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Scented Notepapers and Inks

Napoleon Bonaparte knew that out of sight didn't have to mean out of mind. When he was away from Paris on one of his many campaigns to conquer Europe he wrote to his wife, Josephine, on paper perfumed with violets. Men throughout history have received scented love letters and tucked them into their top pockets where the aroma could gently waft up and provide a constant reminder of their distant loves. Just a little sniff would immediately bring back vivid memories of romantic times. We know that the Tudor queen, Elizabeth I, used perfumed letters, not as far as we know for the purpose of keeping love alive, but perhaps to remind the recipient of her formidable power!

Scent brings an extra dimension to a letter. Immediately, the perfume evokes memories of the sender, and with couples today often separated by distance as they follow their individual careers to distant cities, the art of the perfumed letter is needed as much as ever.

Making aromatic notepaper is very easy. Place 4 to 6 drops of your essential oil (chosen for the aroma your lover will associate with special times spent with you) on a piece of absorbent paper or material like blotting paper, tissue, cotton, linen, or gauze. This need only be about two inches by two inches, and when you've put the essential oil drops on this, cut it up into four equal pieces of one-inch square. You can also use a cotton ball and pull it apart into four equal pieces, but not rayon wool as this doesn't absorb. Now place your four pieces of paper, material, or cotton in different places between the sheets of paper in their box. Keep the box closed for at least twenty-four hours to allow the essential oil aroma to penetrate the paper, and envelopes too, if you like, in the box. This method gives a delicate scent to all the paper in the box.

For a more instantaneous method, simply put a drop of essential oil on a corner of the writing paper, where there isn't any writing (as the essential oil could make the ink run). Seal the envelope and send. This method isn't quite so subtle, but it's just as effective!

Just as a couple may have "their song," so too can they have an aroma that represents their unity. And when one understands just how powerful and evocative aroma can be, this can be put to good use. As well as reinforcing a happy relationship of the present, it's possible to recapture a lost love- aroma evokes memory. Monika had been happily married for fifteen years when her husband suddenly decided to leave her and lie with a younger woman he had met through business. Monika and their tow children desperately wanted him back, but, as Monika herself admitted, "I forever seemed to be busy chauffeuring the children back and forth and cooking meals at all times of the day to accommodate everyone. I suppose I never had the time to pay attention to myself or our relationship."

She felt that if she could only get through to him, everything would work out better now that she knew of the dangers of not paying him enough attention and making time for love. I had met Monika when she came to one of my talks, and afterward she'd asked me whether I thought sending her husband a scented letter would ensure that he actually read it. "No, I doubt it very much," I had told her. "If he's in love and happy where he is, nothing is going to budge him."

Poor Monika looked pretty unhappy until I added the rejoinder, "But how about using a perfume you used to wear when you were first married?" So, Monika wrote her husband a letter on paper she had first sprayed with the perfume she used in the early years of their marriage. I waited to hear the results.

A couple of months later Monika phoned with the good news that her husband had returned home. "He said he missed me!" she said, "and had remembered the good times, the dramas, and the love we had shared."

I thought that was the end of the story until five years later when I met Monika again. Apparently, her husband had smelled perfume in the flat he'd been sharing with his mistress and, sure enough, this had triggered memories of Monika. He never mentioned the letter and neither did Monika, and it seems possible that the mistress had found the letter, read it as she walled around the flat and, perhaps recognizing that this aroma-packed letter could be dangerous to her, threw it away without telling him. We don't know (and nobody is concerned enough to find out). But what is certain is that her husband had recognized the familiar aroma - letter in his hand or not! (The moral of this story for mistresses: Don't just throw the perfumed letter away-spray the house thoroughly, too, with your own "special" perfume.

The instant recall of aroma can also be applied to writing inks. The staff at my local bank jokes with me that they know when one of my checks is in the pile they're processing because of the sweet aroma. (I always use perfumed inks.) This is another way of becoming a long-distance Scentualist, and extremely easy, too. Take any bottle of ink, any color, and add 20 drops of essential oil for each fluid ounce of ink. Most bottles of ink are 2 ounces, so use 40 drops per bottle.

You don't have to use the most expensive essential oils, yet the faint fragrance will remain in the ink, and in the closed confines of an envelope, the aroma concentrates and penetrates. When the letter is opened, a delightful aroma jumps out at the recipient - they'll know it's from you before they even see the handwriting.

Ylang-ylang leaves an exotic aroma on the paper, and while bergamot doesn't completely mask the inky smell, when it dries on the paper it leaves a delightfully fresh fragrance. Geranium is best for signing important contracts because it's all about fairness and balance - in this case, balancing out business affairs. Experiment until you find the essential oil and ink combination that suits you. (And reinforce the aroma next time you see your lover - in good situations only, remember!) As far as the recipient is concerned, there's nothing nicer than receiving a "three-dimensional" letter - a combination of the word, the memory, and the emotion.

This excerpt was taken from Scents and Scentuality by, Valerie Ann Worwood, with the permission from the publisher, New World Library.