What if you could instantly conjure the tranquillity of standing along the seashore while seated at your desk? What effect would it have on your state of mind? And could it benefit your wellbeing in the long term? These are the questions The Nue Co. is asking, and answering, with their latest launch Water Therapy.
The fourth addition to the brand’s best selling ‘functional fragrances,’ Water Therapy uses the volatile organic compounds found in oceanic settings - aldehydes, sulphurs, ketones, and terpenes- to replicate (in your mind) the experience of being by a body of water.
If that sounds complicated, it’s because it is. As the brand’s VP of Product & Sustainability Flo Glendenning explains, Water Therapy is the result of first to market technology that combines perfumery with neurochemistry. ‘Our lab works very closely with a technology called Scentrek, which allows them to go to a particular environment and take a molecular fingerprint of it,’ says Glendenning.
‘So [for Water Therapy] they went to a marine environment and isolated particular volatile organic compounds which, without going to a major science lesson, are chemicals that have a strong tendency to vaporize from liquids or solids into gaseous states.’
What makes Water Therapy special, then, is that it has taken the ‘fingerprint’ of the organic compounds in marine environments and replicated them through scent cords. The result is not a particular smell-The Nue Co. adds the fragrance you smell on your skin later- but a ‘subconscious scent that works through very primal pathways in our body.’
It is a fascinating linking of fragrance and wellness that has proven highly successful for The Nue Co. in the past. The brand’s first fragrance launch, called Functional Fragrance, promised to instantly lower cortisol levels and reduce momentary anxiety. Their second launch, Forest Lungs, recreated the experience of being outdoors and sold out within a week of its launch during lockdown, while the third, Mind Energy, used scent to reduce brain fog and optimise cognitive function.
Water Therapy is The Nue Co’s own form of ‘blue medicine,’ which posits that there is an intrinsic connection between our brains and water that makes people inherently calmer when they are in or near oceans, lakes, and even baths.
Does it work?
The real question, of course, is does Water Therapy actually work? According to the brand, clinical trials have revealed that 94 per cent of users felt less stressed and 84 per cent less anxious after 30 minutes.
I used a sample of the fragrance for a week, routinely spraying it on my wrist throughout the day as I sat at my office desk. While I certainly did not feel any drastic change in my emotions or mood when I used it, it did seem to help me achieve a low-grade level of calmness throughout the day. Whether it was placebo or science, I can’t really say, but it’s true that it did offer a bit of easy to access tranquillity. And if you can get that in a bottle, it is probably worth trying.
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