There’s an old trick in perfumery: if you want to make a blockbuster hit, load the top notes with citrus. In the fragrance world, scents are described in a musical metaphor as having three sets of notes — top notes, middle notes, and basenotes, which reveal themselves over time. As the top notes burn off, the middle notes are exposed, until those burn off too and only the basenotes remain.
Most people, however, make their purchase decisions on the first sniff. These are the top notes, which are assertive, fleeting, and often citrusy. Citrus notes are among the quickest to burn off, so they’re the top notes by definition. But perfumers also know to load up on citrus because people associate the scent with cleanliness. There’s no real logic to this, of course. Actual citruses, such as oranges, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and limes, leave behind a sticky residue. But we associate the scent with freshness because it’s so prevalent in laundry detergent, dish soap, and other cleaning products.
Even people who say they don’t like fragrances will use them a dozen times a day. Fragrances are in our shaving products, lotions, antiperspirants, and shampoos. Those products, in turn, help to create scent memories. Tide can be made to smell like anything, but it’s formulated to smell like a combination of citrus, fruits, and flowers. Only Procter & Gamble knows why they choose this accord, but people today associate the scent of citrus with cleanliness, fruits with comfort, and flowers with maternal care. These positive associations are so strong that, according to a Brigham Young University study, people are more virtuous when they’re in a room that has been wiped down with citrus-scented Windex. “We wondered if you could regulate moral behavior through cleanliness and decided to look at olfaction and clean scents,” says Katie Liljenquist, lead author of the study. “And at some level, it does seem to elevate people’s core choices. These clean scents activate moral awareness.”
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