Home Is Where It Smells Good : Technology Brings New Scents to the Household

Ancient civilizations burned incense to sweeten the air and concocted aromatic mixtures to perfume the body. The Romans added scent to their public baths.

Later, American colonists placed potpourri, pomander balls and sachets in drawers and closets. In the mid-1950s, the introduction of aerosol air fresheners modernized the methodology. Scenting the environment is not a new idea.

There are indications, however, that home fragrance products are about to become more important--and more fashionable--than ever before. Those who make and market products such as potpourri, scented candles and pillows, perfumed soaps, sachets and related items say sales are approaching all-time highs.

Furthermore, a number of new products are about to come on the scene that are expected to increase interest in scent as an important adjunct in home decor.

“The ‘Flower Children’ of the 1960s, may have started the interest in natural floral and herbal scents,” says Annette Greene, executive director of the Fragrance Foundation.

The economy that forced people to look to their home and improve the quality of life there, the consequent growth of home entertaining, and even the development of home videocassette players also played a part, according to Barbara Carver. Carver is vice president of Charles of the Ritz, which has developed what some people regard as one of the most interesting new home-fragrance products, the Aroma Disk.

It consists of a small, electric heater which “plays” flat disks that have encapsulated such aromas as a crackling fire, buttered popcorn, the smell of a Christmas tree, roses or an ocean breeze. As the heater gets warmer the aroma is diffused into the room, Carver says.

The heater will sell for about $20, while individual disks good for up to 30 uses will be $1.50. More heavily impregnated disks will sell for about $4 and provide as many as 150 uses. So far, 40 aromas have been developed, and the company is working toward development of about 100 actual and fantasy aromas.

The new technology allows for total user control without any distortion of scent, according to Carver. Any fragrance can be reproduced and it takes only two to three minutes for the aroma to permeate the room, after which the heater shuts off. It also takes only a few minutes to replace the old scent with a new one.

As a result, it is possible to match scent to music, a television program or a film, and to change the scent as the action on a screen or recording changes.

The disk is being distributed as a home fragrance product through cosmetic departments in department and other stores. In addition, the company has licensed Remington Shaver Co. to sell it to housewares and hardware outlets. Among retailers slated to carry the product as of October were Neiman-Marcus, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Sears, J.C. Penney, and Montgomery Ward.

Testing indicates a broad market for such a product, including teen-agers, adult males who normally avoid scented products as feminine, and women who are now the largest purchasers of home-fragrance products.

While the disk may the most unusual new home-fragrance product, it is not the only one. Recently, Johnson Wax Co. introduced a toilet-tissue dispenser with tiny fragrance beads inside its plastic exterior. Each time the dispenser turns, a measure of fragrance is released.

Other relatively new products which dispense scent into the environment include small perfume rings that fit around a lamp and give off fragrance as the lamp heats up, fragrance lamps which work like oil lamps, with a wick, as well as herbal pillows which give off a herbal fragrance that is supposed to soothe away a headache.