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What if you had the secret to seduction all along? What if it was simply the very essence of your skin? This is the shimmering promise of pheromone perfumes, a type of fragrance that works in tandem with your body’s natural chemistry to create a singular scent. It’s your skin, but better.
“If you wear lots of fragrance, you start to notice how a certain perfume elevates your natural musk,” says David Moltz, the perfumer behind the Brooklyn-based fragrance studio D.S. & Durga. Scrolling through #pheromoneperfume on TikTok, there’s no shortage of wild sagas exalting the power of scent: one dab of Pure Instinct’s roll-on Pheromone Perfume has women being asked out and waitresses doubling their tips (the views are in the millions at the time of writing this). But TikTok-fueled hype aside, can a perfume really make someone fall in love with you?
“The idea is that these fragrances are designed to mimic human pheromones which are ultimately used to attract others,” says Jérôme Epinette, renowned French perfumer and creator of Sol de Janeiro’s famed Cheirosa 59 Perfume Mist. “They bring a sensuality…something a bit more animalistic, that carries a bit of drama.”
Pheromones are chemicals that animals and humans use to communicate. They are thought to be a signifier that we are ready to mate. Our bodies secrete these chemicals through sweat and other bodily fluids.
What makes pheromone perfumes distinct from the usual fan-faire is the fact that their “notes” are not the usual suspects—à la rose, patchouli, gardenia, etc. Their aim is to bring out the chemistry of your skin. Many do this by creating synthetic versions of pheromones meant to enhance your natural scent. The hero ingredient here is often Iso E Super, which amplifies the skin’s musk. The effect is a whisper of woodiness, some muskiness and a touch of sweetness. It’s in popular scents like Escentric Molecules Molecule 01, Commodity Paper Personal Eau de Parfum and D.S. & DURGA’s I Don’t Know What — all of which will smell different depending on who is wearing them.
“Having an enhancer or skin scent is an obvious tool in your perfume collection to blend with and wear something neutral when you’re not trying to go so big on a certain day,” says Moltz. “Soft transparent musks and woody ambers that don’t get in the way but frame an idea like “rose” or “cedar”. If that note happens to be your skin, then it works to heighten your own scent.”
The magic of Iso E Super is not in its strength, but its subtlety. The kind of fragrance someone else might notice on the nape of your neck, but not be able to place.
Another way in is through essential oils. Riddle’s Pheromone Oil and the viral Pure Instinct roller work as oil-based skin enhancers. They are long-lasting and very delicate. Since we are often nose-blind to our own scents, we might not even pick up on them ourselves.
There is no specific scientific data supporting the theory that pheromone perfumes attract sexual attention all on their own. In fact, the very existence of pheromones in humans “remains uncertain,” according to the National Library of Medicine. Overall, it is hard to say in certain terms that these perfumes are guaranteed to attract a mate the same way animal pheromones are known to do.
Whether or not it is a placebo effect, we do know one thing for certain: our olfactory sense (closely connected to the amygdala and hippocampus, two parts of the brain in charge of emotion and memory) is very real. Scent makes us feel deeply, who is to say that feeling can’t be love?
“Scent is so closely linked to memory so it’s inevitable that scent becomes emblematic of our attraction as it’s so closely connected to someone’s aura,” says Epinette. “The pheromones may play a role in triggering this connection and lust for the other.”
If nothing else, pheromone perfumes show us the power of feeling good in our skin. Whether it is the fragrance or the confidence causing all the commotion, we’ll never truly know.