By Beatriz Boch Vezneyan. Cover image: Cristina Clavijo for I’M Firenze Digest.
Fragrance has long been a powerful tool for evoking emotions, but can it also spark conversations on mental health? As the world of perfume continues to evolve, some brands are using scent as a medium to explore and raise awareness of mental health issues. Before I began my Master’s in Olfactory Experience Management for the Luxury Industry at Istituto Marangoni Firenze, I attended Pitti Fragranze, a key event in the niche perfumery calendar.
Among the standout brands at the event, Akro and Laserra particularly caught my attention. While both explore deep-seated human behaviours through fragrance, their approaches are entirely different. Akro romanticises indulgence, while Laserra uses scent to promote mental health awareness. A key connection between these two brands is master perfumer Olivier Cresp, whose work bridges the themes of indulgence and introspection.
Olivier Cresp: Shaping Scent Through Emotion
Olivier Cresp is a superstar perfumer known for creating Mugler’s Angel and pioneering the gourmand fragrances category. He co-founded Akro with his daughter Anaïs Cresp, where he transforms cravings into scents inspired by everyday desires, such as coffee (Awake), tobacco (Smoke), and whiskey (Malt). Akro’s philosophy embraces desire, encouraging wearers to indulge in their cravings without guilt. Their compositions evoke feelings of familiarity and comfort, redefining addiction as an experience to embrace rather than something to resist.
For Laserra, Cresp takes a different approach. Borderline Neroli, the fragrance he created for the brand, represents Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). This scent blends the bright freshness of neroli with deeper, moody undertones, reflecting emotional instability. Here, Cresp shifts from the theme of pleasure to complexity, using fragrance as a means of storytelling. His ability to create scents that evoke such a wide range of emotions demonstrates how fragrance can be both immersive and thought-provoking. This raises an important question: can perfume be more than just a source of pleasure, becoming a tool for education and empathy?1
Akro: Scents Made for Surrendering to Your Desires
Akro approaches addiction as something to embrace rather than resist. Each fragrance is inspired by a specific craving: Awake captures the sharp intensity of caffeine, Malt embodies the warmth of whiskey, and Smoke replicates the depth of tobacco. These fragrances immerse wearers in sensory pleasure without constraints, reinforcing Akro’s vision that perfume can be an unapologetic indulgence.
Rather than moralising addiction, Akro presents vices as integral to identity. Perfume serves as an outlet for desire, allowing wearers to indulge freely. Cresp’s expertise lies in making these scents feel immediate and immersive. Akro invites us to surrender to temptation, enjoying pleasures that are both familiar and deeply personal.
Laserra: Fragrance That Challenges Mental Health Stigma and Promotes Empathy
In contrast, Laserra encourages wearers to confront mental health issues through fragrance. Founded by psychologist Alberto Anselmi, the brand’s perfumes are designed to represent psychiatric conditions. For example, Borderline Neroli explores the emotional highs and lows of BPD, while Obsessive Leather reflects the repetitive thought cycles of OCD, and Binge Eating Vanilla embodies compulsive eating by blending comforting sweetness with overwhelming intensity.
Unlike Akro’s indulgent appeal, Laserra’s perfumes invite wearers to engage in a dialogue about emotional complexity and the stigma surrounding mental health. Each Laserra fragrance is accompanied by an educational booklet, ensuring that conversations about mental health extend beyond just the scent. More than just a perfume brand, Laserra is a project fostering awareness and empathy. By engaging with its scents, wearers can reflect on their emotional states and society’s perceptions of mental health, transforming fragrance into a medium for discussion and change.
Perfume + Mental Health: Medium for Dialogue
Akro and Laserra show that perfume can serve both as a source of indulgence and a means of introspection. Olivier Cresp’s work highlights this contrast—at Akro, he captures the essence of pleasure, while at Laserra, he portrays emotional depth. This duality underscores how the same perfumer can create radically different experiences depending on the intent behind the scent.
Should perfume exist solely for enjoyment, or can it also challenge societal perceptions? Traditionally viewed as a tool for self-expression, fragrance, as demonstrated by these brands, can also educate, provoke, and initiate meaningful conversations.
While Akro encourages self-indulgence, Laserra invites deeper reflection. Both brands prove that scent has the power to spark dialogue, evoke emotions, and shift perspectives. Ultimately, whether one leans into indulgence or contemplation, fragrances remain a potent storytelling tool, capable of influencing not only how we feel but also how we think about the world around us.
