I Put a Smell
on You
Written By Amy Maclin
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Scents that get the mojo working.
If we were ladybugs, life would be so easy: We'd just secrete sex pheromones whenever we wanted to feel pretty. And when we preferred to be left alone, we'd slip back into our six-legged sweatpants. With people, it's more complicated. (Isn't it always?) Researchers haven't proven humans secrete chemicals for sexual attraction, though that hasn't stopped cosmetic science from developing potions that supposedly contain or elicit human pheromones. The idea: Spray one on or slip it under your tongue and turn into Penelope Pussycat in a world of roving Pepe Le Pews.
In the old days, scientists in search of erotic scents just smeared their subjects with cinnamon buns and hoped for the best. In a 1998 study by the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, neurologist Alan Hirsch presented 31 men with various odors to see which scents had rousing effects. Most titillating was a combo of pumpkin pie and lavender, which increased penile blood flow by an average of 40 percent. We wish we could tell you what had a negative effect on penile blood flow, but the subjects responded to pretty much everything -- lily of the valley, cola, doughnuts, DVDs of "Shark Week." Which scent concoctions are really the most man-pleasing? Opposite, a highly unscientific Valentine's Day study.
Love potions tested on an actual man*BareEssence
Androstenol
For Women
($13,
shopinprivate.com)
Lightly scented roll-on with a pheromone found, sexily enough, in human sweat and boar saliva.
No response from subject, but a stranger tried to pick me up -- literally. I'd fallen on my face, clumsy
as a hooved animal. For some reason.
Pherox
($49,
mypherox.com)
Oral drops with vitamins and caffeine, meant to stimulate the circulatory system into producing
pheromones. Tastes like orange-flavored Novocain. No response. Possibly because I kept poking
subject with a finger and asking, "Hey, are you turned on yet?"
Pumpkinpie
($5, Stop & Shop) and lavender oil ($8, auracacia.com)
Who doesn't want to smear pie behind her ears?
Subject said he smelled tea bags, then asked why my neck was crusty.
Demeter Natural Attraction Always Sexy
($25, demeterfragrance.com)
Cologne with vanilla, ginger, and androstadienone, a testosterone derivative. Sweet, like a harvest candle, then dries down to a heady aftershave reminiscent of my Uncle Frank. "Mmmm, belly dancers!"
said subject, who was so captivated he didn't want to test anything else. (Experiment over.)
