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Lauder shares fragrance memories as her company celebrates 10 years

ALEESHA HARRIS aharris@postmedia.com

Scent plays a powerful role in our memories.

The reason for this connection, experts say, is due to the pathway that scents take to the brain. According to an article published by the Association for Psychological Science, scent receptors in the nose send signals to the olfactory bulb. The signals are then delivered to the olfactory cortex of the brain.

“But there are also connections from the olfactory bulb directly to the amygdala, an area that is relevant to emotions and salience, and the hippocampus, which is involved in memory,” Helen Fields wrote in the article Fragrant Flashbacks. “That puts the receptors in the nose only one synapse away from emotion and memory.”

For Aerin Lauder, some of her earliest scent memories are ones that include her grandmother, the legendary beauty entrepreneur Estée Lauder.

“My grandfather always had a whisky or cognac in his right hand and held me in the other,” the American businesswoman recalls. “And Estée loved rose.”

That unique combination of whisky and roses were combined into an early fragrance for Lauder's eponymous scent collection called Evening Rose.

“Everyone remembers certain fragrances,” she says. “And Evening Rose really reminds me of my grandparents.”

Roses — in their many fragrant forms — play a special role in the Aerin fragrance brand story. Speaking via virtual call from New York, Lauder explained that the first rose products launched by the brand 10 years ago remain among the line's bestsellers. Since then, the offering has expanded to include several other scents that play prominently with the particular flower type.

“There's so many nuances of a rose and roses from different parts of the world,” Lauder explains. “I think that's what makes the rose that much more interesting and special.”

For the 10th anniversary, Lauder and her team have looked to roses again for a celebratory scent that Lauder says is “very much a reflection” of herself.

“I love roses,” she says. “It's probably the first flower I fell in love with. And people always asked me about my grandmother, and she taught me so many wonderful things. You know the idea of following your dreams, working hard, being passionate about what you do. And people always ask what is my earliest memory of her.

“My earliest memory was probably the way she smelled. And it was probably a rose. She always had Bulgarian rose in a lot of her fragrances. Her desk was always covered with these kind of lab samples of different fragrances. So scent was such an important part of who she was. And I think this idea of doing a rose fragrance for our 10th anniversary is really special because she really taught me so much about business and style.”

Dubbed Joyful Bloom, the latest fragrance release is part of the Rose de Grasse collection. The eau de parfum ($265 for 50 millilitres) celebrates the “wonderful magical rose,” according to Lauder, while also boasting an “element of surprise.”

“The top note is an Italian bergamot with a tiny bit of black currant and geranium,” Lauder explains. “The middle note is this kind of wonderful Indian rose. And then the bottom note is this Australian sandalwood.

Safe to say, it's a floral fragrance nod that Estée Lauder would have approved of.

“I definitely think so,” Lauder says with a smile. “She would have loved it.”

In addition to being just right for the 10th anniversary, Lauder says the fragrance fits well with the turbulent times we continue to navigate through.

“The symbolism of the rose is interesting because it's friendship, love, femininity. And rose is a very kind of appealing note. And in the past two years, when the world has been in such disarray, there's something about going back to things that feel familiar, and that make you feel good,” Lauder says. “And a rose is definitely one of them.”

Lauder says the last two years have been educational, both at a personal and beauty business level. One of those lessons, she says, is that fragrance is an important step in many people's daily routine, no matter what their daily reality might look like.

“I think beauty really allows you to escape and dream,” Lauder says. “For so many people, even when they weren't leaving their house, they were still putting fragrance on and lighting candles — and making their world as appealing as possible. And I think fragrance is very, very important.”

While Lauder admits she is loyal to a curated lineup of six Aerin fragrances for herself — “I don't have all 24,” she says with a laugh — she ascribes to her grandmother's fragrance approach that dictates that different life events call for different scents.

“Estée had this great crazy quote that you wouldn't wear the same dress to have dinner in as you would to play tennis, so why would you wear the same fragrance?” Lauder recalls. “And that idea of a different fragrance for different moods is so true.”

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2022-08-06T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-08-06T07:00:00.0000000Z

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