Scent and Memory: Episode 3
Written by Rowen Holder
Scent and Memory – Episode 3: Christian Ellis
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, Colleen 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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The sleepover.
Forest Hills, New York
The night’s activities move to the bathroom, specifically to the fragrance collection residing in the medicine cabinet. Christian and his friends carefully remove caps from bottles and bring the atomizers to their noses, trying to catch a whiff of the fragrances trapped within the glass. They try to keep their chatter to a minimum, hoping they won’t be caught by a parental unit.
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Christian Ellis, the area manager of the New York locations of Olfactory NYC, has been a lover of fragrance since a young age. He explains that even memories of his father, Andre, are entangled with fragrance.
Christian first remembers enjoying fragrances at six-years-old as he watched his father prepare for a day in the New York City finance world.
“He always took pride in how he smelled because he always wanted to make sure he left a lasting impression as he walked through the office,” he says.
A young Christian was marveled by the transformative power scent had on his father’s confidence.
“He put on a persona every time he wore a different fragrance, and I could see the confidence he would exude when he wore one of his favorite fragrances,” he continues.
During his younger days in Forest Hills, Christian and his friends saw fragrance as a way to imitate their fathers. Often, they would sneakily examine the fragrance collections of their fathers’ during sleepovers.
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Father’s Day 2022.
355 Bleecker Street
Christian walked into Olfactory NYC for the first time during the summer of 2022.
During this first experience with the brand, he created a scent based off the core scent Hunter (containing ambrette, cedarwood, and vanilla) with added elements of incense and cedarwood.
“These notes were always something I had been attracted to,” he says. “But, smelling this blend for the first time, especially on Father’s Day, brought me back to my childhood.”
After his first experience with the brand, Christian went down a self-described rabbit hole.
“The notes that I smelled—I wanted to find more and have more of that connection that I found with my custom scent.”
Despite visiting a variety of fragrance brands and searching for similar experiences, Christian could not find anything like the one he had at Olfactory NYC.
Then, in the fall of 2023, Christain saw that there was an opportunity for him to join the brand’s team, and he was brought on as the General Manager of the flagship location on Bleecker Street.
Now, every time he sees the blend he created on his first visit selected by another customer, Christian is able to watch someone else enjoy a scent that takes him to cherished moments with his father and childhood friends.
Follow us on TikTok or Instagram to hear more about this scent memory.
Comment and share your own scent memories @olfactorynyc.