SPA EXECUTIVE MAY 2022

Ethyl Butyrate – Fruity scent, like
peaches or pineapple. Used in
fragrance and in artificial flavoring in
alcoholic beverages.
Linalool – Flowery, spicy scent, similar
to lavender and bergamot.
Commonly used in fragrance.
Eugenol – Spicy scent and the main
element of clove essential oil. Used
as a flavoring for foods and teas, and
as a fragrance ingredient.
2-Phenylethanol – Floral scent that
smells like roses and also like
carnation, orange blossom,
and geranium. Common
fragrance ingredient.
1-Octen-3-ol – Also known as
“mushroom alcohol,” has an earthy
mushroom-like scent, also
described as “raw chicken.” Used in
fragrance and in pesticide to
attract biting insects.
Octanoic acid – Cheese-like odor
also described as smelling like
goat. Medium-chain fatty acid
naturally found in palm oil, coconut
oil, and human and animal milk.
Used as a disinfectant and
food additive.
3-Isobutyl-2-methoxypryazine –
Fresh bell pepper scent. Also
present in the smell of coffee and
spinach. Used in fragrance,
detergents, candles, deodorants,
gums, and candies.
Dimethyl disulphide –
Garlic-like scent. Natural
compound emitted from bacteria,
fungi, plants, and animals. Used as
flavoring in food.
Isovaleric acid – Pungent, cheesy, or
“sweaty feet” scent. Found in feces
and blood. Its volatile esters have
pleasant odors and are widely used
in perfumery.
And the winner is….
Vanilla was considered the most pleasant
scent across cultures, followed by
peachy/pineapple-y ethyl butyrate. The
smell ranked the least pleasant was
isovaleric acid, which is found in cheese, soy
milk, apple juice, and foot sweat.
Dr Arshamian, muses that a possible reason
why people consider some smells more
pleasant than others regardless of culture is
that such odors increased the chances of
survival during human evolution.
“Now we know that there’s universal odor
perception that is driven by molecular
structure and that explains why we like or
dislike a certain smell,” Dr Arshamian said.
“The next step is to study why this is so by
linking this knowledge to what happens in
the brain when we smell a particular odor.”
Wintergreen and maple in France and Canada
These findings are interesting but not
shocking. When one looks up the smells
used in the study, the odors on the second
half of the list are mostly described as
“unpleasant.” It’s not a surprise that feces
and sweat rank low in popularity no matter
where you’re from. And, the suggested
explanation seems obvious: we are put off
by smells that can make us sick (feces and
bacteria) and drawn towards smells that
smell clean and/or good to eat because
moving away from one and toward the
other will help us live longer. Without the
research, however, that’s just a hypothesis,
so it is valuable. Still…do the findings really
“show that culture has very little to do” with
how we perceive scent? Different studies
suggest otherwise.
In a 2016 study, for instance, researchers at
the Montreal Neurological Institute found
that two people from different cultures
smelling the same thing can have
remarkably different reactions, even when
those cultures share the same language
and many traditions.
In a partnership with researchers from the
Lyon Neuroscience Research Centre in
France, clinical neuropsychologist Jelena
Djordjevic tested subjects in Quebec,
Canada, for their subjective impressions of
different scents, while their collaborators in
France did the same with French subjects.
This study used smells that are largely
considered pleasant, or at least not overtly
“unpleasant.” These were: anise, lavender,
maple, wintergreen, rose, and strawberry.
Participants were asked to smell each scent
first without knowing what it was then
again after being told its name. They were
then asked to rate the scent on
pleasantness, intensity, familiarity, and
edibility. The scientists also measured the
subjects’ non-verbal reactions to each
scent, including sniffing, activity of facial
muscles, respiration, and heart rate.
They found significant differences between
ratings of the same smells among the
French and French-Canadian subjects. The
French gave wintergreen much lower
pleasantness ratings than
18 | Spa Executive News