Scent and Memory: Episode 1
Written by Rowen Holder
Scent and Memory: Episode 1 (Jackson Wildes)
Have you ever opened up an old box of clothing from the attic and been taken to another time and place?
This startling—yet beautiful—experience is explainable by science.
In an article released from The Harvard Gazette, Collen Wash explains:
“Smells are handled by the olfactory bulb, the structure in the front of the brain that sends information to the other areas of the body’s central command for further processing. Odors take a direct route to the limbic system, including the amygdala and the hippocampus, the regions related to emotion and memory.”
Yet, despite this phenomenon being a result of brain chemistry, the emotional charge that smells can provide humans is undeniably an act that transcends mere science—smells can act as a scrapbook for past moments in our lives.
In this video and blog series, Olfactory NYC seeks to gather the memories of our team and create a scrapbook of our own memories, demonstrating that fragrance is far more than a cosmetic purchase—it’s a vessel of memory, weaving invisible threads that bind the scent community in shared experiences.
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Gigi’s backyard.
Rockingham, North Carolina
Gigi—also known as Ginny—spent her whole life living in the middle of nowhere North Carolina. Her grandson Jackson, a scentologist with Olfactory for six months, remembers her backyard every time he smells core scent Blake (with notes of gardenia, lotus, and coconut) with the added accord of magnolia and orange flower.
“The funny thing is I can’t tell you for sure if there are gardenia, lotus, or orange flowers,” he said. “But, for some reason, the combo is her backyard.”
When he smells the fragrance blend, Jackson imagines stepping off the back porch of the family home of forty years and into the backyard, which was carefully groomed by Gigi. She insisted on natural cultivation and only aided the growth of the space by adding a few flower bushes. Gigi particularly encouraged the growth of hydrangeas and lavender plants.
“My grandmother was a saint,” Jackson adds.
For Jackson, this scent is not only a reminder of this space—rather it is the only way that Jackson is able to access this smell.
After Gigi’s death in 2015, her home became inaccessible to Jackson. Now, with her flowers tattooed on his arm and a white paper blotter in hand, Jackson has few ways of transporting to this plantspace.
“I don’t have any assurance that I will ever be in that spot ever again,” he said. “So to have a scent that reminds me of her is also quite profound because she was my best friend until she died—she was one of my favorite human beings to ever walk the earth.”
The blend that Jackson discovered at Olfactory NYC acts as a sensory echo of Gigi, a woman who shaped his life and turned him into the beautiful person that he is today.
“I don’t have a scent that smells like her, but I do have a scent that reminds me of the world that she created,” Jackson finishes.
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Comment and share your own scent memories @olfactorynyc.