Valentine’s day is the day of all the love-struck. It’s time of putting spells, seducing not only with the look but also with touch and smell. But how to successfully seduce with smell? Do pheromones in perfumes work? How? Do pheromones have any aroma? Are there aromas that the opposite sex finds alluring?
Pheromones: What are these?
Pheromones? What are these? What does this weird-sounding word mean? Probably some of you associate this word with attractiveness of the opposite sex. Well, this is true but only partially.
Pheromones are volatile, odorless substances produced by living organisms, supposedly also by plants. Their main task is to pass information among the creatures of the same species. The main difference between hormones and pheromones is that the former carry the information destined for the organism, which processes it later, whereas the latter are the information sent further, which means that it’s destined for other beings. As I managed to learn, depending on the function performed, pheromones are divided into 30 groups. The most recognizable ones are: sex pheromones, aggregation pheromones, alarm pheromones and trail pheromones.
Furthermore, the type of pheromones that we mostly associate them with, which are the ‘lures’, are known as attractants. They are pretty astonishing in their functioning because they affect the vomeronasal organ that is responsible for receiving chemical signals. In humans, the receptor is located on both sides of nostrils.
Did you know that pheromones are able to trigger various reactions in our body? What reactions? For example, they can change the pace at which we breathe, they can influence our body temperature, pulse and even blood pressure? As you can see, pheromones aren’t that passive as we wrongly thought they are.
Pheromones in beauty products
For many long years people have been trying to develop a conception of implementing pheromones into beauty products. Maybe not in all beauty products but mainly in perfumes – after all they directly influence the sense of smell. The assumption is that sex pheromones of animals are also the sexual attractants of humans. This is why musk is added to some perfumes. Another presumption is that perfumes containing pheromones should affect the person who wears the very fragrance, not the so-to-say receiver. In other words, it is us who should feel ‘in tune’ for receiving aromatic signals from others. This is why sometimes male perfumes contain female pheromones, and the other way round.
Where does the magic come from? Chemical constituents of pheromones
The most important chemical constituents that display pheromonal activity are two steroids: androstenol and androsterone. And here comes a piece of mind-blowing news: both men and women seem to look better, be more intelligent and trustworthy when spritzed with androstenol. Fairly surprising is also the fact that there is a separate pheromone, which is also used in perfumes, that causes aggression and is associated with domination. Therefore, if you want to win some respect, use androstenone.
Pheromones: Opinions
Do pheromones work? Are they able to boost our attractiveness?
To my surprise, it appears that the compounds used in perfumes neither display stimulating effects on vomeronasal organ nor on nervous system. In other words, they don’t comply with the definition of pheromones that you have in your mind.
Nevertheless, pheromones work like aromatic attractants and their influence on humans is that they stimulate olfactory receptors. In plain English, pheromones don’t have the effect described by the brands that want to sell their perfumes. What they influence though is the fragrance itself – they make perfumes nicer. It was proven that some aromas attract males/females so they are used in perfumes.
To sum up, although pheromones don’t work like a magical love elixir, don’t underestimate the power of fragrance.
