Think of all the money you’ve spent over the years on perfumes, after-shave, deodorants and the like – all to ensure that you hide those natural smells and potentially even impress those around you.
However, now research suggests that we should forget all about celebrity endorsements and the development of new smells – because body odour is the most seductive way to attract someone.
Body odour is best
Scientists from the University of Stirling; and Charles University in Prague; conducted several different studies and found that women usually prefer the smell of dominant men – particularly during the fertile stage of their menstrual cycle. It was also found that women are usually most attractive to men during ovulation – but smell least appealing during their menstruation. Perhaps this relates back to the Elizabethan days when it was not unknown for women to present potential suitors with an apple slice they had kept in their armpit to absorb the smell.
According to the study, the changes in smell are actually quite subtle – but body odour won’t attract everyone. They asked people to rate the smell of others without a perfume and then with a perfume they supplied: and found that while it improved the smell of some, it actually made others smell worse.
Interestingly, the same six body odours were presented to 100 people – and some reported that it was excellent and others suggested it was very bad. So it seems that perhaps we wear perfumes and other fragrances because we don’t want to risk smelling bad to some – even though we could smell fantastic to others. It is even believed that our scent can say a lot about our personality: with hundreds of volunteers asked to sniff certain odours and predict which people were the most neurotic, extroverted and dominant.
Smell good for less
If you don’t want to take the risk on your body odour impressing those around you, then it’s actually a good time to invest in some sweet smelling scents – thanks to an influx of health and beauty voucher codes at Moneysaver.