Smells like home: How fragrance is curing our wanderlust

Home fragrances have hit a sensory top note in the pandemic, and while we can’t travel to our favourite destination right now, a scent may do the trick.

Whether you’re feeling nostalgia for a European vacation, long for the heady scent of the cigars and salsa of Cuba or craving an oriental getaway, there are plenty of home fragrances pitching to your olfactory nerve and ready to take you there.

Scent Australia Home has found a way to connect your senses to experiences you aren’t able to indulge in. Watching your favourite band is captured in the Rock & Roll fragrance, while an Amalfi coast pit stop at Positano is celebrated with Limoncello. There’s even a crisp French countryside mood with Hermes Country – where the outdoors finds comfort inside.

According to Scent Australia Home director Andrew O’Keefe, it’s all about bottling a memory to recreate the soundtrack of your life.

“The Rock & Roll fragrance is brash, loud, exciting and invigorating. This is where rose is the lead singer,” O’Keefe says.

Grandiflora Fragrances’ Saskia Havekes brings her botanical prowess to the scent world via a curated collection.

“Scent in any form is very alluring, particularly now during lockdown,” Havekes says. “It is able to take us to faraway places and offer an alternative focus. It is the sense that connects us most closely with memory, and now we have more time to appreciate every facet of it. It also connects us with nature, which offers us all a kind of therapy in itself.”

The Sandrine EDP is often used as a room atomiser as it is a hesperidic fragrance with its origins in the south of France.

“It’s reminiscent of citrus, ocean and the scents associated with that region of freshness,” Havekes says. Others in her range are Madagascan Jasmine and Summer Magnolia.

New homecare brand Domenica by Leah O’Connor sees the Brisbane native also tap into the world of fragrance with a “new nostalgia” at the front of mind.

Inspired by her first trip to New York, where her hotel was fragranced in Le Labo’s Santal 33, O’Connor is all about taking your olfactory nerve on a road once travelled.

“Whenever my husband and I were out and would smell Santal 33, we would just have to look at each other and knew that we were both being transported back to that magical trip and magical city,” O’Connor says.

Her home fragrance Boscosa is now her happy place – an amalgam of sandalwood, cedar, papyrus, leather, amber and violet flowers.

Also tapping into destination-driven scents is Marco & Co by Melbourne entrepreneur Angela Ceberano. Mountain Trail Ride captures the forest trails of the Yarra Valley, while Ocean Ride is reminiscent of the Flinders coastline.

Agence de Parfum national fragrance expert Lucy Borland hosts fragrance masterclasses at Christine’s boutique in Melbourne.

She says the desire for women to connect to scent during lockdown has hit overdrive.

“It’s a great time to create a memory of your favourite place at home,” Borland says. “My place smells of Cyrnos by Trudon. I feel like I’m in Europe every day – it’s a scent that transports me back to a happy time.”

Diffusers from esteemed European candle and fragrance houses Trudon and Santa Maria Novella are having their hurrah moment, allowing a home fragrance to linger longer without the worry of a flame.

Boutique owner Christine Barro, whose mantra is “perfume is the ultimate accessory”, says filling your home with the right fragrance comes down to choosing quality.

“Even if you’re home alone, you aren’t [alone] with a fragrance,” Barro says. “Walking past a room with a scent can do wonders to how you feel. Trudon’s … diffusers all come in destination-driven scents, while Santa Maria Novella diffusers transport you to Florence and other parts of Europe as well as Japan with their use of green and white tea notes. It’s a wonderful journey you can go on without leaving home.”