When selling a house the estate agent will recommend baking bread or making coffee before buyers arrive (to encourage them to want your house). There are other well-known recommendations for encouraging positive customer reaction via smell or fragrance.

Scent receptors in the nose connect directly to the section of the brain responsible for memory and emotion. Smell has the ability to transport you to a certain time and place, linking back to a memory or feeling. We are 100 times more likely to remember something we smell than something we see or hear.

We asked around our office for favourite smells. The answers were varied: freshly cut grass, suede, lavender, babies, vanilla and the smell of a new car.

Here are some fascinating facts about smell:

— Women have a better sense of smell than men.
— Our sense of smell peaks during our late teens (and during spring and summer).
— 75% of the emotions we generate on a daily basis are affected by smell. Next to sight, it is the most important sense we have.
— We are able recall smells with 65% accuracy after a year, in contrast to only 50% of visuals after three months.
— Taste is reliant on smell. Without the sense of smell it wouldn’t be possible to tell the difference between a potato and an onion.
— Studies found there was an astonishing 54% reduction in clerical error when workers were exposed to lemon oils.
— Characteristics in fragrances such as sandalwood have been found to have mental boosting, relaxing and calming qualities.

In washrooms it is important to have a fresh, clean aroma. Calabash have different fragrances to suit different clients and their taste. Furthermore, we are aware of aroma fatigue, so the fragrances are changed by our service staff on a regular basis.