Dreaming about perfume: what it means and what it may reflect

What this dream usually points to (and what it does not)

Dream interpretation is not prediction and not diagnosis. This article separates what sleep research observes from what popular interpretation associates with the theme, always saying which is which.

Dreaming about perfume does not announce a new romance, a betrayal or a spiritual visit. It is a dream that usually appears when people, care or affectionate memories are in the foreground: a date set, missing someone, a gift received, the wish to make a good impression. Often the perfume is not even perceived as a smell; it appears as an object, the bottle on the shelf, the wrapped box, a store window.

Read also: Dreaming about flowers and Dreaming about a gift.

Where a perfume in a dream comes from

Research on the continuity between waking life and dreaming shows that the day's worries, activities and people tend to come back at night. Someone who works with cosmetics, got a perfume for their birthday or spent hours choosing an expensive fragrance has good reasons to dream about it. The bottle also works as a shortcut to someone: dad's perfume, an ex's, a classmate's.

Classic experiments, such as those by William Dement and Edward Wolpert in 1958, showed that stimuli applied during sleep, like drops of water on the skin, are sometimes woven into the plot of the dream. Not everything that happens in the bedroom gets in, but the surroundings can indeed give the first push to a scene.

Sources: Schredl and Hofmann, Continuity between waking activities and dream activities, Consciousness and Cognition, 2003; Dement and Wolpert, Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1958.

The most common versions of this dream

If the perfume came out of a wrapped package, it is worth reading dreaming about a gift too.

See also: Dreaming about plates or dishes and Dreaming about gold.

When dreaming about perfume calls for attention

Dreaming about perfume rarely frightens. If the dream of the scent of someone who has died keeps coming back and leaves a weight that is hard to carry during the day, or if other distressing dreams start to disturb your sleep several times a week, it is worth talking to a health professional. There are effective paths, as the article on how to reduce nightmares shows.

Source: Morgenthaler and colleagues, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2018.

Freud, Jung and faith on this dream

In Freud's psychoanalysis. In the dream of Irma's injection, Freud tells how, the day before, his wife had opened a bottle of liqueur with such a strong smell of amyl alcohol that he refused to touch it. At night, a preparation of "propyl" appeared in the dream: the day's odor had pulled along a chain of chemical memories. It is the author's own example of how a banal smell from the day before becomes dream material.

In Jung's psychology. For Jungian psychology, the dream tries to restore psychological balance. Someone who has been neglecting themselves may dream of calmly putting on perfume; someone who lives worried about appearances may see the bottle shatter. In the key of the persona, the social mask, perfume can be read as the image one wants to leave in the air.

In symbols and faith. In A Dictionary of Symbols, Chevalier and Gheerbrant list flower perfumes with meanings of their own: jasmine would be the perfume of kings; the rose, of lovers; the narcissus, of youth. They also recall that incense raises prayer to heaven, which is why one of the Magi offers it to the infant Jesus. In Ecclesiastes 10:1, dead flies spoil the perfumer's ointment, an image of how little it takes to sour something valuable.

Bringing both readings together. Science shows that perfume reaches the dream through memory and affection; traditions ask what it wants to perfume or purify. Remembering whose scent it was is usually the best clue.

Sources: Freud, Die Traumdeutung, 1900; Jung (ed.), Man and His Symbols; Chevalier and Gheerbrant, A Dictionary of Symbols.

Dreaming about perfume in dream books

In O Livro dos Sonhos, a Brazilian dream book, L. P. Baçan gives perfume a light meaning: in life, good relationships; in love, reconciliation. It is a reading that fits the social use of fragrance, made to bring people closer.

Freud described this kind of book as a method of "decoding": each image becomes another through a fixed code, without asking who dreamed. For him, the same bottle could have opposite meanings for two people, and only the dreamer's story settles the doubt.

Sources: Freud, Die Traumdeutung, 1900; L. P. Baçan, O Livro dos Sonhos, 2014.

Folk beliefs about this dream

In folk reading, a pleasant perfume is seen as a sign of joy, admiration and good news in social life; a broken or spilled perfume, as a warning of a misunderstanding or of something slipping out of your hands; and smelling the perfume of someone who has passed away, as a loving memory or a spiritual presence, according to each family's belief. In Spiritist doctrine, The Spirits' Book, by Allan Kardec, describes sleep as a moment when the ties between spirit and body loosen, and some read these dreams as encounters. These are cultural and faith readings, not predictions. See what dream meanings look like according to science and culture.