Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY MALCOLM MCCASKILL (HARRIS) pay AromaSys between $200 to more than $5,000 a month to diffuse a scent. The preciousness of the ingredients is also a factor. "Something like rose or jasmine oil absolute are extremely expensive to produce and only used in very small quantities, since both cost about $10,000 per kilo," Harris says. But the payoff could be well worth it. "In my experience, casinos are run by some of the smartest financially-minded people around, and when it comes to the numbers, they wouldn't spend a penny on something if it didn't generate that, and much more, in revenue." Hotels seem to agree with this perspective, even when gaming is not the objective. Vdara, for example, has piped two scents into the air since opening in 2009. "Over the years, we've discovered how important fragrance is to creating ambience," says Vdara General Manager Mary Giuliano. "We really wanted to go with scents that were more exotic and unexpected, since that's how we view the hotel." A blend of green fig with a touch of cassis is used in the lobby while pink grapefruit notes swirl about in the spa. Devotees can purchase both as Scent Sticks in the gift shop, and in keeping with the property's eco-conscious ethos, the fragrances are composed of natural essential oils and filtered through the interior without the use of aerosol. "Guests always tell us it smells amazing here," Giuliano says. "They don't know what the scents are exactly, but I can see how they transform people from the moment they walk in the door—there is this sense of calm, and you notice their shoulders relax." Designing more intimate "scent moments" like that is what Harris views as the next frontier in fragrance marketing. "It's really exciting to Neal Harris conducts lab results think about how you can scent a moment, even to create scents for a minute," he says. His secondary company, Strip casinos. Scentevents, recently mixed up an olfactory "wow" moment for Katy Perry's California Dreams tour. "We scented all 127 of her concert venues with a cotton candy aroma since she's surrounded by a cloud of it on her album cover," Harris says. "It was a theatrical, multisensory experience." (Not surprisingly, sales of Perry's pink confection-scented perfume went through the roof.) "Scent is such a powerful thing," Harris says. "It's one of the strongest senses we have, and Vegas has been the perfect place to bring that magic." V "Odors can absolutely work in a subliminal way."—Dr. Alan Hirsch Venetian recently switched out what was one of the most distinct scents on the Strip. VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 77 074-077_V_Feat_Scents3_Win13.indd 77 1/2/13 2:54 PM