During our lifetime, our brain stores an astronomical amount of odors. Nevertheless, among the latter, there is one that surpasses all the others: the scent of a mother.

The difference between natural smell and perfume

When talking about a person’s scent, two parameters come into play. On the one hand, there is body odor. On the other hand, there is the perfume that the person has chosen to wear. If one might think that the perfume distorts our own odor, this one, if it is well chosen, consists in reality in sublimating the body odor and not in destroying it. It is therefore these two elements that forge a person’s olfactory personality.

Smell, a very subtle sense

The olfactory memory, on the other hand, is considered to be the most faithful and the most durable. Indeed, it associates sensory and emotional memory. If our oldest verbal memories plunge us into our adolescence, our olfactory memories , on the other hand, allow us to immerse ourselves in early childhood. In fact, it is one of the slowest degenerating centers of brain activity.

The smell of a mother

Also, when we start from this postulate, it is not surprising that the maternal scent is for everyone the Grail of perfumery. Indeed, barely out of the womb, the newborn instinctively seeks the presence of its mother and this requires a strong sense of smell. Throughout our life, this smell is therefore associated with hugs, tenderness and protection. A mother’s scent is always very emotional, whether it is conscious or unconscious.