Pheromone Perfumes: Scents of Attraction

“Did you know, women are more influenced by how a man smells than how he looks?” @darkpyschformen

Pheromones are olfactory markers that are as basic as biology. From the animal kingdom where four legged creatures sniff out a mate to our human chemical olfactive cues that impact what we believe smells attractive. Scent and emotion are proven to be interwoven, since the part of our brain that stores memories and emotions is right next to the olfactory bulb.

Why do we wear fragrance? For most of us, it’s a sensory form of self-expression. But if we cut through the clutter of jargon, and really examine the power of scent at its most elemental level, it’s all about pheromones that attract. Even the word sensual sounds like the word scent. Deep down, we want to be ‘sexy’.

So, what about pheromone perfumes? Is it science or scent marketing?  There are studies that show it’s a combination of both. It’s a topic that’s is viral on TikTok and #pheronomeperfumes has over 79 million views. Here are perfumes that wearers claim make them smell amazing and mix with your chemistry to create that “desire” factor.

HSN Host, Entrepreneur  and marketer, Marilyn Miglin famously created Pheromone, Although it was created in 1978, with mostly florals and aldehydes, generations of women swear it gets them plenty of compliments.

Chocolate contains some of the chemicals produced by the brain when we fall in love, which might be one of the reasons it is so popular in perfumery: Roses dipped in chocolate, what can smell more alluring? Mancera Roses & Chocolate is as addicting as love. The natural heady aroma is naughty and delicious. This scent captures all the symbolism and passion that the words “roses and chocolate” conjure and is long-lasting leaving a memorable trail.

The Empress Josephine Bonaparte loved musk and used it abundantly—so much so that the walls of her boudoir retained the smell for decades. Legend has it Napoleon wrote her in a letter, “Home in three days, don’t bathe.” Jovan Musk is considered one of the best musk perfumes of all time for two major reasons: it is very affordable without smelling cheap and it is a very soft, floral musk, pretty and clean-smelling. This is one amazing scent, that adapts to your personal chemistry.

Hedione© was originally used by fragrance company Firminich© in the early 1960s as an alternative to jasmine absolute and was first used in perfumery by perfumer Edmond Roudnitska in 1966 when he created the realistic citrus cologne Dior’s Eau Sauvage. In 2015, the science journal NeuroImage published a study in which Hedione was found to stimulate the limbic areas of the brain in women which are responsible for the release of pheromones.

According to an interview with a perfume editor, perfumer Geza Schon of the cult fragrance brand Escentric Molecules was testing fragrance materials in his lab and just dabbed on an ingredient called Iso E Super before going to a night club. Women were attracted to the woody velvety scent and asked where they could buy it. “It does stimulate one of our five remaining pheromone receptors, that I think explains why people are mad for it and it simply has this animal magnetism about it. At the end of the day anyone wearing a perfume wants to smell seductive”.

Read more about Pheromones on FragranceX here