Does pheromone perfume actually work? I tried one for a month to find out
Despite dating apps basically being my entire personality over the last few years (I even have ~published~ theories about makeup in dating app photos to prove it), I have yet to meet Mr. or Mrs. Right. So after a particularly gut-wrenching situationship followed by a three-month dating hiatus, I decided to start 2024 on a new dating note: IRL. But as an iPad teenager who has spent her entire adulthood on Tinder and Bumble, I felt like I had to call in reinforcements to make the whole meeting-someone-in-person thing feel a bit less daunting. Enter: Pheromone perfume.
What is pheromone perfume?
First, let me explain what the heck pheromones are. "Pheromones are a form of biological, nonverbal communication," says board-certified dermatologist Karan Lal, MD, at Affiliated Dermatology in Scottsdale, America. "These are scents that come from bodily fluids – like sweat, urine, and breast milk in humans – that are excreted out of the body and involuntarily evoke a certain response in members of the same species," he explains. In certain species, pheromones can help ward off prey, and in others (aka humans), pheromones can help attract a mate.
This is why everyone has their own unique scent. "Many women are attracted to men after a workout in part due to their body odour from sweat," Dr. Lal says. Ever heard of vabbing (rubbing your vagina juices on your pulse points like perfume to give off ~sexy~ pheromones)? Same concept here. This is why people sell and purchase worn underwear. The more ya know!
Typically, pheromone perfume is filled with essential oils that are meant to work with your natural scent chemistry and either recreate or enhance your body's pheromones, making you more sexually attractive. I'd seen countless videos on TikTok of people swearing by the attraction powers of the Pure Instinct Pheromone Perfume Roll-On – one person even called it "catnip for men." Applying it sounded like the perfect way to get me out of my house, off the apps, and talking to suitors!
How my experiment went down
I rolled on my pheromone perfume at the gym, the bar, the office (hehe), the grocery store, my yoga class, a few work events, a dinner out with friends – literally, everywhere I could potentially seduce a partner. For a month straight, I rarely wore anything but the Pure Instinct roll-on (which is a feat considering I own over 150 different perfumes and tend to mix and match three to four every day).
A little about the perfume while we're here: It's a roller ball, which is great for swiping on when you're out and about. I'd just dab some on my pulse points before walking in somewhere. It has a light, fruity scent on me that smells sweet and fresh. I really like it, but it's not the unique, layered, niche perfumes I'm used to (I like my expensive perfumes, what can I say). I find the scent a little juvenile, TBH, but in a childlike, cutesy way. I also can't complain because this clocks in at under £20, which is about the same price as the cocktail someone will hopefully buy me while I'm wearing it. So it's basically a net zero if it works.
The results
Welp, I found no such evidence that pheromone perfume actually made me any more attractive. I chatted with a guy at a bar who sexily carried four beers in one hand (à la Adam Driver palming this casserole in this SNL sketch that had me drooling), but he was certainly more interested in the Chiefs game happening on the TV than me. I made eyes at the trainer in the gym when I asked him where the mats were, lingering a little longer to see if he'd notice my pheromones and fall head over heels in love with me. He answered and immediately stared back at his phone. Womp.
I told one of my friends I was embarking on this experiment, and she sniffed me and said she liked the scent because it was so light, but didn't find it particularly arousing. This makes sense – the scents we find sexy and desirable vary from person to person. "A lot of these attractions come from olfactory memory," says Dr. Lal. "Essentially, when we are exposed early in life to certain scents, we recognise them and our brain retains this memory," he explains. So while some might find vanilla to smell decadent and rich, others find it sickly and nauseating.
Part of the reason why I don't feel like this perfume works as well as others in my collection for garnering compliments and praise is that the sillage is pretty poor. You have to be so close to my skin to catch a whiff of it after I roll it on, so I can't imagine too many people around me in public can even smell it unless they are uncomfortably close to me. So many of the TikToks worshipping this perfume oil's sex-inducing abilities are those who have partners already, which now entirely makes sense. Your person is already all up in your business, so they can really sniff this on you – whereas the hot trainer at my gym prob could smell my deodorant spray better than this perfume.
At the end of my experiment, I was exhausted. I had met exactly zero people and missed my beloved perfumes. This got me thinking I should just try mixing my Pure Instinct with one of my other favourite scents. I also had no luck here, but at least I enjoyed how I smelled a bit more.
Final verdict:
Wear whatever scent makes you feel the most confident if you're trying to meet a partner in the wild. And if that scent is a roll-on filled with pheromone-boosting essential oils, then amazing! But for me, I think I feel the sexiest when I'm drenched in a foodie gourmand perfume that makes me smell like gummy bears and ice cream and cake. Or a spicy combo of cinnamon and vanilla.
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