By Ruby Feneley
In summer last year, I had a lover, and my lover had a broken Subaru Forester. Light rain created a pond on the passenger seat floor, the air-conditioning was broken, and his Spotify connected to the car radio only intermittently.
Summer is a car-intensive time, so we spent the months conducting trips to Bunnings, Chatswood Chase mall (for Christmas gifts) and the beach – all in a sweltering, soundless vehicle.
Luxury car fragrances from Mihan Aromatics, $25, and D.S. & Durga, $25.
It was about this time that I received a set of miniature fragrances from Brooklyn-based luxury fragrance brand D.S. & Durga. So in lieu of music, and to distract ourselves from the heat before each excursion, we’d douse the Forester – which typically smelt like dog and football paraphernalia – in a different scent, starting with one labelled “Italian Citrus”.
During the drive, we would take turns guessing the notes of each fragrance, debating notes of coriander, pear, mandarin and lime flower water and recalling memories the smell dredged up (his grandmother’s perfume, my disastrous trip to the south of France with a different boyfriend).
I don’t remember much about the beach, or our (soon abandoned) DIY projects, but I remember the scents and the conversations they triggered.
One day, my entrepreneurial-minded ex-boyfriend brightly observed: “They should make fragrances just for cars.”
After rolling my eyes, I considered how car fragrances had become some of my favourite perfume brands.
D.S. & Durga offers beautifully illustrated Auto Fragrance cards ($25), Kate Middleton’s favourite fragrance house Jo Malone has a Lime, Basil & Mandarin Car Diffuser ($69), and French brand Diptyque’s Car Diffuser will make your car smell like a Parisienne Boulevard for $180.
Suddenly, the cheap, petrol station air freshener has a lot of competition.
David Seth Moltz, co-founder of D.S. & Durga – a brand he created with his wife, Kavi Ahuja Moltz – takes a “world-building” approach to fragrance creation, translating scenes into scents.
In his self-taught hands, a sprig of grass growing through the crack in a Brooklyn pavement becomes a candle (Wild Brooklyn Lavender), and the rosa rugosa that grows near beaches in Boston becomes an eau de toilette (Rose Atlantic).
When D.S. & Durga entered the auto fragrance market in 2021, Moltz bought packets of petrol station air fresheners in the name of research. He was unimpressed. “If you’re buying ‘blueberry pancake’, you should know you’re in for a terrible time, but ‘pine and cedar’? That should be good,” he says. It wasn’t.
Big Sur After Rain is Moltz’s counter to these chemical scents, and one of Moltz’s most successful creations. The blend of eucalyptus, magnolia and wet wood is so beloved (and best-selling) that it’s recently been translated into a $465 parfum.
Fittingly, the concept came to Moltz on a drive. “We were on Highway One after the rain and there was this eucalyptus grove. It was the first time I had experienced eucalyptus in the wild. There was fog, the beach and the steam of eucalyptus buds – it was the best smell.”
David Seth Moltz and Kavi Ahuja Moltz, co-founders of D.S. & Durga.
The rise in consumer interest in prestige perfumes is also a part of the car fragrance boom. On TikTok, “smellmaxxing” has teenage boys recommending luxury fragrances, while videos on “skin contact” scents such as Glossier You rack up millions of views.
And according to the Climate Council, one in five Australians lack reliable public transport, leaving some 7 million people dependent on cars for their daily commute.
As many people return to the office, our vehicles’ mundane and musty interiors are replacing morning yoga sessions and brisk walks.
Trade beauty industry publications such as BeautyMatter also report a shift in purchasing behaviours to favour products that support (or claim to support) mental and emotional wellbeing. Fragrance can play a significant role in both.
Professor Mehmet Mahmut, co-director of the Food, Flavour and Fragrance Lab at Macquarie University, says scent can link our past and present.
Our sense of smell is attached to the hippocampus, where memories are stored, and the amygdala, which triggers emotions.
Scent can also influence our behaviour, he says, referencing a 2011 study that found, following the smoking ban indoors, that ambient fragrances led to an increase in dancing in bars.
While there’s no dancing in cars, there are plenty of other behavioural factors we’d like to enhance. A Journal of Social and Behavioural Sciences study showed that artificial lavender and vanilla notes increased drivers’ sense of calm. In contrast, a 2008 study found the scent of citrus kept drivers alert more effectively than loud music.
For Julia Brown, co-founder of Melbourne-based parfum brand Mihan Aromatics – a range designed to “evoke memory through scent” – using fine fragrance in vehicles is about more than improving your driving.
Before she became a fragrance entrepreneur, Brown was a neurophysiotherapist. She learnt the power of scent in patient rehabilitation, working with clients in states of minimal consciousness.
“We used everyday scents, like orange juice and coffee, or scents meaningful to them – rosemary from a bush in their garden, books and pets. I saw the power of scent in memory, movement and emotion.”
The decision to launch into auto fragrances, illustrated by Parisian artist Olga Prada, who has worked with Louis Vuitton and Max Mara, felt natural.
“If you spend a couple of hours in your car daily, why not amplify the environment? Fragrance is nostalgic – it can transport you to memories, even when you’re stuck in traffic.”
Perhaps this is why we’re now willing to spend up to 60 times the amount we once paid for “new car smell”. These new luxury fragrances uplift us and promise to turn morning commutes into sensory escapes.
For me, those scent-saturated car trips with my ex stand out more clearly than evening negronis, days in bed or bickering. While the relationship is over, any whiff of lime flower water will always take me back to Chatswood Chase.
Make the most of your health, relationships, fitness and nutrition with our Live Well newsletter. Get it in your inbox every Monday.