Thanks to The Nue Co. and its functional fragrance, Water Therapy.

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By contributor Allie White.

Do you have a favorite sense? I know this sounds like the setup for a joke or weird magic trick but I’m genuinely curious. We’ve got five of them, people are bound to have a favorite — whether or not they realize it. I’d guess that most people immediately say sight: it’s the obvious front-runner. Then probably hearing, followed by taste. Touch is an interesting one because I feel like it tends to be the forgotten sense, the one we all take for granted. And then there’s smell, my personal favorite.

I won’t pretend to be unique in making this choice: scent is complex and powerful. It’s often the first sign of something to come, alerting us of a fresh-baked good, an overflowing trash can, a delicious candle, a wild animal before any of our other senses catch up. But what intrigues me so much about the olfactory sense is its intense, almost spiritual connection to memory, emotion and psyche.

Have you ever been walking down the street, minding your own business, when a stranger walks past…you catch a whiff of their cologne and you’re suddenly whisked away into the memory of your first relationship, remembering exactly what they wore while they were breaking your heart? Or what about when you inhale on the first day of spring and the smell of freshly-cut grass immediately transports you back to the soccer field at camp? Or every time you light your favorite candle and a warm comfort washes over you because its base notes are the same as the potpourri your grandma used to keep in her house? You’re right there now, aren’t you? Whatever the smell is, everyone has that one scent, that one change whiff that has the power to move you through time and space, emotionally, and sit you back down exactly where you were when you first — or last — smelled it.

It’s this reaction, this unbelievable ability of your nose to connect directly to the deepest parts of your brain (and memory) that The Nue Co. is capturing with their functional fragrances. Their first iteration, Forest Lungs, tapped into the idea of green medicine and now they’re doing it again for blue medicine. Their latest functional fragrance, Water Therapy, employs aquatic notes to offer a dose of "blue medicine," allowing wearers to tap into their “hardwired biological connection to water” and reap the mental and physical benefits water — or even the suggested scent of it — can offer.

Read on for more from our conversation with Jules Miller, founder of The Nue Co., as we dive (pun intended) into the world of functional fragrance, the power of water, and the utter genius behind this new scent.

What is "blue medicine" and how does it work?

At The Nue Co, we believe that your health is an ecosystem, interconnected to the health of our planet. It is this body-planet connection which really inspired the concept of Water Therapy. Following the success of our Forest Lungs functional fragrance — which tapped into the idea of green medicine — we wanted to interrogate the concept of blue medicine, the belief that water can have a powerful impact on our state of mind. Every person on Earth is hardwired with a deep biological connection to water and the benefits of the world’s blue spaces have myriad benefits impacting our mental and physical health.

Why is water considered so soothing?

There is a growing body of research documenting the impact of blue space on our psychological and physiological well being…It’s believed that the sight, sound, and feeling of water produce a flood of neurochemicals, stimulating alpha brain waves and increasing blood flow to the brain and heart, bringing our bodies into a more relaxed, almost meditative state.

What are some of the best ways to harness the power of your Water Therapy fragrance?

Water Therapy can be used any time of day when you need a moment of calm, but for best results we’d recommend incorporating [it] into your routine longterm as you would any supplement. Spray the scent onto your pulse points, breathe in for four, hold, and exhale for four.

How were these specific scents and ingredients chosen for Water Therapy?

We were able to utilize pioneering technology from our fragrance house which allowed us to create a [spatial] “scent signature,” essentially identifying and replicating the fragrance of an environment. We used this technology in six different marine environments to identify the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in [each]. We were able to replicate these VOCs in the heart of our fragrance, [where they] act like “invisible” scent notes at the heart of the formula and trigger primal pathways in the brain, replicating the feeling of calm we have in or around water.

We were lucky enough to work with perfumer Linda Song, who really interrogated the concept and managed to create an Eau De Parfum that immediately takes you to a marine environment without being overt or expected. We focused on using sustainably sourced or upcycled ingredients wherever possible. The key notes in the fragrance are cardamom, clary sage, vetiver, seaweed and marine salt.

What's a "functional fragrance?" How does a fragrance have the power to impact mood?

When we were concepting our first scent, Functional Fragrance, back in 2017, we set out to create a fast acting anti-stress supplement, something you could use throughout the day which would help you recenter and reset. We looked at the landscape and tried to figure out what we could create that would deliver immediate results.

A capsule takes 20-40 minutes to break down; a tincture takes 20 minutes to absorb into the body; smell is one of the fastest ways to impact cognitive and emotional state…Of the five senses, scent is the only one with a direct line to three of the most important areas of the brain: the orbitofrontal cortex, which signifies awareness; the hippocampus, which is linked to memory; and the amygdala, which helps us sort smells and is directly associated with emotions and mood. There’s a powerful connection between cognitive function and the olfactory system: certain scents can elicit reactions with the body, both physically and psychologically.

Why did you decide to categorize your fragrances as "supplements"?

When it comes to product development, we’re interested in creating the most efficient supplements that you’ll look forward to using. That link between our olfactory system and cognitive state was really interesting to us. The key point has always been data — we wanted to develop a scent with real science behind it.