Memory by scent — Kelly Jamieson

Yesterday I went on an exciting adventure — I went to the mall.

I’ve been to the mall twice…maybe three times?…since the pandemic started. To fully understand how significant this is, when I worked in a downtown office I use to shop nearly every day. Things have changed at the mall —stores have closed down or moved, and there are some new shops. I bought myself a couple of basic tank tops and some baby gifts, and some yummy candles from Bath & Body Works, saving myself the shipping costs I’ve been paying regularly.

Then I went into Sephora, for the first time since the pandemic began.

The smell!

OMG, I stopped dead just inside the door. It was incredible.

I closed my eyes and was transported…I’m not sure where? Back in time? To pre-pandemic when we could travel and shop freely, without worry, when we could try on makeup without a mask and treat ourselves to a new lipstick that people would actually see. To Paris. New York. Los Angeles.

We only got a Sephora store in this city a few years ago — okay, make that a few years pre-pandemic, I’ve lost those recent years. So Sephora was always a special treat when traveling. I was transported to Paris, pre-pandemic, in the summer. To New York — March 2020, the last time I set foot in Sephora. It felt magical and luxurious and beautiful.

Many studies have found a connection between odors and powerful memories. Scientists believe that smell and memory are so closely linked because the anatomy of the brain allows olfactory signals get to the limbic system very quickly. Experts say the memories associated with smells tend to be older and thought about less often, meaning the recollection is very vivid when it happens.

This was so vivid and powerful it brought me to tears. I literally wanted to just stand there and breathe in that scent. I think it was so powerful because it hit me at that moment how hard the last few years have been. Not just not being able to travel — but the low key worry all the damn time about getting sick, about family getting sick, about the whole world getting sick, and how helpless and hopeless it’s felt at times, and going back on this cloud of expensive perfume to a happier time made me so emotional.

It’s only a cosmetics store but I was experiencing carefree life and travel and glamour and small luxuries I haven’t had the pleasure of for years. And in the midst of a pandemic that can rob people of this sense, I’m so grateful for that ability to smell and have that experience.