It seems almost routine to be put on the beauty spot, yet it's rare that I'm asked a question I know the answer to, but can't explain why. But it happens. Recently, while shopping at Sephora, one of my friends asked why they had coffee beans in the fragrance section. "Well," I said in my most professor-ish voice, "Smelling coffee beans between perfumes is like eating sorbet between courses. Both help distinguish the latest flavor (or scent) from the original one." She looked at me, and pushed: "Says who?"
I pointed at myself but couldn't get this question out of my head. I returned home and located a Sense of Smell Institute that clarifies the original experiment. Answer the "says who?" for yourself when you read more.
The lab of UC Berkeley scientist, Noam Sobel, found when examining the "Influence of Smelling Coffee on Olfactory Habituation":
Smelling coffee aroma between perfume samples, as compared to smelling unscented air, actually works. The perceived odor intensity of the perfume from sample to sample stayed the same after smelling coffee aroma while it decreased when smelling air between samples. The pleasantness of the perfume, however, was similar after smelling coffee or air.
This isn't the only way to clear the nose and increase sensitivity for the next evaluation. Other popular nose-clearing techniques employ smelling a swatch of wool or smelling an unfragranced forearm. Now, I'm not the only smarty pants in town. Go forth and impress your pals about the coffee beans at perfume counters nationwide . . . and it helps to toss in "olfactory habituation" a few times while you're at it.
Comme des Garcons
After a while this stops working and everything suddenly has notes of coffee or whatever.
1Yeah you get used to the smell of coffee and it stops working.
2I was wondering about this yesterday when I was at the fragrance section of Ulta.
3Neat to know now...
4Hmm... I always figured that was bullsh*t, but it's nice to know there's been some research done.
5I've been using this trick for years and yeah, after a while everything does smel like coffee
6They now recommend just taking a break and smelling the fresh air. You know how the scent of perfume can get "caught" in your nose? Coffee can too. Besides they don't work because whole coffee beans don't have much scent and they never change them out and get fresh ones. They are stale.
7what's cool is that when a smell is "caught" in your nose, it is LITERALLY caught in your nose - odor molecules! also, smell is the only sense wired directly into the brain. badass.
8(and off-topic! haha)
9In the 1980s, did you presume that drug smugglers packed their cocaine with coffee in their stowaway luggage because drug-sniffing dogs at the Miami airport had a strange fetish for lattes?
10Interesting explanation! I've never seen coffee beans in shops, but my friend's sister used to be an air attendant and I remember her mentioning how they use coffee beans to refresh planes. It apparently cleans the air, esp. when people have been sick during the previous flight. :/
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