You catch a scent.
And in an instant you are years in the past.
A house from your childhood.
Soil soaked after the rain.
Flowers opening in a garden.
A summer evening.
An old book.
Scents have a strange power.
Sometimes they can recall, in a single moment, more than an image could ever tell.
The Quiet Language of Memory
People do not perceive their surroundings by sight and sound alone.
Scent is one of the ways we make sense of the world too.
When we meet a scent we do not only recognise it; sometimes an emotion, a place or a memory appears in our mind along with it.
That is why scents can become one of the strongest parts of our personal memory.
A scent does not mean the same thing to everyone.
A scent that recalls one person’s childhood may evoke only a garden for someone else.
Because the memory of scent is personal.
The Scent of Plants
In the world of plants, scent is not merely a pleasant quality.
A plant’s distinctive scent is part of its character in nature.
The distinctive scent of the rose.
The sharp, aromatic character of rosemary.
The calming association of lavender.
The fresh feeling of citrus.
Each forms a different sensory world.
Throughout history people noticed these scents, kept them and used them in different areas of daily life.
Scent and Culture
Scents have a cultural memory as well.
Some scents recall particular geographies.
The rose may evoke a garden for some; a holiday or an old house for others.
Rosemary may bring the Mediterranean to mind.
Citrus, the summer season.
And the smell of soil, a moment after the rain.
The meaning of scents is hidden not only in their molecules, but in the stories we attach to them.
A Scent Can Change a Space
It is not only its architecture that gives a space its character.
Light.
Sound.
Texture.
And scent.
When we enter a room, it can be possible to sense how it feels before seeing anything at all.
That is why scent is a means of creating atmosphere beyond care and personal life.
It is one of the small details that make a place memorable.
Scent and Care
Scent is an important element of experience in the relationship we build with care products too.
While using a product we perceive not only its texture but its scent.
Over time, that scent can become identified with a particular care ritual.
The scent of a product we use in the morning can turn into the feeling of starting the day.
A care product we use in the evening can recall the closing of the day.
Care thus ceases to be a purely physical application.
It becomes a sensory experience.
Remembering
Sometimes a scent we have not caught for years takes us back in a single instant.
This is because scent is not only a sensory perception.
The people, places, seasons and emotions that accompanied that scent can sit in our memory alongside it.
Perhaps that is why some scents are hard to forget.
Because in truth we do not only remember the scent.
We remember the moment we lived with it.
Scent in Doroo’s World
For Doroo, nature is not only a visible landscape.
Nature has a scent.
A texture.
A rhythm.
A season.
And a memory.
Working with botanical sources also means being in contact with a part of this sensory world.
We believe in rediscovering this diversity that nature offers within the modern world of care.
A Note from Doroo
Perhaps the reason some scents are so powerful is that they take us somewhere.
To a season.
To a person.
To a home.
To a time.
That is why some scents are not merely beautiful.
They are remembered.
And sometimes the most beautiful thing about a scent is what it recalls for us.
Doroo Journal
To explore the stories of nature.
