Smells like Home: The Rise of Bookish Candles
Author: Sky Alton, Gryffindor

Smell is incredibly important to me. I have a whole draw full of perfumes that date back years because I get very attached to them and don’t want to use them up. In fact, there are some perfumes that I associate so strongly with certain things (usually particular writing projects or places I’m going) that I only use them once or twice a
year. More than anything else, smell helps me to fall into a particular mood or set of associations.
 

This isn’t unsurprising. Smell has long been very closely linked to memory. This is essentially because the part of our brain that processes smells is in the section (the limbic system) that also processes memory and emotion. This explains why smelling a particular thing can send you right back to a time you might not have thought about in years.
 

It’s by no means always a good thing. I have certain scents that are so closely associated with chemotherapy in my mind that they can make me feel nauseous. In my family, we often joke that elderflower is my kryptonite.
 

As inescapable as this link between scent and memory is, it makes sense that we seek to harness it. An entire school of thought and theorising exists around the effect of smells: aromatherapy. While this is usually interpreted as a placebo (it doesn’t actually treat illness, only makes us feel a positive effect because we’re looking for one), it can still have a positive impact on someone’s mental wellbeing. If you associate good or calming things with the scents used, then there is a good chance you can trigger those positive feelings again with them.
 

An interesting offshoot of this (which almost seeks to reverse engineer it in a way) is the attempt to create smells that we have never smelled, only imagined as part of another experience. This dates back to the early half of the 20th century where they tried to create a multi-sensory cinema experience by blasting the audience with smells that complimented the action on the screen. It didn’t take off. What has gained traction recently though are book and media related scented candles. Here, the makers have tried to blend scents that relate to a certain real or fictional place into a mix that will transport you there.
 

Just yesterday, I tried a candle themed around The Shire from the Lord of the Rings. While I’m not sure Hobbiton would smell exactly like carrot blossom, fennel and pipe smoke, the effect was like a warm summer’s breeze through a circular window at Bag End. It certainly enhanced the experience of listening to the audio book again. Who knows, if I use the candle enough while experiencing the story, that may become the smell of The Shire for me (or at least the smell of reading LOTR).
 

While I’m slightly ashamed of my perfume hording and inability to let go of particular scents, I can’t deny the special thrill it gives me to match the scent to the activity. I certainly intend to buy more bookish candles, even if my common sense tells me they’re purely a nice gimmick. Scent to memory associations are involuntary a lot of the time (and not always good) but I have had great fun trying to hack my brain in a gentle and very fragrant way.