6 Perfumes That Will Make You Feel More Zen With Every Whiff - Women's Health

Meditation is hard. And it's even harder when you're doing it for the very first time at 8 p.m. on Monday, the day's successes and failures still making themselves right at home in your brain. But there I was, in a mindfulness guru's light-filled brownstone, learning to let them go—with some help from a smoky wood scent I couldn't identify wafting through the air.

Fast-forward a month or so when I'm hugging a friend; I smell it again and quantum-leap back to that Monday night. I press her for the name of her perfume—it's palo santo oil, she says—and have a bottle overnighted so I can wear my still newish meditation practice on my sleeve.

Let's be clear: I wasn't hallucinating. This is science! Scent has a unique ability to cue up memories far more effectively than any other sense. The olfactory bulb in the limbic system (our center for emotions and memories) processes odor molecules before the cerebral cortex does, meaning you emotionally respond to a scent before you can name it. Smells recall moments in a way not even Facebook can outmaneuver.

This undoubtedly impacts anyone who's taken a yoga class over the past few years, because modern healing spaces—which now focus on emotional and spiritual health as much as physical—are often fragrant with burning sage, palo santo wood, or various kinds of incense. And we—the wellness-minded people—not only want to take this self-care vapor home with us to decorate our private spaces; we want it on us. How fantastic that a whiff of your wrist can help you channel a very Zen state of mind simply by reminding you of a healthy ritual, whether it be a Reiki session or a good vinyasa flow.

Take Maha Rose in Brooklyn, a studio that offers laughter yoga and sound healing, among other practices. Owner Lisa Levine, an acupuncturist and Reiki master, wanted to wear the scent of her studio, so she asked one of her practitioners to concoct a perfume oil that replicated the Maha Rose eau (it includes sage and palo santo); customers have enthusiastically snatched it up.

These ingredients aren't new in perfumery, but there is a new demand for them: Because we're encountering them in health-oriented activities, we collectively respond to them differently than previous generations (I find sage comforting; my mom thinks it's just weed).

To determine which might help you relax, here's a closer look at the three ingredients most impacting the wellness and perfume worlds (see the fragrances on previous page and raw ingredients below).

http://ift.tt/2hvBmtC

Best Product Perfume
ETERNITY Perfume by Calvin Klein 3.4 oz edp for Women New Box Sealed

DOLCE GABBANA LIGHT BLUE 3.3 oz WOMEN PERFUME D&G EDT 100ML 3.4 NEW IN BOX W CAP

Viva La Juicy Perfume by Juicy Couture, 3.4 oz EDP Spray for Women NEW