Science has proven that certain scents can influence a person's attractiveness, for better
and for worse.
With that in mind, these are the most surprising fragrances that make women more alluring to
men according to all the big brains out there.
Even if you wear unscented deodorant, launder your clothes in fragrance-free detergent,
and generally stay away from perfumes, you'll still produce a distinctive scent.
Your own brand, if you will.
In a truly wild study published in September 2018, female volunteers, termed "odor donors,"
placed cotton pads under their armpits for three consecutive nights to collect their
natural scent.
Afterward, male volunteers, AKA "odor raters," gave those cotton pads a whiff.
All in the name of science.
"Uh-huh.
Sure."
Nevertheless, the experiment produced some interesting results.
The researchers wrote:
The odor raters found that women with higher levels of estrogen and lower levels of progesterone produced a, quote, "more attractive" odor.
As such, the study concluded that body odor, quote, "acts as a valid clue to potential
fertility."
Well, okay, then!
Whatever you say, science dudes.
Believe it or not, but men just aren't huge fans of floral scents, the jury's still out
on whether that's a hypermasculinity thing or an honest preference.
"Oh, suddenly flowers are feminine?"
Glamour interviewed a panel of men to find out their favorite and least favorite scents.
Afterward, the publication also spoke with Alan Hirsch, neurologist, psychiatrist, and
founder of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, Illinois.
When asked about floral scents, one man told the publication, quote: "If it's too flowery,
it makes me think of an old lady."
In research Hirsch had previously conducted, other men shared a similar opinion.
Overall, men just didn't dig florals.
However, the scent expert found that lily of the valley was the exception.
After all, it is a much milder fragrance, and it's been around, in one form or another,
since the mid 1950s, according to perfumer Frédéric Malle.
According to men's noses, roses may be too strong of a scent.
However, rose oil is a horse of a different odor.
In a 2014 study, researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Monell Chemical
Senses Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania discovered that rose oil, an essential oil
that smells like the flower, influenced participants to rate pictures of women's faces as more
attractive than they had when smelling something, quote, "undesirable."
In this case, fish oil was used.
Yeah, we'd call that a pretty undesirable smell.
One of the great things about using an essential oil for fragrance is not having to buy a bottle
of expensive perfume.
Plus, rose oil is taken from real rose petals, so you don't have to worry about harmful chemicals
that might be used in artificially-scented perfumes.
In an interview with Allure, Sejal Shah, a dermatologist based in New York City, even
recommends using rose oil to brighten, heal, and tone your skin.
The fact that your partner may like the smell is just an added bonus.
Vanilla perfume is surprisingly anything but vanilla.
Perfumer Christine Nagel told Refinery29:
Craig Warren, director of scientific affairs at the Sense of Smell Institute, agrees that
vanilla is a winning scent.
He explained:
With vanilla scents being so common in perfumes, you have an awfully good chance of finding
one you like.
Signs also point to vanilla being a successful aphrodisiac.
Phil Lempert, a trend-watcher and food industry analyst, told United Press International that
the aroma of vanilla might increase lustful feelings, and even raise adrenaline levels!
There ya have it: Vanilla is way more powerful than people give it credit for.
It's possible that you've never heard of vetiver, but you'd probably know it if you smelled
it.
As fragrance expert Chandler Burr described in an article for GQ, the grass indigenous
to India smells similar to lemongrass, with a tobacco leaf-like warmth.
Although the fragrance is common in men's colognes, it's a scent that works for everyone.
As perfumer Frédéric Malle told Vogue:
"Oo la la!"
Perfumer Olivia Giacobetti told the publication that she appreciates, quote, "perfumes that
keep floating between the two genders."
She added:
Esteemed perfumer Christine Nagel revealed to Refinery29:
Musk is indeed a sensuous scent, confirmed Craig Warren, director of scientific affairs
at the Sense of Smell Institute.
While you may be familiar with this primal fragrance in perfume form, musk was, well,
all kinds of gross back in the day.
Originally, musk was harvested from the sex glands of male musk deers.
For real.
Will Andrews, a principal scientist at P&G Prestige, a branch of Proctor and Gamble that
designs perfumes, assured HuffPost that this is no longer the case, saying, quote, "These
things are really highly unacceptable in today's world and we don't use animal derived ingredients
at all anymore."
However, the smell still lingers.
As weird as its origins may be, musk remains a popular, and sexy, synthetic scent today.
In the 2014 study "Human Male Sexual Response to Olfactory Stimuli," neurologist and psychiatrist
Alan Hirsch and Jason Gruss, a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist, of the Smell
& Taste Treatment and Research Foundation discovered that certain scents had the ability
to, this is about to get real weird, folks, produce a, quote, "increase in penile blood
flow."
The scent of black licorice especially worked some magic.
"But does it work?
Oh, yeah."
According to the study, the spicy confection's odor increased blood flow by some 13 percent.
When combined with the scent of soda, the percentage remained the same.
However, black licorice paired with the scent of a doughnut prompted an even stronger, umm…
response.
Blood flow increased by a whopping 31.5 percent.
This is even stranger considering that black licorice is divisive.
Marcia Pelchat of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, told
NBC News:
And yet, the scent of it seems to drive men wild.
Licorice is apparently nature's Viagra.
If you take away one thing from the 2014 "Human Male Sexual Response to Olfactory Stimuli"
study, it might just be that men like doughnuts.
"Doughnuts.
Go nuts!"
No, they, like, really, really like doughnuts.
Like, REALLY, really.
"Is that the last donut with red, white, and blue sprinkles?"
Although black licorice was found to increase blood flow to certain, ahem, "areas" by quite
a lot, doughnuts were actually the most prevalent scent in the whole "Increases in Penile Blood
Flow Produced by Various Odors" chart.
Yes, that's a thing.
Just a whiff of a doughnut increased the participants' blood flow by a median of seven percent.
Once a soda was added to that combination, though, blood flow increased to 12.5 percent.
Interestingly, soda didn't have that same effect when paired with licorice.
To be fair, soda and doughnuts do sound like a better combo.
When the scent of a doughnut was paired with a lavender odor, that percentage went up to
18 percent.
Replace the lavender with some pumpkin pie on the side and that blood flow increases
to 20 percent.
Weird, right?
Ironically, Ariana Grande released her "Ari" perfume in 2015, and it just so happened to
smell like, you guessed it, doughnuts.
And we all know how much Ari loves doughnuts!
While donuts might have an especially tantalizing effect on men, they're not the only food-based
scent that can make a woman appear more attractive in a man's eyes.
Avery Gilbert, a sensory psychologist, told Women's Health:
Founder of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, Alan Hirsch concurs with
Gilbert.
He explained to the same publication, quote, "Edible odors tend to increase male arousal."
Regardless, you might just like to wear fruit-based fragrances because you like the way they smell.
Whatever your reason, there are tons and tons of fruity perfume options.
From perfumes featuring exotic fruit notes like litchi and yuzu to tantalizing fragrances
that combine mandarin, grapes, pineapple leaves, and even musk, there's a fruity fragrance
out there for everybody.
While you may use peppermint essential oil to help treat a headache, the minty-fresh
scent also happens to have an alluring effect on men.
Perfumer Christine Nagel told Refinery29 that peppermint is a, quote, "energizing scent,
with fresh and fusing notes that release feelings of excitement."
According to Craig Warren, the director of scientific affairs at the Sense of Smell Institute,
it's also a fragrance that, quote, "stimulates and opens all the senses with a secondary
effect of making people feel happy."
Men may like the smell of peppermint on a woman's skin, but there's plenty more benefits
for the wearer.
In addition to being useful for staving off headaches and making you feel a little cheerier,
mint has a cooling effect.
It wouldn't be all that fun to wear this fragrance in the winter, but spritzing a peppermint-based
perfume on a sweltering summer day would pretty much be the next best thing to air conditioning.
Like peppermint, lavender has been found to have some health benefits, including reducing
anxiety as well as aiding digestion.
While you may think of lavender as having a calming, sleep-inducing effect, the fragrance
was also found to increase male blood flow in the 2014 study conducted by the Smell & Taste
Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, Illinois.
On its own, lavender increased participants' blood flow by eight percent, just half of
one percent lower than, wait for it, pumpkin pie.
However, when lavender and pumpkin pie scents were combined, the male participants experienced
the greatest increase in blood flow of any other scent or scent combination.
We're talking a whopping 40 percent!
"Alright, dude.
Keep it in your pants."
Although this sounds like a really odd combination, some perfumers have bottled the concoction
and, according to staffers at Cosmopolitan, the scent definitely worked to attract men.
As weird and wonderful as pumpkin pie mixed with lavender may very well be, jasmine is,
according to Craig Warren, director of scientific affairs at the Sense of Smell Institute, the
most sensual scent out there.
This is because jasmine contains the chemical indole.
The plant releases this strong-smelling compound to attract pollinating insects.
As it turns out, indole is also present in the human body.
More specifically, our, uh… "nether regions."
Like musk, jasmine is one of the more carnal scents one can wear.
And you don't need to bathe in jasmine petals to capture the scent.
Perfume specialist Victoria Frolova confirmed to Byrdie, quote: "Almost all jasmine perfumes
are indolic."
Although indole has an almost mothball-like scent when concentrated, the fragrance pairs
perfectly with other florals.
In the end, jasmine works to create a, quote, "complex, rich note with many nuances, such
as green, fruity, even leathery."
When speaking to Refinery29, esteemed perfumer Christine Nagel said that jasmine exudes,
quote, "an optimistic solar scent, but with a sensual facet."
And it's downright irresistible.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more List videos about your favorite stuff are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.