The transition from winter into spring is like emerging from a deep coma, or maybe returning home after being rescued from a deserted island you’ve been trapped on for years. There’s no clean break, no instantaneous rebound; rather, the new circumstances take some getting used to. There are growing pains. There are occasional setbacks. There is the sinking feeling of wearing a light jacket outside in April, then realizing it’s still 42 degrees and you’ve totally jumped the gun.
More so than any bright lipstick or the “natural” sun-kissed highlights you just got at the salon a week ago, scent and state of mind go hand-in-hand. Of all five senses, your sense of smell is most closely tied to your #feels?it’s linked directly to the area of the brain that stirs up both memory and emotion. This can be a bad thing, like when you smell Smirnoff Ice and think about that time it made you so ill you thought you were going to die, but it can also be used to your advantage. Beyond pseudoscience, real research actually shows that certain scents can dramatically improve your mood. Hell, a Japanese custom called shinrin-yoku (aka “forest bathing”), which involves strolling through forests, is proven to be a legitimate depression- and anxiety-soothing method due in part to the wafting pine smell. Pine!
But because not everyone in the modern world has the luxury of taking a daily walk through a tree-filled expanse or sink into a field of ...