The virtues of linden go far beyond evening herbal tea. After a fulfilling experience in the beauty industry, Sylvie Polette and her sister Odile revived their childhood memories bathed in the smell of linden at their Dordogne family estate to develop a comprehensive self-care range that pays tribute to this age-old tree.
“We felt like exploring the physiological and holistic properties of this tree, because it is so evocative of happiness. We found out that this plant was in the Pharmacopoeia for its anti-spasmodic and liver- and kidney-detoxifying virtues. Together with the Greentech laboratory team, which carried out the chemical and biochemical analyses, we discovered that linden was also very rich in moisturizing, soothing, and antioxidant molecules, which makes it a very complete anti-ageing ingredient. And then, there is this smell, whose facets are closely related to the popular emotional unconscious. But it is hardly used by perfumers. This tree is good for the skin, body and mind,” says the brand’s co-founder.
Based on these new data, the brand’s development was driven by a global approach which included cosmetics, food supplements, and an eau de toilette.
A composition by Francis Kurkdjian
The Eau qui Enlace fragrance is a wrapping, white floral smell close to orange blossom, with musky and honey notes.
“Linden is a silent flower. Francis Kurkdjian did an extraordinary olfactory job. We told him the story of our estate in Dordogne, of our childhood memories, the wellness we felt, and the whole product environment we wanted to create. He felt like creating a contemporary, luminous, very bright linden – a writing style that would be as delicate and authentic as possible and evoke a picnic under the trees on a summer Sunday,” explains the co-founder.
The perfumer also worked on each cosmetic galenic form based on this storyline, with different facets for each product.
A protocol to measure the impact on emotions
Just like they had objectified their skincare formulas, the founders wanted to scientifically assess the emotional impact of their perfume, moved as they were by the public’s enthusiasm. A real action was demonstrated based on a measuring protocol developed and executed by neuroscientists Francis Vial and Arnaud Aubert, of the Emospin company specialized in the study of emotions.
The protocol was based on the analysis of various components of emotions through verbalization, the emotional charge created by the voice, the words used, the tone, but also the respiration rate…
“We cross-reference the verbal and non-verbal methods which, combined by an algorithm, help quantify the hedonic potential of the experience, by characterizing the emotion felt by the subjects when they discover the perfume,” explains Francis Vial.
Three keywords were expressed by the 22 women consulted as part of the study: joy, appeasement and comfort. “Comfort had never been related to a perfume in a study,” says Sylvie Polette.
“What was very interesting about this fragrance was that the results did not really vary from one individual to another, it is the lowest variability ever observed. With perfumes, there is always someone that says ‘I don’t like it’. Indeed, depending on the many memory, but also sensorial, psychological, or genetic dimensions, there are things to which we are hardly responsive, and we will even be on the defensive. Here, on the contrary, this perfume actually gets optimum acceptance, there is even a sort of craze for it,” adds the neuroscientist.
L’Eau qui Enlace is gentle; there is something intimate about it: it gets top scores in terms of pleasure and relaxation, which confirms the power of olfaction on the emotional state – if proof were needed.
Launched in September 2021, TiL is available on the brand’s e-shop, til-time.com, as well as through the Beauty Success network. It should open to the European market in 2023.
