Three Candle Aromas With Powerful Benefits
When it comes to memory recall, smell is the strongest of our 5 senses.
Memories are stored in a region of the brain called the hippocampus. This has a pretty big impact in why your sense of smell is most likely to make you recall vivid memories. When you smell something, the sensation travels through your nose, next to the amygdala (which creates emotions) and the hippocampus (where your memories are stored) before ultimately arriving at your thalamus. That means that every smell you perceive passes through the memory and emotion parts of the brain first before you actually smell it.
In addition to inducing nostalgia, scented candles can effectively leverage the power of fragrance to make us feel calmer, happier, and even more productive.
With benefits backed by years of research, here’s a few aromas to work into your self-care routine:
Boost your mood with citrus
Bright, citrus scents are associated with the Summer months for good reason. Known for it’s refreshing properties, research shows that as well as reminding us of sunshine, citrus may revitalise your mindset too. A Japanese study found that the smell of citrus helped to eliminate emotional stress and boost participants’ moods for up to 30 minutes.
Try lighting a citrus-scented candle to enjoy the mood-enhancing and energizing power of orange, mandarin and lemongrass with a burst of zesty lime. These fruity scents were also overwhelmingly rated as being “happy” and “stimulating” during a mood mapping test.
Heal with heather
In the Highlands the medicinal properties of an infusion of heather tops were used to treat coughs, diarrhoea, stomach pain and even to soothe nerves, and heather tea and ointments were used to treat arthritis and rheumatism. 'Moorland tea' made from heather flowers was said to be a favourite of our own Robert Burns.
Try our heather & wild berries fragrance to help restore you to a natural balance. The scent is a subtle mix of flowering Scottish heather complimented by carefully selected sweet oils. The mix of blueberries, blackberries and raspberries gives it a distinctly warm feeling to accompany the healing benefits.
Ease anxiety with lemongrass
Feeling on-edge? A lemongrass scented candle may help calm your nerves. Research shows that people exposed to lemongrass scent experienced a higher reduction in anxiety and tension compared to those who didn’t inhale the scent. These participants also recovered more quickly from a stress-inducing situation.
Lemongrass has a light, refreshing fragrance that is reminiscent of fresh lemons and limes. Our lemongrass candle has no additives and no man-made fragrances, just pure lemongrass distilled straight from the plant. After a long week, the aromatic properties of lemongrass are there to help you recuperate.