The mystery behind the worldwide favorite smell, lavender
The quest for finding a soothing scent has lasted for a long time in history, and the final answer is lavender. Recognized as the most soothing scent, here are a few reasons why lavender has been picked as people’s favorite scent of all time.
Firstly, lavender is known for its calming properties. Its aromatic composition contains linalool and linalyl, substances used to reduce stress and help in relaxation. It has been known that women’s favorite scent is lavender due to its anxiety-relieving benefits. Used in aromatherapy, it also has health benefits by lowering stress levels and encouraging relaxation. Therefore, the scent has been popular among women and people who are anxious about upcoming events.
Then, why do those substances help calm people down? Lavender was first found thousands of years ago, thanks to ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans who believed in its benefits. Both humans and animals have shown the effects of lavender, which helps to bring sleep. As mentioned earlier, the unique smell of linalool. Although linalool has been found in diverse plants, the most popular plant that produces smell is lavender. From the alcoholic substance, people can make perfumes that are transparent due to the colorless oil that is found in the alcohol.
Known as a relaxation scent, lavender is also the most used oil in aromatherapy. To prove that lavender helps with deep sleep, scientists conducted an experiment where they hung up the lavender substance next to participants’ beds, and checked the amount of deep sleep they went through. It turned out that there was more than 30% of deep sleep, which is higher than usual.
Although there are a lot of other scents like musk and rose, lavender has been known as the best scent of all time due to its high benefits of both relaxation and relief of stress. As time passes, scientists might find or make a better scent artificially, but currently, lavender is used mostly around the world.