The Best Home Hack of 2024: Hotel Inspired Scents
Take a stroll down Madison Avenue and as you approach the landmark Clock Tower building, you might catch a hint of fruity, floral Bergamot, spicy black tea, and earthy cedar wood perfuming the air. Of course, if you’ve already had the pleasure of staying at the five-star New York EDITION, you’ll instantly recognize the hotel’s signature scent. Its warm, welcoming notes permeate every corner of the wood-paneled foyer and stylish guest bedrooms.
This is olfactory branding in action; the creation of a fragrance that is irrevocably associated with a specific place. It’s a trend that’s making its way into our homes too, with scent styling an invisible final flourish that brings a home’s interior to life. Make no mistake; choosing the right home fragrance isn’t just a background detail. It’s scientifically proven to impact our mood, stress levels, and even how productive we are. It defines the space and brings favorite memories back to life.
We may not have the amenities and conveniences of a five-star hotel at home, but we can recreate the ambience with hotel inspired scents that transport us back to the glamour of Miami Beach, carefree living in Maui, or the bright lights and excess of Las Vegas.
The trend of infusing home environments with fragrances inspired by 5-star hotels is quickly gaining momentum. Searches for hotel-inspired scents such as those from Scentiment, have spiked 80% on Google in the last 12 months alone, as more and more of us search for budget friendly ways to create our own relaxing havens.
There’s more to this than meets the eye (or nose) though. The psychological impact of scent is profound. A specific scent can trigger memories, enhance moods, and even affect behavior. This is why hotels meticulously choose scents that please the senses and enhance guests’ overall perception of the venue.
Your home fragrance has a similar role. A scent diffuser placed in your hallway can welcome in guests, help to zone your space and boost your mood. Home fragrances are enormously practical too. Who wouldn’t want their lounge to smell more like St Tropez than wet dog? Or their kitchen to be perfumed with Sicilian lemons, rather than day-old takeout?
How Scents Impact Your Mood
The magic of any fragrance lies in its ability to instantly transform a space’s ambiance and influence the emotions of its inhabitants. Thinking about what you want from each room, and how that space is used, can put you on the right path when it comes to choosing room sprays, scented candles, and hotel fragrance oils.
Lavender is renowned for its calming, relaxing properties, for example – making it a good choice for a master bedroom or guestroom to soothe overactive imaginations and enhance sleep quality.
Invigorating scents such as citrus can boost energy and alertness, making them perfect for living areas like lounges and dens where dynamic interactions occur. If you’re working remotely or have a home office, an uplifting scent can also help with productivity.
Calming ylang-ylang and sandalwood create a spa-like sense of tranquility and are perfect for bathrooms.
Common Notes in Hotel Fragrances
For hotels, the investment in a signature scent is driven by the power of fragrance to enhance brand recognition and create a memorable, sensory-driven guest experience. A distinctive scent can evoke emotions and memories, encouraging repeat visits and fostering a strong emotional connection to the brand.
Hotels typically favor scents that are universally appealing, sophisticated, and capable of setting a particular mood. Sandalwood, with its creamy, soft warmth, is a popular choice for creating a feeling of luxury and tranquility.
Lavender is favored for its calming properties, often used in bedrooms and relaxation areas to help guests unwind.
Floral and citrus notes are commonly used in lobby areas to energize and welcome guests, with their fresh and uplifting qualities.
Delicate jasmine wafts through spas to encourage relaxation, with peppermint notes to nurture rejuvenation.
Scentiment: Crafting Stories Through Fragrance
Scentiment brings the most evocative and most luxurious of hotel fragrances to the home without the high end price tag.
“Scent is so important and plays a huge role in our day-to-day lives, perhaps without us even realizing. We’ve made it our mission to create scents inspired by the world’s finest hotels and make them accessible to everyone, without the five-star price tag,” says Tamoor Shafi, CEO of Scentiment.
Playing on the science of scents, its candles, fragrance oils, and hotel collection reed diffusers harness the ephemeral magic of a treasured escape, no plane ticket required. With the strategic use of scents, you can craft an environment that relaxes, invigorates and welcomes, depending on your mood.
Ocean Breeze, inspired by The Ritz Carlton®, promises a state of beachside bliss without leaving your couch. With its blend of fresh marine notes, botanical jasmine, and citrus bergamot, this fragrance captures the essence of golden sands, swaying palm trees and warm, turquoise seas.
Day Dream pays homage to Westin® hotels and its serene spa environments. With a tantalizing combination of white tea, aloe, and cedar wood, this hotel inspired scent is warm and relaxing, the perfect accompaniment to a hot shower or blissful soak in the tub.
The One, inspired by its namesake 1 Hotel® Miami Beach, is an indulgent home fragrance blending luxurious cardamon and Tuscan leather top notes with hints of seductive sandalwood, amber and musk. Its warm and seductive allure makes it the ideal choice for a bedroom.
Only W, which draws inspiration from W Hotels® is an Italian dream. With sweet bergamot, lemongrass and laurel, it’s a Tuscan summer in a bottle and an incredibly versatile home fragrance which is as suited for the entranceway as it is the lounge, den or home office.
Secret Desires, inspired by ARIA® Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, is fun and familiar – with the promise of a secret or two to be shared. It has notes of pomegranate, sweet peony, and vanilla, the perfect warm and sensual scent for a bedroom.
