Transcripts
1. Introduction: Have you ever entered into a beautiful space only to
be greeted by an odd smell? Were you still able to admire the space or you're now on the lookout for the
source of that smell? Were you theorizing in your head what the
source might be? Stale food or gym clothes, perhaps a dead pet? Our sense of smell can
hijack our attention. This is why interior design isn't just what meets the eye, but it's also what
meets the nose. In today's class, I want to
talk about how our sense of smell can influence our
perception of interior design. Hi, my name is Ana Marcu. I'm a licensed architect
in Vienna, Austria. I have a double degree in Architecture and
Building Science and my passion is to create spaces
that make people happier, healthier, and more creative. In this class, you will learn
three important things. Number 1, how fragrances
impact your health, well-being, and performance. Number 2, how brands
use fragrances to enhance your retail
experience with the brand. Number 3, how you can use ambient fragrances
to increase your well-being or the experience of your customers
with your brand. This class is designed
for people who have relatively small
spaces and by that I mean a home with a
couple of rooms, a dentist's waiting
area, a shop. If on the other hand
you have an office with 50 employees or big
hotels with 100 rooms, then this class is
probably going to be just an introduction
for you and you'll definitely need more in-depth support from professionals in order to truly create a great experience for your
customers and employees. At the end of the class, you'll have the
class project where you can answer 10
questions that will help guide you implement scenting properly in a space
of your choosing, so let's start the
class. [LAUGHTER] Let's start the class. The class. [LAUGHTER]
2. The Biology of Scent: In this lesson, I
want to talk about how our sense of
smell affects us throughout our entire
life from when we are conceived all the way to
when we are old and gray. You might think that we
start learning about others when we are little but actually we start
learning about them before birth in our
mother's wombs. There compounds from the
mother's diet get incorporated into the amniotic fluid and
are ingested by the fetus. In studies where
mothers were eating substances that were
particularly smelly like garlic, alcohol or cigarettes it was shown that their
infants prefer these sense too by comparison with infants who were not
exposed to these substances. These early learned preferences
also influence food and flavor preferences in
childhood, in early adulthood. When you chew molecules of
your food make their way to your nose which means
that everything that you consider flavorful
is actually sent. If you think back at
the meals you had when you had a cold
and your nose was stuffy you probably remember that they didn't have
much of a flavor. You can try this by
pinching your nose and eating something
particularly flavorful. You will soon realize
that the taste is only responsible for
the sensation of sweet, sour, salty, bitter and savory. The rest of the job
is done by smell. Once we are born our sense of smell is the first sense
that we use and we start to learn
about new sense by associating them with
new experiences. If the experience
was positive then we catalog the scent
is being positive. For example, when infants
experience cuddling in conjunction with incidental
odors like perfume, then perfume becomes associated with the wonderful experience of cuddling and is forever saved
in the memory as positive. This can also happen
with scents who are technically not positive like the scent of skunk or manure but because for
some people they evoke the memories of childhood in the countryside they can be
forever stored as positive. From birth to about
the age of 10 smell is our strongest sense and afterwards the sense
of sight takes over. An adult human being
can distinguish 10,000 different
smells and our bodies are constantly
generating [NOISE] new scent neurons
in order to make sure that our sense of smell is in perfect
working condition. Unlike our other senses
who are processed centrally our sense of smell travels from the olfactory bulb all the way to the
limbic system which is the part of our brain that is responsible for
memories and emotion. No other sense has
this deep access. The limbic system is one of
the oldest parts of our brain because these structures were found in the earliest mammals. Knowing this helps us
understand why scent plays such an important role in
memory, emotion, and mood. While it is certainly
possible to see an object or
hear a song that elicits certain memories we rarely have such a strong
emotional reaction, is when we encounter a scent. As we aged and our
health declines so does our sense of smell and usually the loss of smell
is an indication of major illnesses like
Parkinson or Alzheimer. Finally, one particular
aspect about our sense of smell is
that if we are exposed to an odor for longer
than 15 minutes we are unable to smell
it anymore and that's because our sense of
smell is designed to detect only the changes
in the smell landscape. Before you go I want
you to take away with you three major ideas
from this lesson. We'll learn about
sense by associating them with the experiences
that we make. If the experience was positive then the scent will
be associated as positive even if technically
it is not a positive scent. Our olfactory bulb is connected to parts of our brain
that are responsible for emotion and memory
which is why we have such strong reactions when
we encounter a new scent. Finally, after 15 minutes
of immersion with one scent most people
are unable to smell it.
3. From Emotion to Behaviour: If you can think about a bad smell that you
have encountered lately, try to relive a little
how that made you feel. Your body was in a higher
state of alertness, your face crunched,
your jaw tightened. Perhaps your hands went to
your nose trying to make sure that that smell doesn't
go anywhere near your eyes, your mouth, or your nose. Your physiology changes,
your heart rate picks up, your eyes blink faster, and even your skin
conductivity changes. Of course, your psychological
mood changes as well. In environments that smell bad, you become more irritable
and less patient, and you do everything you have
to do to get out of there. You, therefore, feel disturbed both physiologically
and psychologically. If we can recognize all these changes when
it comes to bad smells, then the opposite is true
when it comes to good smells. Smells that we like, make us feel good
and they put us in a psychological and
physiological good mood. When a positive
mood is achieved, this triggers all kinds of
positive reactions from us. We sleep better, our
stress is lower, we have a better cognitive
and physical performance, and even our
self-confidence is better. By now, I hope you understand that you have
a tool in your hand. You can help your body set
itself in a positive state of mind by smelling sense that
you particularly like, and what sense do you like? Besides the palette of pleasant smells that
everybody likes, there are also smells
that are particular to you that trigger
specific memories, and the stronger the memories, the stronger the
emotional reactions, and the stronger the
emotional reactions, the higher your preference
for that specific smell. Pick up the pellets of sense that mean something
to you and have them closely and smell them frequently in order to set
yourself in a good mood. Before you go, I'd
like you to take away four important
ideas from this lesson. Number 1, scent has the power
to impact how you feel, how you feel impacts your
psychology and physiology. Number 2, fragrances that
trigger positive memories are perceived more favorably because they trigger strong
emotional reactions. Knowing which scents triggered those positive memories and emotions for you will help you regulate your own
mood and emotions.
4. Scent and Culture: The US military tried to
create a stink bomb as part of the non-lethal, but
morale-damaging weapons. Their goal was to create the most terrible smell to unleash on the enemy
but found themselves unable to find such
a smell Because not all smells are unanimously
considered unpleasant. Even fecal odors are not
terrible for everyone, because in many
parts of the world, people smell them
on a regular basis. This happens also
with positive smells, and cultures can not concur on one smell that is
positive to everyone. For example,
marketers have found the word signifies
clean in South America, doesn't signify clean in Asia. In North America, and Europe, citrus smells are considered
bright and happy, but in Japan, this role is
attributed to Rose Water. In North America and Europe, lavender is considered calming, but in Japan, it is Jasmine that is associated
with a relaxed mood. You see there are some
major differences in the scent palette
of each culture. While there is no empirical
cross-cultural data showing any consensus
for any specific order, you do have to remember that the people within
a certain culture do share some common associations
with particular scent. Having some knowledge about
a specific culture can help you decide which
fragrances to pick, and which fragrances are
more likely to be considered more likable by a
specific group of people. Scientists have
found that even when two cultures share
the same language and so many traditions, they can still have different reactions
to the same scent. For example, a research was set up in France and Canada and the participants
were asked to rate their impression on
six different scent, maple, wintergreen,
rose, lavender, anise, and strawberry. The participants
were asked to rate their impressions
in two situation: First without knowing
what the scent is and then by knowing
what the scent is. One of the striking
results of this study was the participants from Canada rated wintergreen
as very positive, while the French participants
rated it as very negative. The reason seems to
be that in Canada, wintergreen is used
mostly in candy, while in France it
is used in medicine. The second notable result
was that when people were informed of the name of the
smell-producing substance, the cultural differences
disappear and the overall rating of the
substance was higher. This study reinforces the idea that our brain's processing of scent is not just a reaction
to chemical compounds, but it is also influenced by our previous experiences
with that scent, as well as our knowledge
about what that scent is. In the case of this experiment, the participants were informed
about what the smell is. But in reality, we perceive
smell in the context. We perceive smell together with information from
our other senses, like our hearing, and our
vision, and our taste. If you smell something weird and you see
a block of cheese, your reaction will
be different than if you see some wet
and dirty socks. We judge our reactions based on what's in
front of our eyes. While people within
one culture can share a communist associations with certain smells like
cinnamon and Christmas, ultimately, how you react
to a certain smell is very personal because of the
personal experiences you make with that smell. For example, most people like the scent of fresh-cut grass. But if you personally had an accident on a
freshly cut lawn, then your reaction to the scent
might not be as positive. This is why the same culture
does not bind people, the same emotional
reaction to all scent. To recap, there's not
one odor that makes everybody equally happy or
everybody equally unhappy. People belonging
to one culture may share common associations
with certain smells. Cultures who share
the same language and traditions may not share the
same preferences for smell. Even within the same culture, people's reactions
to a certain smell can be different due to the personal experiences
with that particular scent.
5. Work Performance and Office Experience: We learned that
scientists connected to emotions and our emotions
have the ability to change our psychology and physiology putting us in a
good mood or a bad mood. Being in a positive mood or a bad mood can lead to
all kinds of behaviors. Studies about the
impact of fragrances on mood and behavior have
revealed a couple of things. When people were exposed
to positive odors, they displayed pro
social behaviors and we're more willing
to help others, while bad odor is lowered their tolerance
for frustration. For example people
who are exposed to the smell of roasting
coffee or baking cookies were more likely to
help a stranger than people who are not
exposed to these scents. It was also demonstrated
that people working in pleasantly
scented rooms were better at creative
problem solving than people working in
unpleasant smelling rooms. People who work in
the presence of pleasant smelling air fresheners showed higher self-efficacy, set higher goals, and we're more likely to employ efficient work strategies than people who worked in
no odor conditions. What scent might be helpful? The fragrances of lemongrass,
peppermint, fight fatigue, and support mental clarity, helping the participants in one study make less
typing mistakes. Because the workplace is such
a highly stressful space, the use of fragrances that are stress busters are shown to improve mood and
overall well being. Researchers noticed that the
use of rosemary and laventer can significantly reduce the
cortisol stress hormone. The use of linalool loop, which is a substance
found in lemons, can also turn down the
fight or flight response. How might you use fragrances for your
office strategically? Here are a couple of things that you might want to consider. Because we get used to
scents after 15 minutes, you have to make sure that the exposure to the
scent is not constant. You can do this in two ways. Number 1 is you discontinue
the scenting of the space for longer
periods of time, that way, every time
you turn it on, people can still perceive it. Or number 2, if you have
a large office space, you want to focus on
scenting those areas where people do not find themselves
for long periods of time. These can be meeting rooms, focus rooms, copy rooms,
social meeting areas, the kitchen, the bathroom, anywhere where people don't sit for an entire day, every day. You might want to avoid the open plan
setting but focus on those spaces where people meet for shorter periods of
time every now and then. That way, every time they
come into that space, they can perceive the
fragrance brand new. A third idea that you
might want to consider, especially for large
spaces is the idea to create different types of
scents throughout the office. Much like nature, the office landscape also has to offer different simulations, both visually, acoustically,
and also scent wise. Having different scents
throughout the office can really stimulate the creativity and the overall well being
of the employees. An improved well-being leads to better work output and
employee retainment. Scents also have the ability
to neutralize bad odors so they can be used very effectively in
bathrooms and kitchens. But also if you think of those meeting rooms where
long meetings take place, things tend to get
smelly after awhile. Having a bit of scent
in those spaces can really help out
with the overall mood. If you use essential oils in
order to scent the rooms, these can also have
additional properties. Essential oils are known
to have antiviral, antifungal and
antibacterial properties that they can really
help keep germs at bay. They are particularly well used in places where a
lot of people meet. You also might want to
play some fragrances in the entryway area and in
the client meeting rooms. That way when the client enters your space
for the first time, they have an enhanced
perception of your brand. Finally, if you're
looking to understand fragrances in the context
of your home office, I would recommend
you to check out my class home office
interior design.
6. Physical Performance and Gym Experience: In this lesson, I would like
to talk about three things. One is how olfaction can hence
your physical performance. Two, how brands use fragrances to enhance
customer experience. Three, what you might
have to take into account if you want to use
fragrances for your gym, or exercise room, or for your yoga studio, whatever exercise
space you might have. There are a couple
of ideas that you might want to take into account. One of the ways
sends can enhance physical performance
is by helping athletes visualize moments in their
life where they felt in optimal physical and
psychological mood. For example,
Christopher burglar, a triple airmen champion
talks about in his book, The athlete's way, how
he used fragrances from his early childhood to set him in the right state
of mind to perform. For example, if you
wanted to re-create the feelings of
familiarity and safety, he would smell Plato
or silly putty, which she used to
play with as a child. If you wanted to
feel optimistic, and energized, and invigorated, he would smell the
colon that he was using when he was 17 and had
just started running. If he was running on a
treadmill in winter, and there are too
many gray days, one after the other, he would use the smell
of sunscreen to evoke summertime and the feelings
of joy and positivity. Professional athletes
consciously use olfaction to tap
into old memories, so they can recreate the mood, state of mind entirely
certain behavior. What sense might contribute
to enhanced performance? Besides the fragrances
that remind you of specific
moments in your life, there are also fragrances
that have been shown to contribute to improved
physical performance. Peppermint has been shown
to increase activation in the area of our brain that
wakes us up in the morning. In that exercises,
do more push-ups, and run faster when exposed
to the center of peppermint. How to sports brands
use fragrances? Sports companies
like Adidas and Nike have incorporated
fragrances in their brand. In order to enhance the consumer experience
with the brand, as well as diversify
their products. Adidas, for example, has launched a
fragrance collection both for men and for women, designed to increase
their desire, and ability to exercise, created in collaboration
with elite athletes. Each fragrance activates
a unique emotional center of the brain in order
to enhance performance. Nike on the other hand, has experimented with adding
fragrances to the store. One research
demonstrated that this increased intend to
purchase by 80%. Another research conducted in
the Nike store showed that an ambient fragrance
not only improve the consumers'
impression of the store, and the products, but
it increased also their desire to return
to the Nike store. Again, here I'd like to tell
a story that happened to me. It's probably the
first time I realized that fragrance actually played a role in my buying decision. I was looking for a gym, and I was looking at a couple of them may
be three or four. I remember they all
had similar amenities, they all had exercise rooms. They all have rooms for
bikes and for yoga. They all had all Jim gear, lockers, and possibility
to work out, are they so there wasn't much difference in terms
of what they offer, but all of them except one, had distinct smell of sweat
right at the front door. You might think it's a gym. What is it supposed
to smell like? I would have been okay
with this idea until I met a gym that now Malory
didn't smell like sweat, but it smelled like flowers. That really made a difference. We might be or might not be conscious about these decisions. But if you are on the other
side where you're trying to enhance the experience of your customers, of
your employees. Then you want to know all
the levers that you can pull in order to create
that incredible experience. What ideas might you have
to keep in mind when it comes to sending
an exercise space, if the story before it
was not good enough. I hope you can keep
in mind the idea that the entryway has to be a
very well smelling place, especially for customers who meet your brand for
the first time. The diffusing,
alluring aromas in the reception area can create a lasting
positive impression. Additionally, you want to
keep the sense subdued, and in the background, you want your customer
to keep finding that send not have an
adverse reaction to it, because you can't
get away from it. Just like in the
case of offices, fragrances have the ability to neutralize less pleasant smells. Using them in lockers
or bathrooms can really improve the quality of the experience that customers
have with your brand. If the sound comes
with essential oils, this may come back bacteria,
molds, and viruses. What fragrances might you
use for your exercise room? I wish this class would
come with the ability for me to give you guys
some fragrances to smell. I think this left the lessons will be so much
more interesting. Unfortunately, I
help only to expand your mind regarding
what fragrances can do. Next time you are in
a fragrance shop, you will look at them
a little differently. Here are some ideas of what fragrances you
might be able to use. That ultimately, I
would like you to make a thorough research into what
your customers might need. For example for a spot where, the mood is more relaxing, you might want to use
the sense of lavender, of Mandarin, Rosemarie. If you have a uterus studio
and you want to relieve tension and create relaxation, you might use the
fragrances of vanilla, of sandalwood, of stage, and Rosemarie, as well
as ginger and lavender. Refreshing blends orange and eucalyptus can help with
meditation and serenity. For a weightlifting area where you need those
juices flowing, you might want to use some
citrus nodes of orange, lime, lemon, and peppermint. For intense cardio
and spinning workout, you might want to combine
the citrus nodes, with fruits like mango, and pineapple, and
grapefruit melon. To create that energizing
refreshing mood.
7. Shopping and Retail Experience: When trying to create
the right ambiance, retail spaces have
plenty to consider in order to suit the goods and
services they are selling. Location, the core
employee uniforms, lighting, art, temperature, music, and increasingly
smell in order to create an immersive brand
experience for their customers. Since when done correctly, have the ability to make the customer feel
more comfortable, happier, more at ease, more likely to stay in the
store and spend money, as well as more
likely to return. The data has shown that
people stay as much as 44 percent longer in
businesses that smell good. Starting from 1995, examine if the presence
of fragrances had any effect on the
amount of money gambled in slot machines
in Las Vegas casino. They picked three slot
machine areas in the casino. Two of them were oduorised with different sense and one of
them remained unoduorised. Then they looked at
the gambling behavior of the people during
three weekends. The weekend before
the oduorisation, the weekend after
the oduorisation, and the weekend during
the oduorisation. They also compare the three
areas between each other. What they found is that
indeed one of the oduors did increase the amount of money
being gambled by 45 percent. In a study from 1996, it was shown that
customers evaluate a store much higher if there is a scent in the store
versus there is no scent. Another really
interesting study was looking at the idea
of feminine versus masculine scents
and how these may impact customers
behavior in a store. They found that
when they sprayed feminine scents like
vanilla in the store, female sales doubled
and similarly, male sale doubled when they spray the masculine
scent in the store. If you have a store and you want to use scenting
to attract customers, you have to make sure that
you use the scent that appeals to your customers,
most likely gender. If you have customers that
are more likely to be female, then you might go for
more female scents. What about strong scents? Do they work? Some
retailers like Abercrombie and Fitch and Lush
use very powerful, sometimes overpowering types
of scents for their stores. Abercrombie and Fitch happens so deliberately because their
market research showed that their target market is in tune to those
types of fragrances. While for Lush is more
the lack of packaging that makes the store
smell so strongly. Such strong smells can be a
specific brand attribute, but it can also turn customers away as strong smells have been proven to give all reactions to people from allergic reactions, headaches, and also vomiting. Food retailers are probably the ones we use
scent marketing In the most useful way
because their food already spreads its
aroma in the room, and good food is always
bound to attract customers. In order to make sure that the store sent is in
tune with the brand, some companies like
Starbucks have employed their own
aroma task force, which is there to make sure that all their coffee shops
only smell of coffee. They almost took a
tea sandwich after menu because it's aroma was mixing with the
aroma of the coffee, and they didn't want that. Other shops should have a scent, but don't like the M&M store in Leicester Square in London. These shops sells a
lot of chocolate, but because the chocolate
comes pre-packaged, there is no smell of chocolate. They added the artificial
smell of chocolate in the store in order to enhance
the customer experience. Cinnamon is also such a brand that strategically looks for store locations where the smell of cinnamon rose can
linger a little longer, like airports or
some way stations. The smell of baked
cinnamon rolls brings many childhood memories
and naturally, a lot of customers to the store. Triggering childhood memories of comfort and happiness is highly lucrative because happy
memories trigger happy, positive emotions and
we are more likely to choose products that triggers
such emotions in us. Before we end this lesson, I would like you
to take away with you four important ideas. The presence of scent
versus no sense increases the customer's overall subjective
impression of a store. Number 2, keep smells in
the background and subdued. Some people can have adverse
reactions to strong smells. Make sure to use feminine
scents if you cater to a female audience and masculine scents if you cater
to a masculine audience. Finally, familiar smells,
especially those of food that people can recognize
like coffee, chocolate, and cinnamon, can trigger positive emotional memories and make people more likely
to shop in the store.
8. Hotel Experience: Because of the tight
connection between scent, memory, and emotion, many brands have
started to develop their unique ambient fragrances in order to enhance the
customer experience. This is called scent marketing, or fragrance branding, and it is adding up to a
$200 million industry, popping up everywhere, but this is specifically
notable in high-end hotels. In order for fragrance
marketing to work positively, there needs to be a
positive experience associated with that fragrance. If somebody had a negative
experience in the hotel, then naturally that
negative experience will be associated
with the fragrance. This is why most budget hotels don't use this technology, and it is mostly used
by high-end hotels. Because the lobby is often the first impression the
customer has of the brand. Most hotels choose to enhance this impression by
engaging the sense of smell and then
continue to support this customer
experience throughout other public areas
of the hotels, like the corridors
or the elevators. Some hotels like the
[FOREIGN] in China, start with their fragrance
marketing before the lobby, already in front of the hotel, spraying the center
of apple pie, trying to bring back
the feelings of home, and care, and comfort,
in their guests. As soon as they enter the hotel, the scent changes to fresh-cut grass after a
submarine type of fragrance. Depending on the hotel, the changing of fragrances
may continue throughout the hotels in order to highlight
the different amenities. Also besides the brand, the mood of that
amenity needs to be taken into consideration,
for example, the spa area might incorporate
more relaxing fragrances, that harmonize
with the exercises being done in that space. Hotels and the retailers
also take advantage of the holidays in order to enhance the customer's
experience. For Christmas,
they might utilize the fragrance of
cinnamon and lavender, while around Valentine's Day, they might utilize Muscat in
order to charm their their. Often, high-end hotels will
have for their customers a series of scented products
with this brand scent, for customers to purchase
and take home with them. This can be toiletries, candles, bath soaps, room sprays, room diffusers, and
so many more things. By bringing the hotel
brands scent in your home, you will start to
associate the feelings of home and coziness with
their specific scent. Next time you are in the hotel, you will not feel
stressed as you do when you are in
a foreign place, but you will feel more
relaxed, and more at home. Before you leave this lesson, I'd like you to take away with
you three important ideas. First impression really matters, so adding fragrances to the lobby area can create a
great customer experience. You can differentiate
the fragrances around the hotel in order to create different moods and enhance customer experience. Having a brand
scent to products, can expand the range
of the fragrance, as well as enhance the familiarity of the
customer with the brand.
9. Healing and Hospital Experience: When we talk about healing
through fragrances, we have to talk
about aromatherapy. Aromatherapy is a holistic
healing treatment using plant extracts like essential oils in order to promote
health and well-being. The research in effectiveness of the therapeutic use of essential oils is
relatively limited. Here are a couple of
things that we do know. A range of essential
oils have been found to reduce airborne bacteria,
viruses, and molds. Essential oils have also been
found to relieve stress, help people relax,
and improve sleep. Both relaxation and
better sleep have been proven to reduce inflammation
and fight disease. For example, the scent of jasmine has been proven
to contribute to a restful night sleep and improved alertness
the following day. Additionally, lavender and
rosemary have also been proven to reduce cortisol
and improve relaxation. The sense of smell can
also be deployed to improve pain tolerance
in hospitals. Any pleasant smell can act as a distraction
and lift the mood, but recent studies suggest that sweet smells like
vanilla may work best. Sweet tastes can reduce pain by activating the opioid
systems in the brain, and their orders can
activate the same systems. In general, patients with
chronic conditions and dementia have also remarked
and improve quality of life. Because of the
intimate connection between our emotions
and the sense of smell, it is not surprising
that a glitch in one of them can
affect the other. For example, a disease, anosmia, which is a complete
loss of sense of smell, often leads to depression. Conversely, people who have depression often show a
diminished sense of smell. The aromatherapy
has been proven to relieve both anxiety
and depression. I have one more
study for you guys, and I have to say this is one of the studies that probably
surprised me the most, but also note it is
very controversial, but it seems to be quite real. It appears that not just the
odors can affect our health, but when we believe
them to be and to do for our health can also
impact our health. Our perception of an odor
can affect your health. Can you imagine this? Let me show you what
the study says. The researchers presented
a synthetic odor to asthmatics who typically report strong reactions to aromas. They told half the patients that this synthetic aroma can
reduce their asthma symptoms, and the other half,
they told that the asthma symptoms can be worsened with this
synthetic aroma. What the volunteers
smelled isn't anything harmful
to the human body. The smell of
rode-like fragrance, harmless even in
high concentrations. The people who believed that the substance was
potentially dangerous did report more asthma
symptoms after sniffing it. But what is surprising is that it wasn't all
in their head; people who expected the worst, the experience
lung inflammation, and this was persistent
even after 24 hours. Those who believed
that the odor was beneficial didn't
experience any symptoms. In conclusion, it's not just odors that can
influence our health, but also our expectations of them could influence our health. Isn't that just fascinating? Hospitals who are notorious for their distinct chemical smells
of cleaning detergents and antiseptics are also
looking into using fragrances to relieve pain
and improve relaxation, both in their patients
and their staff. Since 2010, the Vanderbilt
Medical University Center in Tennessee has been using the ambient fragrances
of vanilla and lavender, which resulted in patients who are calmer and in
better spirits. The essential oils have
helped remove foul odors to reduce claustrophobia
in the MRI machines, and they have seen an overall
63% reduction in stress. The Florida hospital in the
city of Celebration has observed a decrease in number of patients
who needed sedation, as well as a 50% reduction
in cancellations. Calming scents have
been proven to relieve anxiety in patients pre-surgery, as well as in those who needed dental procedures and
in blood clinics. Before you go, I want to
teach you a trick of how to deliver relaxation on
command to your body. Are you ready? Here we go. Remember that we
said that our sense of smell is the key to memories and the
positive feelings that are attached to them. You can pick a distinctive
odor and pair it with a session of
relaxing meditation. After a few sessions, you won't need the
meditation anymore, the scent itself is
going to do the job. Isn't that great? [LAUGHTER] You can
train your mind to associate a specific scent
with a specific feeling so every time you have to
relax your mind and your body and you can't sit
for a session of meditation, you can just smell
that specific scent and you will be automatically transported to
that calming sense of well-being state of mind. I think that's incredible. Before we end this lesson, I would like you
to take away with you a couple of big ideas. Number one is that aromatherapy
can relieve stress, improve sleep, and relaxation. Specifically, sweet smells
can help relieve pain. Loss of smell can be a
sign of a health problem. You can have relaxation
on command by pairing a fragrance of your choosing
with a meditation session. After a few sessions, the odor alone is going to deliver on that
relaxed state of mind.
10. Home: Ancient Egyptian and
Chinese societies were among the first
to incorporate sense in everything from burials to sacrificial
offerings, medicinal purposes, and of course, freshening
indoor spaces. But the use of fragrances specifically for whole
fresh new purposes, really took off in Europe
in the 17th century, during the reign of
Louis XV of France, who is afraid of water
and was convinced that water was able
to spread disease. Apparently he only took
three baths in his life. You can imagine what somebody
who hasn't bathed in a decade's could smell like or
[LAUGHTER] maybe you don't. In order to cover the stench, the perfume industry
really took off. Throughout the entire palace, there were bowls filled with flower petals and perfume
was preyed on the furniture. Apparently, Louis also demanded a different fragrance
per his apartment every day and beside the court where he was at was called
the Fragrant court. I cannot imagine
what the human stank mixed with perfume must
have smelled like. But this is where
the perfume and the Indian fragrance
industry started in Europe. When it comes to choosing
a fragrance for your home, you have to remember that we get used to smells fairly quickly. So you either have one
fragrance for the entire house, but this one fragrance gets
changed fairly frequently. Or you have little sources of scent spread around the house that radiate in a
very small perimeter and only when you get close
to them, you can smell them. But otherwise you don't. Additionally to that,
you can also make this little sources of scent
relatively different from each other throughout your
home so you can create a scented landscape and offer yourself little surprises
throughout your house. You have to watch out not
to overscent your home. As we talked in
the other lessons, really strong scent can provoke adverse reactions like
headaches, allergies, vomiting. The list can be long. So make sure that you keep the sense subdued
in the background. I'm not a biologist
nor I'm I a doctor. But if you choose
fragrances for your home, make sure that they come
from natural sources. We're already bombarded by
chemicals all over the place. So your home should be
an oasis of relief, a place to rebalance
your mind and your spirit and
reconnect with nature. Here are some ideas of how you can make your home
more fragrant. For sure there are more
solutions out there. Consider this lesson just a
platform for you to start digging a little
deeper for things that are more
appropriate to you. Number one, potpourri
is similar in part of fresh ingredients like Rosemarie
and lemon on the stove, making your kitchen and
your home smell amazing. You can use drawers sachet. These are particularly
popular in the countryside. If you ever go to the
South of France in Europe, you'll find miles and
miles of lavender fields. In the markets you can buy this little lavender fields sachet. They make your
clothes smell amazing and they are great
moth repellents. Some of the most
common solutions are the fragrance diffusers. These use capillary action to release the
fragrance in the air. There are also fragrance
vaporizers that release tiny water particles
and ionized scent into the air and are typically
powered by electricity. You can use scented candles. You can use linen
and pillows sprays. You can use air sprays
and air fresheners. The list is long. There are many ways
in which you can make your home more fragrant, and it really depends on
your preferences and budget. By now you must be
wondering what kind of fragrances you can
choose for your home. I'm here to give you a small
guide of where to start. But ultimately only you can decide what makes you
feel one way or another. Uplifting scent could be
refreshing green sense, like cucumber,
peppermint, Faisal, eucalyptus, and
freshly cut grass. We can also add here tangy citrus fruits,
like grape fruit, lemon and orange,
which are known to alleviate fatigue and
enhance alertness. Relaxation and stress reducing fragrances can be those
of lavender, rose, orange blossom and jasmine, who are said to be very
good at diffusing anger and tension and reducing the stress hormones
in the blood. Sleeping encouraging scent
are lavender and chamomile, who are also known to
help cure insomnia. If you're looking for a scent
to sharpen the brainpower, it looks like
cinnamon is very good at improving cognitive
performance, particularly memory and
visual motor responses. If you're looking for some
romance evoking sense, look no further than jasmine, narrowly, sandalwood,
and vanilla, which are very good at enhancing
a couple's connection. Before you go, I'd
like to leave you with three main ideas that we
talked about in this lesson. Choose natural
scents like plants, dried herbs and essential
oils over chemicals. Because we get used
to fragrances, you want to change the fragrances fairly
often in your home. Or the second technique
is just reduce the radius in which they can
be smelled around the house, as well as diversify
them a little bit. That's why you give your senses small surprises every day. Finally, number three, think about the mood
you want to achieve in your home or in that space. Is it energized or is
it chilled and relaxed? Then choose fragrances that
support that specific mood.
11. Class Project: For the class project, I want you to think about
the space you want to use fragrances on and start thinking about how to
go about implementing it by answering the
following questions. What kind of space do you have and who are you scenting for? Is it your office? Is it your home? Who else is coming in
contact with the scent? Employees? Customers? What kind of mood are you
trying to achieve? What fragrances may speak
best about your brand values? Here, you might want
to employ the services of a perfumist or a
fragrance branding company. Does the fragrance support the interior design
of the space? Would it meet customer
expectations? Could you use scents to mark important holidays like using
cinnamon for Christmas? If you have a food store, what food scent from
your store could you enhance to attract
more customers? Is it coffee, is it chocolate? Where is the customer most likely to appreciate the scent? Is it in front of the store, is it at the entry in the store or is it
the meeting room? Think about the ways
people walk into your space and the places where they are most
likely to stop. How might you enhance
their experience there? Would your space
benefit from one scent, like Starbucks for multiple
scents like a luxury hotel? If you have more than one room, how might you create
different moods? You want to make
sure you involve whoever will be impacted the most by the scent to be a part of choosing
the right scent. If it is your office, you might want to
invite your employees. If it's a doctor's waiting room, you might want to ask
a group of patients, or if it's just you, fantastic. Find the scents that
speaks to you the most, revive the brightest memories and put you in the
greatest mood.
12. Final Thoughts: Congratulations, you have made it to the end of the class. I hope you learn some new things and already feel
inspired to apply them. If you wish to expand
your knowledge even further on this topic. I encourage you to go to my
Skillshare teacher profile. There you will find
them more classes on complimentary topics which I
have no doubt you will love. If you're craving even more, I highly recommend that you explore the wealth of
resources available on my website and we think the attached bonus
resources PDF. There you discover more classes, books suggestions, and free
complimentary worksheets. Particularly the
worksheets will help you deepen your understanding
of the topics discussed in the class and identify
the changes that will have the biggest impact
on your personal well being. If you're interested in more
freebies or live classes, I encourage you to sign
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inbox all tailored to promote a home that will
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and I'll let you know about upcoming classes. If you liked this class, I would appreciate the review. It tells Skillshare that
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questions about the class. I'll be happy to help you clarify any concept
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in-depth support to encourage you to share your
home design progress with me. We are at the end. See you in the next class.
Ana Marcu, Home Wellbeing, Licensed architect
