I came across this article a few days ago and thought it was of great interest. A school in England has started using scents as a clever way of communicating to children with multisensory impairments.

Sofia’s world is largely a dark and silent one. As a blind and deaf child of 9, her sense of smell is one of the few means by which she can interpret the landscape.And what she is smelling today, on a small, laminated square, is the seaside. The ozonic scent of salty air, wet sand, seaweed and ocean spray has been replicated and impregnated on to a scrap of paper.

I’d like to take a moment to address an issue that affects many consumers today:  why are fine fragrances so expensive?

The fact of the matter is that most fine fragrances on the market are priced the way they are because of expensive marketing campaigns, packaging, and mark-ups rather than the fragrance itself. 

When creating a fragrance, one of the parameters that can be carefully controlled throughout the entire process is the cost of fragrance oil, which is calculated in dollars per kilogram.  For many companies, this price is a larger determinant in the fragrance development than creative direction, as companies set these prices at levels that work best in a spreadsheet rather than the fragrance itself.  So unless extremely rare and expensive raw materials are being used, which is rarely the case, the fragrance oil can remain at a pre-determined price level throughout development and production.