Time-Traveling Scents

Scents are powerful. They’re self-actualizing agents that can make you feel whole. They can make you feel like you’re somewhere else, placed in a different time or surrounding. In some cases, they can make you feel like someone else, perhaps an alter ego, a future aspirational self, or a reminisce of a younger self. That’s a fragrance’s superpower. But why is that? We can watch a television show or read a book that can inspire us to go somewhere or to be a certain type of person, but we can’t feel those things as palpably as we do when we’re smelling a fragrance. In reality, there’s a scientific reason for this. Our olfactory bulbs, which power our ability to smell, are connected to the amygdala and the hippocampus, the parts of the brain that generate emotions and memories. So, through another lens, you could say that scents are time-traveling, emotive agents in their own rights.

While almost every fragrance is able to make you feel something, some fragrances have a particular penchant for making that time-traveling element come to life. If you’re looking for something with the power to make you truly feel like you’re somewhere else, look no further than these three fragrances. 

Red Potion by Merchants of Venice

$227

Red Potion, its allure in the epithet itself. The name carries a certain mystique about it that will take you back to the Renaissance days of Venice. At the time of the Renaissance, Venice’s official name was ‘La Serenissima Republic di Venezia’, which translates into ‘The Most Serene Republic of Venice.’ Filled with new waves of art, travel, and commerce, Venice was a metropolis characterized by mystery and novel charm. Red Potion encapsulates all that sophistication, novelty of the time, and heritage of today in its formulation. It starts with orange and immortelle, an herb previously used for medicinal purposes that gives off scents of honey, chamomile, and tobacco. After a few moments, you’ll begin to smell the heart notes of honeysuckle, orange flower, and rosemary, all built on the base of spicy sandalwood and sweet tonka bean. What you’re left with is a sophisticated scent full of dualities—complex yet comprehensible, sweet yet spicy, and intriguing yet stable. It’s hard to quantify the allure of Red Potion in words, but surely upon your first inhale, you’ll feel as if you’re adopting a piece of old Venice in your own way.

Night Flow by Jusbox

$225

Moving from Italy to America, there is one city you can never miss —the Concrete Jungle, the City that Never Sleeps, the Big Apple — you guessed it, New York City. The eclectic city filled with eight million people is a sight for sore eyes with its mosaic of people, food, cultures, and activities. There’s a strange romanticism to New York, even in its grittiest moments — maybe it’s due to the likes of shows like Sex and the City, movies like Breakfast at Tiffany’s, or songs like Sinatra’s New York, New York. Or maybe, it’s just that there truly is something for everyone in the city and that in itself is its indelible allure. There are many scents that bring New York to life like Bond No.9, which has signature fragrances for every New York neighborhood, and D.S. and Durga, a once emerging brand from Brooklyn that went viral. All of these scents are distinctive puzzle pieces in the colorful map of New York. But sometimes, it can take an outsider visiting a place to bring to life what New Yorkers often take for granted in the mundane, and that is exactly what Night Flow by Jusbox does. An Italian brand that blends the worlds of music and fragrance, Jusbox creates evocative scents meant to tell the story of music through fragrances for a multisensoral experience. Night Flow is the quintessential encapsulation of New York block parties through the ages. From the Bronx block parties of DJ Kool Herc and Grandmaster Cat in the 70’s to the modern-day Brooklyn ‘Do the Right Thing’ block parties by Spike Lee, Night Flow captures the essence of them all in various ways. Firstly, there’s the blue bottle, whose top is a sleek vinyl akin to those of a hip-hop turntable. Formulation-wise, Jusbox has top notes of saffron, raspberry, and pink pepper for a fun, fruity-spicy allure. But it’s all  grounded in base notes of amber, patchouli, balsam, and leather for a sexy downtown vibe that will bring the music of New York to you.

Legend Leather by Mizensir

$210

Leather-dominant fragrances are a staple in today’s cultural zeitgist, which is fitting considering leather accords are some of the most alluring scents out there. Many are familiar with the beloveds like Tom Ford’s Tuscan Leather and Ombre Leather or Memo Paris’s African Leather and Sicilian Leather. But given their popularity, sometimes you want something similar but a little different. Something that makes a stranger pass you and wonder what you’re wearing rather than knowing your exact scent…something that evokes that je ne said quoi. That’s where Mizensir’s Legend Leather comes in. It’s a powerful fragrance that will truly make you feel like you’re in a 1980’s droptop with soft leather seats driving by fresh seaside air. Legend Leather is one of the more unique leather fragrances I’ve smelled to date. Inspired by perfumer Alberto Morillas’s drive in his dream car in Madrid, the scent was created to symbolize speed and freedom in a ‘modern yet iconic composition.’ The top notes are aldehydes, which bring that initial fresh sea smell that eventually fades into a somewhat spicy floral with notes of raspberry, saffron, and iris. As the fragrance wears, you’ll reach the true base which concentrates on immortelle, the same honey tobacco herb used in Red Potion, and styrax, a woody oil from a balsam tree. What you get all in is something that’s less of a deep smoky cigar scent like Ombre Leather and more of an enigmatic fresh leather that leaves you wanting to smell more as you walk the streets of Madrid.