SINGAPORE, July 31 — You may not know AllSense but you’ll certainly be familiar with the scent company’s creations. The company provides “environmental scent services” to leading brands, hotels and retailers in Singapore — including the distinct smell you encounter walking inside ION Orchard.
And now, AllSense has hit the heartlands. In line with SG50, it has come up with 50 different fragrances that were inspired by Singapore’s neighbourhoods and their associations with food, flowers and the surroundings.
These include scents such as Hougang Medicinal Herbs, Jalan Kayu Roti Prata and Kranji Frangipanis. Intrigued? There are other wackier-named scents such as Woodlands NTUC Potong, Changi Airport SIA Tea Towels, Bedok North Sambal Belachan and Queenstown Public Swimming Pool.
How did AllSense come up with these aromas? They were developed over the course of a year with the help of International Flavor and Fragrance Inc (IFF) and using data collected from locals in these neighbourhoods. A series of eight “scent walks” covering the island was also held last month with British smell map designer Kate Mclean. The data compiled has been used to create Singapore’s first scent map.
“The ability of smell to evoke nostalgic memories and emotions of places, events and people is culturally and generationally unique,” said AllSense chief executive Terry Jacobson. “As such, it is the perfect vehicle for us to journey over time and space to Singapore’s past and present in order to capture these scents that truly narrate an emotional story of Singapore as a local place of belonging and identity.”
So can you wear it? We’ll leave that one up to you — we’re perfectly fine having a sniff or two.
The 50 Scents Of Singapore exhibition runs until Aug 12 at Raffles City. The scents are priced at S$8 (about RM22) for a 10ml bottler or S$28 (about RM78) for a set of five. Scent maps are also available. — TODAY
