Our sense of smell shapes our memories, experiences, and perceptions of the world. Not only what we smell, but what we smell like ourselves is a significant part of our personal identity. My best friend has worn Thierry Mugler Alien for years, and I will forever associate the scent with our friendship and happiness. But what if you went on a date with a guy whose scent you couldn’t stand? Maybe not even a matter of cologne, it’s just his natural body odor. For many, that’d be a deal breaker.
Enter the new frontier in dating: pheromone parties. Here’s the scoop: guests are asked to sleep in a t-shirt for three consecutive nights. After the third night, they freeze the shirt in a Ziploc bag to “lock in” the scent. Then, at the party, bags are marked male or female and guests go around smelling the bags. At the end of the night, guests pick the bag that they find smells most attractive, and they meet the person behind the scent. Crazy! Seems like an all-together kooky idea, but we think they’re on to something. If scent shapes our perceptions of one another so significantly, then pheromone parties seem, well, logical.
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Maybe sniff testing isn’t on your calendar this Valentine’s Day, but you can still play around with fragrance to make yourself a hot commodity. Here are a few date-night fragrances that we find magnetic:
Tom Ford Jasmin Rouge
The blend of sambac jasmine, dusky clary sage, and rich spices oozes feminity. It’s a sexy floral free of any cutesy or girly vibes we usually get from florals.
Diptyque Eau Duelle
This woody, spicy scent is sensual and creamy. The notes include two types of vanilla, bergamot, cardamom, pink pepper, elemi, juniper, saffron, calamus, frankincense, cypriol, black tea, musk and amber. It stays very close to the skin, so it doesn’t feel “perfumey” or offensive.
Lanvin Arpege Eclat d’Arpege
It’s bright and sparkling with notes of lemon leaves, lilac, osmanthus, peach blossom, peony, wisteria, tea, cedarwood, amber, and musks. Ideal for people who like a fresher scent, it starts out crisp and light and then works to a warmer, musky dry-down.
posted by Cody
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