The Psychology of Scent Discover how scent is tied to emotion and memory, and ways to incorporate scent psychology into candle making.

When was the last time you smelled something that triggered a memory? Whether it was a perfume that all of a sudden reminded you of someone you haven’t thought of in years or the smell of fresh cut grass that took you back to a childhood day—olfaction, or our sense of smell, is more directly connected to our emotion and memory centers than any other senses. 

In this article, we’ll look into the science behind scent psychology, explore how different scents are tied to common emotions and memories, and share ideas on how to incorporate scent psychology into your candle collection or business.

To understand why the sense of smell tends to be more emotional than our other senses, it’s helpful to know how the other senses are processed. 

The thalamus is the part of the brain that relays incoming sensory information to the appropriate processing centers. Vision, hearing, taste, and touch stimuli all pass through the thalamus before reaching the amygdala and hippocampus. 

But scent information doesn’t need to pass through the thalamus. Instead, it travels directly to the olfactory bulb, a smell-analyzing region of the brain that’s connected to the amygdala and hippocampus. The amygdala processes emotions and the hippocampus creates and retrieves memories. When the hippocampus deems a smell important, it files that emotional memory—and the scent it’s connected to—and can store it indefinitely. 

The connection of the olfactory bulb, amygdala, and hippocampus explains why certain scents can instantly trigger a strong emotional response or transport you to a specific memory. 

Emotional memories linked to scent are known as odor-evoked autobiographical memories, or OEAMs. Often originating from early life before age 10, OEAMs tend to be accompanied by a sense of being brought back in time. 

When we smell a nostalgic scent, we might notice that we're flooded with the emotion it was once connected to before we can recall the specific memory that triggered the emotion. This explains why it feels so natural to describe certain scents using emotional language like happy, refreshing, or comforting.

The scent of a baked good may trigger feelings of contentment and happiness, all before realizing that those feelings are connected to positive moments from childhood, like birthday celebrations or holiday gatherings adorned with baked goods.

And while certain scents may evoke universal feelings, scent is also deeply personal. Each person’s unique experiences shape how they respond to different smells. Marcel Proust, a celebrated French author, explored the phenomenon of OEAMs in his seven-part novel "In Search of Lost Time (À la recherche du temps perdu)," when the taste and smell of a madeleine dipped in tea transports the narrator back to vivid memories of his childhood.

Proust’s exploration of this phenomenon inspired much of the scientific exploration of OEAMs; it was so influential that the term “Proustian memory” or “Proust effect” is often used synonymously. 

The Proust phenomenon also underscores just how personal everyone's experience of scent is. While Proust’s character experienced an OEAM linked to the scent of madeleines dipped in tea, another person smelling the same tea-soaked treat would likely recall different emotional memories, or perhaps none at all.

Our scent associations are formed by the memories our brains have attached to specific smells. For example, if you always smelled lavender at bedtime as a child, you might associate it with calmness and relaxation. On the other hand, if lavender wasn’t a part of your regular bedtime routine as a child but was used at your childhood friend’s home, it could trigger memories of that friend or being at their house. 

Scent has a powerful impact on how we feel and what we remember. By understanding how our brains process scent, we can better harness its emotional power in our daily lives—whether that looks like creating a comforting space, evoking cherished memories, or making candles and home fragrance products that provide a positive emotional effect.