In our post-pandemic world, we have seen that people are seeking experiences, they are hungry to learn and they want to escape their daily life. The noticeable surge in travel, and even the phenomenon of “revenge travel” (that desire to splurge on exotic trips, luxury vacations and wellness retreats to compensate for living under lockdown) has spawned the quest for a greater adventure when leaving home. Now, the expression, “Stop and smell the roses” takes on multiple meanings with the rise in olfactory travel, a trend that brings together touring with smell to delve into history, art and culture. Come explore the options which range from the luxe to the low-key.

OLFACTORY ESCAPES

In the never-ending effort to propose new and exciting options to guests, the hotel industry has jumped on the trend by offering scent packages with room nights. Take for example the Balmoral hotel in Scotland which offers a Scent Butler package to guests staying in the luxurious Bowes Lyon suite. Imogen Russon-Taylor, founder of artisan fragrance brand Kingdom Scotland, brings the smells, the magic and the lore of Scotland to the client in a bespoke masterclass. Think of it as fragrant room service!

Japan was ahead of the game several years ago when their environment ministry identified 100 aromatic sites around the nation. From the smell of linden trees lining the road to the Matsumoto castle, to the smell of sulfurous hot springs, seaweed shops and used bookstores, there’s something to intrigue everyone.

In the mood for something more hands on? How about taking a trip to the source to visit plantations and meet with growers who produce some of the finest raw materials? Sensaba, the brainchild of perfumer Stephanie Bakouche, proposes just such adventures to a growing audience. Accompanied by perfumers and industry experts, travelers go on a voyage of cultural immersion, an opportunity to meet the people behind the ingredients, to understand the process, the ecological implications, all while diving deep into the traditions and values of the host country. Among the list of locations to discover we find Madagascar, Oman, Indonesia, or India….and the list goes on.

AN IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE AT MAS FLAQUER

Far from the bustle of cities, in a wild and rugged corner of Costa Brava, Spain, we come to Mas Flaquer, a traditional Catalan farm. Here, in this idyllic hideaway, the traveler comes for a unique multi-sensory experience that encompasses the world of man and nature as well as the cosmos while learning about perfume and perfumery. It’s an opportunity to walk through fields, to feel the soil, to gather and distill botanical plants, to gaze at the stars, to connect with nature at the source in an environment that encourages reflection, peace and balance. Slow down, observe, and be in the moment.

Ernesto Collado, creator of Bravanariz*, found a kindred spirit in Marina Barcenilla, an independent perfumer, fragrance educator, as well as a bio astronomist. “Marina and I met about 6 years ago when we were both on the jury for an international fragrance competition. I was fascinated by her knowledge. When she talks about the smell of the universe it’s endless, incredible! She has direct access to things robots have extracted on Mars, so she has synthesized many ingredients that no one can work with. We are a great pair because she can teach the technical side and I can talk about nature. So the idea was to create the workshop we would love to have found when we were students.”

Ernesto told me more about the objective of the retreat. “Before creating new fascinating smells it’s important that people understand how we smell, how nature smells, why we smell the way we do, how we relate with others, and I mean any being whether animals, humans, or even rocks! It’s why it’s so important that people get in touch with all the senses during our retreat. Learn something you can take back to your daily life that can improve your life. People will learn how smell connects us powerfully with the environment, with the moment, with others, with ourselves. Mas Flaquer is the place to experience and understand that through a practical experience.“ In addition, there are two chefs cooking up delicious, healthy food and a specialist in movement and mindfulness.

How did you find Mas Flaquer, I asked. “Mas Flaquer had been on my mind for a long time. I was already wild harvesting immortelle on this farm, I had a great relationship with the former owner. I was in love with this farm. The owner decided to sell but the price was out of my range, but it was my dream. One day, he told me ‘Everyone who is looking at the farm wants to convert it into a luxury hotel and I don’t want that. Let’s make a deal.’ And two years later he accepted my offer because he loved my idea of what I wanted to do with the farm. “

Just as with Bravanariz, which has very specific standards to respect nature, Mas Flaquer is a regenerative agricultural farm which produces organic olive oil, eco-labeled fruits and almonds plus there is organic bee keeping. Ernesto told me ”I feel it’s my goal to improve the soil, this piece of earth, the air that I have been given! At the farm, the shampoo and the gel is 100% natural, we don’t use chemicals in our products. We have a recycling system that we ask our guests to follow where everything is separated and we invite people to participate in the compost system - we even can train them on how to do it. We recycle all the water that falls onto the roofs, we filter vegetally, we produce our own electricity with solar panels, we don’t have tractors, we have animals who help us from the sheep to the chickens. Respect for nature is everywhere and in everything we do!!”

Sounds like the kind of experience where you’ll feel like you’ve been gone for a month after three days. For those interested in a path to well-being, to self-knowledge, to reflecting inward while in a beautiful place with like-minded people, and to being immersed in the secrets of natural perfumery, a unique experience awaits.

WALK ON (PERFUMED) AIR

Should your travels take you to London, you’ll want to connect with Olga Petrouchenko of Perfumedaze. Olga’s love for fragrance was triggered at an event organized by the Perfume Society, and she’s been attending events ever since. After meeting a woman who shared childhood memories of Soviet perfumes (now, there’s a topic for another article!) she started doing research into perfumery, and the gates opened to a new world. Flashforward to today, and not only does Olga give talks on British and Russian perfume history, but she also takes groups on Perfume Walking Tours.

I asked Olga to tell me how the walks came about. “I started to look at the map of London to see what fragrance shops we have and then I would go out walking, starting with Penhaligon’s in Covent Garden and I’d go from shop to shop to test things. But I knew no one would walk for 6 hours like me, so I divided it into two walks: Mayfair, which is very glamourous and then Covent Garden where I talk about the collaboration between the French and the English. Don’t forget, the French Revolution brought many French perfumers to London. We talk about that.”

During the walks Olga regales her group with stories about perfume history, trivia and about the fragrance habits of key personalities such as Beau Brummel, as well as English royalty. “Take Atkinsons’ for instance. The boutique is gone but Atkinsons is now available online and in some department stores. We still have the building, and I always have a bottle of the fragrance to show when I tell the story. There’s a connection between English and Russian royalty because Queen Victoria was the grandmother of the last Tsarina of Russia. She gave Tsarina Alexandra fragrance from Atkinsons (White Rose). There are very few vintage bottles left but I know we still have some from this period in the Tsarskoe Selo museum in Russia.”

I asked Olga what is included in the price of the ticket. “We visit legendary perfume shops such as Floris, luxurious boutiques like Jovoy and Roja Dove, and contemporary niche players like Ormonde Jayne and Perfumer H. All the shops we visit offer something, a treat, could be prosecco and chocolates, or a discount for the participants. Sometimes English indie brands and shops provide samples. Our partner, Accolade Parfums, provide a goody bag of samples from the brands they distribute, as well as a discount code for use online.”

Aside from Mayfair and Covent Garden, I wondered if Olga had anything else in the pipe. “Once you start doing things, people find you and opportunities come. At the end of June I was commissioned by Electimuss to create a walk around London focused on the scents of ancient Rome along with the Roman ruins that are found here. It’s so obvious, this connection now, but 5 years ago I couldn’t even have imagined this! I was also commissioned to do an olfactory portrait of Barnes, a district in South London. It was so fun to research the smells of a place: the forest, the cemetery, a bookshop, a record store, the Olympic recording studios, where Freddie Mercury recorded, are here, so I talked about the fragrance he wore. I talked about gourmand scents at a bakery and for each location I paired a fragrance that complimented the place. It’s more of an adventure than work!”

Sign us up for the next tour!

And speaking of the smells of a place….this is a perfect segue to our next olfactory exploration.

SMELLSCAPES: MAPPING THE SCENT OF THE CITY

Now let’s look at a very intimate way of getting to know a city – through smell.

While working on her masters’ in graphic design at the Edinburgh College of Art, Dr Kate McLean came up with the brilliant idea of adding scent to the mix along with cartography, resulting in the mapping of urban smellscapes. We had a zoom call during which she told me: “I wanted to try to bring the senses back into design, to say there’s more to it than the digital. I created a tactile map of Edinburgh using verbal descriptions of different neighborhoods, but then when I had gotten to the end of the road with tactile I decided to switch to the sense of smell.”

Smellscaping is the fruit of getting out and literally following your nose to identify and chart the smells where they occur. Dr McLean often recruits locals who know the city and can suggest certain times of the week or month when certain smells are in the air. She even refers to the smells in a type of urban scent structure – not a pyramid – because the smells of a city change throughout the day. The base notes are the long lasting ones, then there are the episodic smells which occur at a certain time of day, and finally there are the curiosity smells – the interesting and unique ones that give a city it’s unique character. Once collected all the information is used to create a smellmap. “So that’s where the graphic designer part of me comes into being, I can say, oh that’s really interesting, there’s a good story in that and visual language comes from the cartography of the places.”

I wondered, what can we learn about a city based on its smells? Dr McLean’s answer fascinated me.

“That’s a loaded question! In a literal sense, it tells us what’s cooking, whether we’re living largely indoors or outdoors, it tells us what’s growing. It can tell us about human behaviors and how they’ve changed – think about smoking. It tells us about car usage, industrialization and what we’re willing to accept, about poverty and wealth. The West End of European cities is largely the wealthy neighborhood due to the direction of the prevailing winds; when factories and industries were in the center of the city, the wealthy didn’t want the smell of their industries invading their personal and private lives. In turn, this meant the working population tended to live in the East End downwind of the noxious odours. Smells tell us culturally where we’ve come from and inform us about legislation we’ve put into place, about what we’re able and willing to change.”

If you can’t get away this summer, why not have an olfactory staycation!!! Be inspired by Dr McLean’s work and download her SmellfieKit available here.

https://sensorymaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Smellfie_Kit_2020_compressed.pdf

Walk through your own city starting with your neighborhood and notice: what do you smell in the morning? How is it different in the evening? What is pleasant and comforting as opposed to pungent, medicinal or even noxious? What a fun activity to do with kids that is educational, can get them outside, and can get them to engage with their sense of smell!

Her advice to finding the olfactory thumbprint of your hometown?

In this video Dr McLean presents the first recorded smellwalk which took place in Paris in 1790 at the height of the French Revolution.

Narrated map – the first recorded smellwalk – Paris 1790 https://vimeo.com/826242875

ROAD TRIP OR NO TRIP?

We’ve just scratched the surface of the many ways scent is now a part of travel. When all else fails, and you can’t get away physically, there’s always the option to travel in your mind thanks to travel-related fragrance. From Acqua di Stresa to Acqua di Parma, from Bond N°9 to Gallivant, and a myriad of others, fragrance can transport us to a place we want to be.

Share your olfactory travel ideas with us! We’d love to hear from you.

For more information visit the following sites:

Scent Butler | Experiences | The Balmoral Hotel (roccofortehotels.com)

Olfactory journeys - Sensaba

MAS FLAQUER - Bravanariz

Perfumedaze

Sensory Maps – Kate McLean, an artist and designer, creator of smellmaps of cities around the world

*See our article on Bravanariz

https://www.essencional.com/en/posts/bravanariz-capturing-nature-with-ernesto-collado/

Photo credits: thanks to Perfumedaze, © Kate McLean and Bravanariz