Postmortem Perfume May Help Bereaved Recover Something That Was Lost

by Natalie Shoemaker

Smell can be a powerful thing. The scent of a loved one can move through those olfactory senses and bring memories or emotions to the surface. I remember a significant other that used to wear his sweater to bed every night, just so it would be washed in his scent when I took it home after a weekend visit. That sweater, with his smell on it, would comfort me once I was away. In those days, if I could buy a bottle of his scent, I would. Interestingly enough, a French perfumer is claiming to be able to do just that. However, she's aiming her personalized scents at bereaved customers.

Erin Blakemore from The Smithsonian reports that Katia Apalategui alongside Chemist Geraldine Savary say that they have been able to successfully extract a hundred odor molecules from a subject's clothing to create a bottled scent.

Apalategui came up with the idea after seeing her mother's attempts to preserve the scent on her dead husband's pillowcase. So, she began her quest to find a sent-chemist to help her manufacture and bottle these personalized smells of dead loved-ones.

Blakemore reports that Apalategui plans on plans on marketing her perfume line in funeral homes by September. She plans on charging around $600 to bottle the scent of a deceased loved-one.

The venture seems a bit morbid, especially when the prime customers are people who have been devastated by grief. But when you've lost someone, you'd pay anything to regain even the tiniest piece of that person. Smell is a powerful sense—one that can trigger deep memories and emotions, like my significant-other's sweater.

What do you think? Shady business plan, taking advantage of damage people or a product that helps bereaved people recover something they've lost?

Read more about the power of smell and postmortem perfumes at The Smithsonian.

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