Why Fragrance Is The Ultimate Gesture of Love- Sigourney’s Edit

“I still remember my mother leaning over me to kiss me goodnight.

Her scarves always smelt the most like her, and then there was the softness of her cheek. Hugs that felt like home. And now, if I ever smell Jean Patou’s Joy it teleports me straight back into my little childhood wrought iron bed with its pink sheets, holding my mother at bedtime.

What sorcery is this? This time travel brought on by a simple sniff in a perfume aisle? As always, it comes down to science.

We can have an almost guttural response to a person or a place simply by how they smell.

When we smell, the fragrance molecules enter our nose and after reaching the olfactory bulb, they are processed in the most primitive part of the brain – the limbic system – which is also responsible for memories and emotion. This is why scent has such an epic effect on us. We can have an almost guttural response to a person or a place simply by how they smell. And then, there are the memories.

It’s for these reasons that I want the perfumes I wear to have a lasting impact on Max and Lulu. One day, they might just have their own little moment of teleportation.

It’s juicy, delicious and unashamedly floral.

Miss Dior Eau De Parfum is my favourite incarnation of the classic scent so far. It’s juicy, delicious and unashamedly floral. It’s roses en masse with a sprinkling of citrus over a smooth rosewood base. And I really love the story behind it. When Christian Dior first created the original Miss Dior in 1947 he asked his perfumers Jean Charles and Paul Vacher to “make me a fragrance that smells like love.” He believed that fragrance was the ultimate and final gesture to his designs, and he had a deep respect for the emotional effect that it has. In fact, he had a similar recollection to my own…

“What I remember the most about the women who were part of my childhood was their perfume – perfume lasts much more than the moment.,” he said in his 1951 biography Je Suis Couturier.

It can also be something of a gift  – a memory that you leave for the people you love…

Christian Dior knew that wearing fragrance is a gesture that you make not only for yourself.  It can also be something of a gift  – a memory that you leave for the people you love – whether that’s your children, your partner or your friends. Do we need any further justification than that to fall in love with a new fragrance? It’s a gift for yourself – and others – that lives on, long after the flacon is empty.”