Can a Cream’s Fragrance Change How It Feels?

When choosing a cream, we tend to think that its scent is sensed by the nose and its smoothness by the skin. But could adding a fragrance we like make the very same cream feel more appealing to the touch?

A study published by Sandra Courrèges and colleagues in 2021 examined how the scent and texture of face creams relate to well-being after use and product evaluations. Four experiments in France and China modeled trying a cream on the hand in a store and applying it to the face at home.

Comparing two textures and three fragrance levels

The participants were 250 women who regularly used higher-end skincare products. In France, 60 tried the creams on their hands and a separate 60 on their faces; in China, two separate groups of 65 did the same. No participant took part in all four experiments.

Each experiment used two textures, one relatively rich and the other lighter. Each was combined with the same floral fragrance blend at three levels: standard, half-standard, and no added fragrance. Participants tried six conditions in total.

Importantly, the creams with no added fragrance were not odorless. The raw materials had their own odors, and one ingredient had a vanilla scent. Added fragrance could mask or alter the perception of these raw-material odors. This was not simply a comparison of scent versus no scent.

The researchers confirmed that adding fragrance did not change the creams’ physical texture. They then asked about overall product liking, texture liking, greasiness, visual opacity, and well-being after application.

Trying cream on the hand and applying it to the face

In the hand experiments, a researcher placed a fixed amount on the back of the hand. Participants evaluated three products with the same texture but different fragrance levels in one day, washing their hands and resting between products. They tried the other texture on a different day.

In the face experiments, participants tried one product per day over six days, taking from a container the amount they felt they needed, as they would at home. Neither setting was an actual shop or home: all tests took place in controlled environments where surrounding odors, lighting, and other conditions were managed.

The questions about well-being also differed. The hand experiments asked how much well-being participants felt after use; the face experiments asked for agreement with a statement conveying that using the cream felt like doing something good for oneself. The analyses concerned post-use responses, not how much mood improved from before use or whether health improved.

Added fragrance can also change texture liking

Fragrance level affected overall product liking in all four experiments. However, the relevant textures and differences between concentrations were not the same throughout.

For example, in the French hand experiment, the richer cream was preferred when no fragrance was added. With half-standard or standard fragrance, the preference difference between the two textures was no longer clear. Fragrance had different effects on the texture that was already preferred and the one that was not.

Texture liking itself was affected by fragrance in three of the four experiments: the French hand experiment and both Chinese experiments. In the French face experiment, the lighter texture was strongly preferred, and there was no clear fragrance-related change in texture liking.

Adding fragrance did not alter the physical texture, yet it could change how much people liked that texture. The researchers highlighted this as an important example of an interaction between smell and touch.

The effects on well-being were not uniform

When French participants tried the creams on their hands, post-use well-being was rated higher with either standard or half-standard fragrance than with none added. For application to the face in France, the clear difference was between standard fragrance and none added.

In the Chinese hand experiment, there was no clear difference in well-being across fragrance levels. In the Chinese face experiment, results depended on the combination of fragrance level and texture; adding fragrance did not simply raise ratings equally for both textures.

Nor can we conclude that stronger fragrance produces unlimited increases in enjoyment. Standard and half-standard levels did not differ clearly for many ratings, with overall product liking in the Chinese hand experiment an exception. The authors suggest that a smaller amount might already reach a level sufficient to change impressions, but they did not directly measure detection thresholds or an optimal formulation level.

Could scent affect judgments of greasiness and appearance too?

Participants also rated texture and appearance on scales ranging from too light to too greasy, and from too transparent to too opaque. The midpoint was just about right. These were human judgments, not instrumental measurements of oil content or transparency.

In all four experiments, the physically richer cream was rated toward the greasier and more opaque ends. Adding fragrance also affected these judgments in the French hand experiment. In the other three, however, no clear fragrance-related changes were found.

The researchers propose that people may learn connections between scent and texture by repeatedly experiencing them together in everyday cosmetics. They also suggest that a sense of luxury conveyed by the scent might spread to the overall product impression. Neither the learning process nor perceived luxury was directly tested in this study.

Differences cannot be attributed only to country or application site

The lighter cream had different formulations in the French and Chinese experiments, and its standard fragrance concentration also differed. The hand and face experiments differed in applied amount, containers, testing schedules, and question wording. Differences in results therefore cannot simply be attributed to culture or skin location alone.

Participants were women living in the Paris region or Shanghai who used higher-end products. Although the brand was not disclosed, they were told they would be trying luxury face creams. That expectation may also have influenced their evaluations.

Chanel Parfum Beauté funded the research internally, and the authors included employees of Chanel’s research division. Other authors were affiliated with a statistical-analysis company and an editing company.

Conclusion

The experience of using a cream is not necessarily determined by texture on the skin alone. Across these four experiments, added fragrance changed overall product liking and, under some conditions, texture liking and post-use well-being.

The important point is that evaluations of scent and touch are difficult to treat as entirely separate. Studying fragrance in combination with texture and use context may help explain how it shapes everyday product experiences. The authors’ proposed next steps, including actual homes and stores, other fragrances, and a wider range of users, will be important tests of how broadly these results apply.

References

Courrèges, S., Aboulaasri, R., Bhatara, A., & Bardel, M.-H. (2021). Crossmodal Interactions Between Olfaction and Touch Affecting Well-Being and Perception of Cosmetic Creams. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 703531. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.703531. Full original paper. © 2021 Courrèges, Aboulaasri, Bhatara and Bardel. CC BY.