Scent is often perceived as a bottle of pure luxury, a way to sell more ‘stuff’ or simply as a tool to mask odors we dislike, as for the latter, it can be taken one step further and actually provide a vital aspect for most humans: Dignity.
A while back I talked about scent to a friend of mine who is a nurse, and she told me about a facet of scent within her line of expertise that rarely is being focused on; namely the strong and often offensive odor of tumor wounds in cancer patients. She explained that even if the patient was fighting for their lives, for some, vanity and self-esteem became a vital tool to survive mentally. It took my mind back to my late grandmother, who even when very ill was adamantly using lipstick and her l’air du temps perfume. The last two weeks of her life in hospital, she could not communicate at all, and I could see in her eyes that she did not want me to be there. In hindsight, I strongly believe this was due to her feelings of not being ‘presentable’. If I could go back in time, I would have brought her her lipstick and perfume those last weeks.
At the time of the chat with my nurse-friend I had the idea that it would be interesting to develop special scents for the cancer patients in question, which would ease the mental strain of smelling bad. While researching this, I found that there are a few projects/studies out there addressing this topic: Medihoney®, and a pilot project using a blend of essential oils, both have not only shown to decrease (and sometimes completely eliminate) the offensive odors of cancer wounds, but have also had a healing effect on the wound itself.
I find that this is a golden opportunity for a ‘to the point collaboration’ between the beauty industry and medical care, one which goes beyond labeling the beauty products with i.e. pink ribbons.
I loved reading this - made me think of my grandparents and brought a tear to my eye. x
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