Why Is Buying Perfume So Difficult?

Headed to buy a perfume for a loved one? We would advise that you reconsidered the choice of gift. While it still remains a mystery for us that why buying scents for someone else remains the toughest job on earth, scientists have unravelled the thread. But sadly, that doesn’t make perfume shopping at India’s best shopping malls any easier. However, it still is some intriguing piece of news.

Do you think you know how cheese smells? Or Smoke? We are sure you can discern one from the other even in your dream. True you can. But did you know, your sense of smell would be all boggled up if either your nose or brain were to be swiped with someone else. You might easily take shit for face powder if blindfolded!

Fortunately, some hypothetical questions are absurd enough to be laughed at, but the answer nonetheless remains the same. Scientists have discovered that every individual experiences odour quite differently. A paper published in Nature Neuroscience journal reveals that every individual has a unique map of smell receptors each one of which functions differently. On an average, almost 30% of smell receptors differ between any two people. This can make quite a difference in how one person perceives a smell from the other, considering every single receptor picks up scent in its own unique way.

Talking numbers, the human nose contains almost 400 different olfactory receptors, and scientists found that changing any one could bring dramatic difference in the smell. Now think 30%. So, this difference is clearly not just perceptive but substantial.

This kills the claim that there remain any sense of good or foul smell so how do you know the expensive little thing you picked up at the best perfume shops in Delhi doesn’t smell like rotten tomatoes to others.

Well if this may add some relief, any perfume freak would know that most scents are developed as undercurrents of some familiar flavours. For instance, if you have a fetish for woody scents, it will still smell like wood to others, though how they take wood is quite another matter. But anyway you will still lie in safe zone that majority will be able to connect to your choice if not appreciate it.

Hope that’s some good news! :-)