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Developing Fragrances ‘Soft as a Mother’s Love’

At Colgate, we explore the science of flavors and fragrances to invoke strong emotions, memories, and experiences.

There’s more to smell than we may realize.

When you take a whiff of a bouquet of flowers or a home-cooked meal, molecules from the smells enter your nose and make their way toward parts of your brain responsible for processing emotion (amygdala) and emotion and cognition (hippocampus).

This may explain “why our brain learns to associate smells with certain emotional memories,” writes Dr. Sabrina Stierwalt in Scientific American. That bouquet of flowers won’t just smell nice but may also signal memories of springtime and being outside. A home-cooked meal, on the other hand, may stir thoughts of comfort, warmth, and adolescence.

“Flavors and fragrances aren’t just about tasting good or smelling good,” Catalina Monroy, the Vice President of Global Flavors and Fragrances at Colgate-Palmolive, said. “They’re also meant to make you feel good.”

At Colgate-Palmolive, Monroy and her team of talented flavor and fragrance experts understand the power that our senses can have in our daily experiences. We partner with flavor and fragrance houses around the world to harness the power of sensory inputs that interact with our memory and emotion.

Flavors and fragrances aren’t just about tasting good or smelling good. They’re also meant to make you feel good.”

Catalina Monroy, Vice President of Global Flavors and Fragrances

Take, for example, Suavitel. The idea of a “mother’s love” — the tenderness, comfort, and delicateness of how “consumers see that product in their households,” Monroy says — comes through in the pleasurable scents Suavitel provides after every load of laundry.

“[With Suavitel], we are reminded of the loving, caring, and warm feeling that we think about with mom,” Monroy says. “When we go to school or bed, we are reminded of scents that are protective and long-lasting.”

Learn more as Catalina Monroy, the Vice President of Global Flavors and Fragrances, discusses the ways Colgate products create intimate sensorial experiences that evoke memories of childhood, protection, and even a mother’s love.