Did you know that smell was the first and only existing sense? In the oceans of way back when, sight and speech had not yet been developed. Multicelled organisms relied on the detection of odours and chemicals to eat, and to stay out of harms way.

In our modern times, the sense of smell has lost its predominance in most western cultures, and we tend to rely heavily on our vision - defining and describing our surroundings in a highly visual manner. There are, however, still pockets of olfactory reliance around the globe…..

For example, there is a tribe known as the Ongee from the Andaman Islands where their whole world is defined by smell.

 Their calendar is based around the odours of flowers that come into bloom at specific times of the year. Each season is named after a particular odour. Personal identity is also defined by smell. In order to refer to oneself, one touches the tip of one’s nose - a gesture interpreted as ‘me and my odour’.

When first meeting a member of the Ongee tribe, instead of asking ‘how are you?’ you would instead ask ‘konyune onorange-tanka?’ which means ‘how is your nose?’ This is followed by a strange etiquette. If the person responds that they feel heavy with odour, then the greeter must inhale deeply in order to remove some of the surplus, but if the greeter feels a little short on odour then the only polite redress would be to blow on them to bestow a little extra scent.

In India, an ancient text declares ‘I will smell thee on the head, that is the greatest sign of tender love’, and is considered the equivalent of a western hug or kiss.

In certain Arabian countries it is considered impolite to deny someone the smell of your breath whilst speaking as it conveys a shameful avoidance of involvement.

In cultures where the sense of smell is still highly valued, the mixing of odours is often very carefully regulated. In the Amazon, each tribe is believed to share a similar odour, and so marriage is only allowed between persons of different odours which prevents relationships between close family members from occuring.

The Malay Temiar people go one step further……they believe that everyone has an odour soul located at the base of the spine. If you pass too closely behind a person then this soul is disturbed and mingles with your body often causing disease. This is prevented by calling out ‘Odour Odour’ whenever you approach a person from behind, which then forewarns the odour soul of the impending intrusion.

Our western interpretations of which perfumes and aftershaves cause an attraction effect would be way off the mark if you wanted a night out in Ethiopia. Here there is no scent more beautiful, than the odour of cattle. Men wash their hands in the urine and smear their bodies with manure. The women get off a little more lightly, rubbing butter into their heads, shoulders and various other body parts in order to make themselves smell more attractive (or maybe just to mask the smell of the manure?!?)

If you are invited for a meal in certain Arab countries, a perfume box containing between 4 and 8 bottles of oils is passed around, and each guest anoints herself with different scents using a glass dropper. This signifies the end of your visit and guests must depart as soon as the perfume ritual is completed. The  ritual serves to promote a feeling of bonding and unity, and the social prestige of the hostess is enhanced by the pleasant smells she imparts to her guests.

So, the next time you are invited round to a dinner party and your host brings out the perfume – that’s your cue to order your taxi!

Do you have any smell or scent rituals that you’d like to share with us?

It’s always good to be British, but 2012 seems to be the year for us Brits to show off our fine country as eyes from all over the world will be upon us as we celebrate our Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and of course the hosting of the Olympic Games.

And just so that no-one feels left out here are a few versions from around our green and pleasant land of how to say Great Britain…

If you dwell in Wales you may know it better as Prydain Fawr, for Gaelic speakers it would be An Bhretain Mhor (there are spelling variations dependant on whether you are Irish or Scottish Gaelic )…even Cornwall has its own Cornish term, Breten Veur.

It is the time to celebrate our creative talents, our traditional industries and of course our eccentricities.

Parades and pageants will abound as Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her 60th year on the throne. A 3 day event involving dancers, musicians, equestrian and military displays will take place at Windsor Castle in May, but the thing I am most looking forward to is the Thames river pageant. This event takes place on Sunday 3rd June and will be one the largest flotillas ever assembled on the River Thames. Over 1000 vessels of all shapes and sizes will be beautifully dressed with streamers, flags and the like, recalling both its royal heritage and its heyday as a busy working, bustling river.

On the Monday there will be a live concert followed by the lighting of thousands of beacons around the world to commemorate her reign over the UK and to celebrate her role as head of the commonwealth. I do hope that some of our lesser well known traditions get an airing as well this year on the global stage. You cant beat a bit of welly wanging, or a good old hanky waving morris dancer prancing around on the cobbles.

We could always televise the world championship black pudding throwing contest, where the age old Lancashire / Yorkshire rivalry is played out by trying to knock Yorkshire puddings off a 20ft ledge with a Lancashire black pudding in the local town of Ramsbottom!  And if none of that appeals, then how about trying your hand at the dangerous sport of cheese rolling, a sedate game of lawn croquet or that peculiarly British phenomenon of a titilating streak across a cricket/rugby/football pitch!

Anyway, back to matters in hand. To celebrate with the nation we have created a very British collection of fragrances all based on Her Majestys (alleged) favourite flowers and fruits. They contain notes of lily, tulip and rose, with fruity notes such as watermelon, pomegranate and marmalade.

Tigers Eye

Classic Pearl

Pink Diamond

Emerald Jade

Sapphire Skies

Ruby Rose

If you would like any further information about these or any other of our fragrances, then please just give either myself or Helen a ring at the office, or just drop me an email at julie@carvansons.co.uk

Bali next……

 I have been here once before in 2007, and i felt that it was a very spiritual place – I couldn’t really put my finger on why….. I hope that my second visit leaves the same impression.

Its night time when I arrive, and one thing I hadn’t noticed before was the shape of the moon. When we have part moons in the UK , we get a crescent shape, but the moon here is lit from the underside making it look like a large Cheshire cat smile in the sky.

As you can imagine its very warm here even at 9pm but guess what, they even have hoodies here in Bali! They are all hanging around the airport asking if you need any help with your bags. I arrive at my hotel and am given a beautiful free garland of flowers and a glass of fruit nectar! The flowers smell divine  – a combination of fragrant Jasmine blossoms and small red rose buds, and the aroma hangs around for 3 days (much longer than the delicious drink!)

The following day I am collected from my hotel by our local agent for Bali, Mr Benny and our Indonesian agent Andy for today’s visits. I notice that a lot of the trees and the roadside statues have checked cloths around them. I ask the reason for this and am told that they denote cosmic duality – the concept of good versus evil. The Balinese see the world in terms of opposites, night and day, good and bad, mountain and sea. One cannot exist without the other. The cloth is known as Poleng and is the perfect representation of this view – the squares are of equal size, perfect black and perfect white. Grey squares contain both black and white strands to show that you cannot have one without the other.

Most of the statues are also shaded by ornate parasols which are seen as symbols of protection for obvious reasons.

There seems to be an awful lot of activity around the temples and this is because there are many public cremations to be held today. In Denpasar alone there are a total of 40 bodies waiting to be cremated. It is a day of great ceremony –  all the villagers help to build the funeral pyres, even the children help to thread the flower garlands that will decorate the cemeteries  and the bodies. Cremations are an important and elaborate event in Bali, but because of the monetary cost, most people can’t afford to have their departed cremated straight away. Families therefore, often wait months for the public cremation so that the villagers can pool resources and have a ceremonious send off. I think the fact that everyone is involved whether you have anyone to cremate or not brings the village together as a whole and also de-mystifies the process of death….here it is always a celebration of life rather than a sad occasion. I like the idea of death being so much a normal part of life.

Our main business here in Bali is fragrance for Incense. The whole island has a fragrant aroma, with incense being burned on every street corner, in every home and every temple. It is burnt as an offering to the Gods. No-one knows exactly where the Gods might be at any given time, but the Balinese believe that smoke from the incense will find its way to the Gods, assuring that the relevant prayers and offerings will be delivered.

As I leave Bali on my way up to Jakarta, I spy a wooden lizard in one of the craft stalls at the airport. The lizard now adorns my lounge wall and is known to everyone as Mr Benny!

Next stop Surabaya and Jakarta…..

It seems that all you need these days to make a splash in the fragrance market, is a wacky idea and then its all systems go.

There have been quite a few new launches that are using scent to help promote brands, and I have picked out some of the unusual attempts to share with you today….

Our nation as a whole has a reputation of being heavy tea drinkers, and so Tetleys have taken this on board and designed ‘Le Brew’ – a limited edition tea scented perfume. In addition to the tea note (which in itself isn’t unusual, think Elizabeth Arden Green Tea amongst others), the perfume also has notes of clary sage and oak moss which are designed to give the fragrance a fresh spring like feel. The bottle is available on Tetleys eBay site for the princely sum of £15, and in my opinion it might be a worthwhile investment just for the novelty value.

Never seen as a company to be out of the limelight, even Microsoft have jumped on the fragrance bandwagon with the launch of 2 fragrances under the umbrella name of Liquid Money. These are broken down into a his and hers duo set, and have been underwritten by Vice President Patrick McCarthy. Designed to enhance self confidence, the bottles are said to contain the aroma of freshly minted dollar bills alongside notes such as pink grapefruit and Hawaiian wedding flowers. The bottle is packed with shredded US dollar bills –  a brilliant marketing concept in my opinion. And in another shrewd move, Mr McCarthy has trademarked the word ‘Money’ in relation to fragrance, obviously with a view to launch further perfumes along the line.

The next one I found spins quite a tail (pardon the pun!). It involves a Parisienne butcher by the name of John Fargginay in the 1920′s. Apparently the story goes that he could elevate his customers mood by a secret blend of 11 pure essential oils and the addition of – wait for it – a bacon aroma. After a massive fire on July 4th, 1924, the recipe was seemingly lost in the realms of legend. Well, that is until now! The magical elixier has been recreated by a certain John Leydon, and there are now 2 versions in the range – Bacon Classic and Bacon Gold. The fragrances were launched in April and already there have been well over 5,ooo orders at $36 each, a nice little earner if you ask me.

And finally on another strange note, an Italian fragrance brand, Blood Concept, have launched a range of fragrances  based on different blood types. The designers Giovanni Castelli and Antonio Zuddas  have spent years perfecting the range. At the moment there are 4 main types, A, B, AB and O. Each has a metallic base tang that supposedly denotes the element of iron found in blood. Each is sold in a recreation of an ancient medicine bottle complete with dropper to give an authentic final twist. When asked what the original concept was the designers replied with the following…’the odours trace the evolution of manhood through time, and its evolution of information, history and mutation, so well kept in the vital flushing of blood’ ……..??? nope – I didnt get it either, but if anyone does then please feel free to explain in laymans terms.

I could carry on, as the norm seems to be the more unusual and fantastical the better but I thought it would be nice if we could get some ideas for scent marketing going ourselves just to see what we could come up with, go on…..give it a try and leave me a reply, and on that note i’ll leave it up to yourselves to check out the route Lady GaGa is going down for her new perfume!! Bye for now…..

Whilst walking in our local nature reserve at lunchtime, I stopped to watch the honey bees making the most of our Indian summer, bumbling along from flower to flower in apparent ecstasy.

This got me thinking about how bees source the best flowers for their hive. Back at the office I found some research carried out by Karl von Frisch in 1947 explaining the superior olfactory system, which allows them to survive and create honey for their queen.

Once a bee arrives back at its hive, it performs a waggle dance. This intricate performance allows it to communicate to the rest of the forager bees where the sweetest nectar can be obtained. The direction of the twists and turns act as a compass, and enables the bees to retrace the original flight.

The olfactory system of the bee has been likened to the complexity of our own olfactory system – and I suppose the nearest we get to waggle dancing is the sharing of online knowledge, likes and dislikes, and of course by word of mouth, spreading the joy of fragrance as we go.

Do you know of any other insects, or animals that use their sense of smell to such effect?