industry and are determined to lead a path forward in a way that is…not reliant on fossil fuels,” she explains.
This thoughtful approach also informs functional fragrances like Pause, created with ingredients to support hormonal flux in women, specifically perimenopause; and Nurture, created for new and expectant mothers with ingredients like ginger for nausea and rose for grounding. Its latest fragrance, The Apartment, includes an upcycled ingredient, a tart cherry note, utilizing technology that extracts scent molecules from fruit industry wastewater, serving a function for the planet, too.
“Advancements like these are redefining how our industry can source, scale and innovate at the material level,” she adds. And it is this intersection of science, wellness, and environmentalism that she believes is currently driving increased interest in this new category, which is unquestionably growing. “It’s heartening to see that functional fragrances are gaining recognition now, as more people seek holistic approaches to wellness,” agrees du Petit Thouars.
“This growing interest reflects a collective desire to incorporate natural and therapeutic elements into our daily lives.”
