So, on the one hand, scent tugs on instinct saying “yes, fancy this person, they’d be a good DNA match for you,” while the appeal is doubled if the scent has positive ties to our past. Perfume has traditionally tacked onto the latter idea: memories, and often draws on the classic smells of holidays or baking, for example. But in recent years, there has been a rise of scents drawing on the science of aromatherapy to take things a step further, to push perfume into the realm of mood-directing, emotion-enhancing.