Sex has been the basis of selling scent for decades. Sure, one wants to smell good for the sake of personal hygiene and confidence, but wanting to attract the opposite (or same) sex also plays a role in us reaching for certain fragrances over others, or even scenting our bodies at all. However, funnily enough, the body odour we are born with will always waft through, no matter how much deodorant or perfume we splash on.

In order to fully understand scents and sexuality, one needs to begin with our genetics. First, there is the difference of odour perception between the sexes, which, while not hugely different, still plays a part in our scent-sitivity. “Every person smells the world ever so differently,” says neuroscientist and author of The Scent of Desire, Dr. Rachel Herz. “But there is, generally speaking, in addition to the lower threshold that females have for most odour detection over their lifespan, a case that they are given more verbal training with odours than males are because of cosmetics, cooking and other things with a gender bias.”

Every person smells the world everso differently

That means any sort of olfactory attraction that occurs is a matter of learned behaviours rather than innate responses — an accumulation of “culture, marketing and media”, as Herz explains. “The idea of floral and sweet notes for females has to do with a connotation of femininity, and for different notes for males a connotation of masculinity. There is nothing inherently interesting or attractive about it for the opposite sex. What it is is the learned response to something that potentially elicits a desire or sexual reaction from somebody else.”

We should not necessarily by all means get rid of our natural body odours because it tells us something about mating qualities

Playing a far more primal role in scent attraction is our personal body odour, which is influenced by our HLA (human leukocyte antigen) gene complex. Studies have shown that we seek out partners with a dissimilar HLA profile in order to provide the healthiest possible immune system for our offspring as a result of the ensuing genetic diversity. “What females are doing, and they are the ones who are most attuned to this because they have the biggest cost but also benefit to bear when it comes to reproduction, is avoiding males that smell like family. It’s basically a smell incest avoidance mechanism,” Herz explains. Two modern-day inventions that can muddle this odour profile are fragrances and the use of hormonal contraception, which both run a risk of us choosing a partner with a more similar than dissimilar HLA profile.

“We should not necessarily by all means get rid of our natural body odours because it tells us something about mating qualities. I’m not advocating that we should walk around without washing or using deodorants, but I think the fact that we disguise our body odour could also come with some disadvantages,” adds Dr. Janek Lobmaier from the Department of Social Psychology and Social Neuroscience at University of Bern.

It seems like certain women do universally smell more alluring than others

Lobmaier and his team recently completed a study which tested the individual body odours of 28 women, exploring if fluctuations in this signature body odour makes some women more attractive than others (to a panel of 57 male test subjects). Additionally, the team tried to identify if there was any smell that was universally appealing.

“We actually found out quite quickly and clearly that men agree highly on which body odours they find attractive. It seems like certain women do universally smell more alluring than others,” he states, adding that “there seems to be a correlation between reproductive hormones and how attractive somebody appears. We found that women who have high oestradiol levels and relatively low progestogen levels smell more attractive. This also is in line with the evolutionary viewpoint that of course women with higher oestradiol levels have potentially higher fertility than women with lower hormone levels.”

Having understood how these mechanisms work, the ultimate question would be: is there one universally attractive odour? Turns out, the answer is not so simple. Both Herz and Lobmaier agree that there is no singular smell that is deemed attractive across the board, but rather, that different scents will smell attractive on and for certain individuals. “Some studies show that we choose perfumes that fit to our HLA complex. That’s why certain perfumes smell nicer on certain people and less nicer on others, as it compliments the actual body odour,” Lobmaier comments.

Perhaps it is not so much what we smell like, but rather how sexually attractive that scent makes us feel

Recently there has been a rise in animalic scent releases employing everything from manure-esque oud to fecal-smelling civet in a bid to smell sensual. “It’s interesting socio-culturally how we have this cleanliness obsession to remove those funky body smells and then we’re using artificial fragrance to re-scent ourselves,” comments Herz. Could said fragrances be read as an attempt to recapture our primal nature? On the other hand, for every customer that buys a ‘dirty-smelling’ scent, there will be another who buys one that smells of delightful baked goods or zesty citrus freshness.

Perhaps it is not so much what we smell like, but rather how sexually attractive that scent makes us feel. Professor Craig Roberts from University of Liverpool conducted a study in which male test subjects had to present themselves on video to a female audience after not being able to shower for several days. Those who were able to apply deodorant had higher scores than those who weren’t, despite the viewers not being able to smell either one, indicating that those who felt more confident about their sense of smell acted more alluringly for the opposite sex. Simply put: just spritz on whatever fragrance makes you feel the most desirable, and confidence will take care of the rest.

Animals from silk moths to stallions communicate through scent signals. Humans too. In 2015, scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel used hidden cameras to show that after shaking hands, we unconsciously raise our hands to our mouths and noses, sampling chemo-signals from the other person. Fragrance is an extension of this behaviour. We wear it for others, to intrigue, seduce and engage them.

Perfumistas are pumping up their fragrance to increase their smell-space beyond the six feet prescribed by social distancing

But how is that supposed to work in the new normal? Social distancing means that, right now, no-one can get close enough to smell your fragrance. We have gone the olfactory equivalent of radio silent. And while our digital devices allow us to still see and hear each other, you can’t send a smell down a fibre optic cable. No wonder there are tales circulating in the fumehead community of perfumistas pumping up their daily dose of fragrance in attempts to increase their smell-space beyond the six feet prescribed by social distancing.

But while superdosing your scent is one way to get the better of lockdown, a subtler strategy would be rediscovering another aspect of fragrance altogether, an aspect we rarely think about in modern society: using it to communicate not with others, but with ourselves.

“Each evening when I finish working, I light a scented candle,’ says Escentric Molecules’ Creative Director, Paul White. ‘Always the same one, Diptyque’s Feu de Bois. Lighting the candle relaxes me. The moment I inhale that aroma of crackling wood I feel as if I have entered a sanctuary of some kind, even though I am in the same physical space as before.”

“The moment I inhale that aroma of crackling wood I feel as if I have entered a sanctuary of some kind, even though I am in the same physical space as before”

When you have to live your whole life in one confined area, it can be hard to let go of the stresses of one part of it. Everything bleeds and blurs into everything else. Lighting a scented candle or burning incense creates an invisible threshold that demarcates two different smell-spaces, two different mind-sets. Once the new scent fills the room, you are breathing a different air. If you light the same candle each time, your sub-conscious will begin to associate that smell with relaxing and the trigger will be re-inforced.

The sense of smell is processed in an ancient part of the brain called the limbic system (also known as the smell-brain). This is also the primary seat of memories, emotions, and ‘gut reactions’. The limbic system controls our most basic drives: hunger, sex and the sense of security, and acts directly on the autonomic nervous system. As anthropologist Barbara Lex has pointed out: ‘intense stimulation of the autonomic nervous system retards and prohibits logical reasoning’ – desirable when you want to switch off.

“Odour-mediated communication between individuals, once thought to be limited to ‘lower animals’ is now understood to carry information about familiar relationships, stress and anxiety levels”

The sensitivity of our sense of smell has been greatly under-estimated. In an article in Science magazine in 2017, neuroscientist John P. McGann exposed poor human olfaction as a nineteenth century myth that has persisted in spite of the evolving science. “Human behaviours and affective states are … strongly influenced by the olfactory environment, which can evoke strong emotional and behavioural reactions… Odour-mediated communication between individuals, once thought to be limited to ‘lower animals’ is now understood to carry information about familiar relationships, stress and anxiety levels, and reproductive status in humans as well, although this information is not always consciously accessible.”

Our reactions to odorants is conditioned by learnt behaviour, so what works for you is down to the personal associations of a particular smell, and how often - or how early - its positive association has been re-inforced. If you are feeling lonely in self-isolation, you might want to curl up with your boyfriend’s unwashed T-shirt, or wear a gourmand body lotion that reminds you of the pleasure of comfort-eating cookies. If baking smells like vanilla and caramel are associated with a mother-figure from your childhood, the sense of security is enhanced even further.

Iso E Super is not produced by our own bodies, so it would seem that it is mimicking an as-yet-unidentified molecule produced naturally in humans

But while our response to scents is inflected by personal memories, certain smells have been demonstrated to have the same effect across a wide range of people. Research at IFF (International Flavours & Fragrances) using fMRI scans has revealed the parts of the brain stimulated by different natural scent materials. Lavender was shown to stimulate brain areas associated with relaxation, while vanilla was associated with an increase in contentment.

Professor Dr. Hanns Hatt, whose laboratory at Ruhr-University Bochum specialises in olfaction, has dug down to a more granular level and mapped the reaction of the human brain to individual fragrance molecules. Iso E Super stimulates the hypothalamus, an area within the limbic system that controls hormone regulation. Iso E Super is not produced by our own bodies, so it would seem that it is mimicking an as-yet-unidentified molecule produced naturally in humans.

The effect of Iso E Super on the hypothalamus is much stronger in women than in men, indicating that this unknown substance may be something that is more important for women than men to smell. Extrapolating from Iso E Super’s anecdotally-observed cocooning ‘hug me’ effect, it might be that it has a purpose similar to the hormone oxytocin which promotes mother-child bonding.

Dousing yourself in the molecule is like receiving an olfactory hug at a time when you can’t receive physical ones

Iso E Super is, of course, Molecule 01. Dousing yourself in the molecule during lockdown could be thought of as receiving an olfactory hug at a time when you may not be receiving any physical ones. On the other hand, if you are self-isolating with other selves, spritzing a little into your personal smell-space could be an experimental strategy for a smooth lockdown. While this is a great time to rediscover the power of fragrance to enhance your own moods, adding a little sweetener to the shared air is not to be sniffed at. The family that sprays together, stays together.

“Molecule 05 is a minimalist sketch of summer. Escentric 05 takes that sketch and fleshes it out into a full-blown summer’s day. Escentric Molecules 05 is the first time I have chosen a molecule and made a fragrance that evoke a sense of place - a summer place that is very special to me.”
Geza Schoen

Molecule 05

 

Cashmeran is the molecule I’ve chosen to be Molecule 05. As you would expect with a name like cashmeran it’s warm and caressing. For me it evokes the sensuousness of summer.

Cashmeran is both woody and musky. Already that's rare. But that’s not all. It’s complex and multi-facetted, almost like a whole fragrance in one molecule. How can something be dry and creamy at the same time? It’s a paradox, but cashmeran does that too. It has the dry quality typical of woods, but also a creamy aura that makes you want to nuzzle into it.

A creamy aura that makes you want to nuzzle into it

What really pumps up the summer feeling for me is the pine note in the molecule. We tend to think of the clean high smell of the needles when we think of pine. But the pine note in cashmeran is different. It’s the scent of pine wood. That smell for me evokes walking up a path of ancient trees whose wood has been penetrated by the sun all summer long till they ooze out the last gasps of a resinous, balsamic breath.

A path of ancient trees whose wood has been penetrated by the sun till they ooze out the last gasps of resinous, balsamic breath

So cashmeran is woody, dry, musky, creamy, pine-y, resinous – and it even has something else. A fruity note. If I had to connect it with a single fruit it would be a rosey apple note. Cashmeran is one of those mysterious molecules that is hard to put into words.

 

Escentric 05

Escentric 05 is special. Like the other Escentric fragrances it riffs on the Molecule, but it’s more than that. Escentric 05 is a evocation of my summer retreat on a Mediterranean island. It’s a little piece of my heart, my most personal fragrance yet.

Escentric 05 is a little piece of my heart, my most personal fragrance yet

Have you ever spent all afternoon lying by the sea and then, as the sun begins to drop, walked up a path through dry, aromatic herbs and bushes, under pines that have soaked up all the heat of the sun? That’s Escentric 05. It was influenced by the very specific smells of the old cobbled path that leads to our little house on Mallorca. The first time I walked along that path, I began to scribble inside the notebook of my head – notes about the smell, how unusual it was.

A touch of sweetness oozes from this unbearable dryness in beads of resin

The path is Roman, and the trees that shade it are hundreds of years old. Their living wood has been penetrated by the sun over countless summers and drenched in winter rains year after year. This changes their essence, giving it a concentrated dryness as if the wood has been pressed like coal. A touch of sweetness oozes from these trees in beads of resin. That resinous note is echoed in the mastic I’ve used in the fragrance. Mastic comes from a little Mediterranean tree that grows especially by the sea. The pine in the fragrance also connects with cypress, a Mediterranean tree with a herbal-woody expression. I often use cypress, but never as much as here.

As you walk higher up the path, the sound of the sea falls away and the smell of dried-out Mediterranean herbs fills the air. I’ve included laurel, rosemary, and the ambery smell of labdanum. Also juniper berry because it's the most sophisticated pine-y note we have. Juniper is very sexy. There’s also pink pepper, basil, and some coriander seed which adds a sweet touch to the herbal freshness.

A distant ghost flower on the breeze

To get to the path you first go through an ancient wooden door that's falling apart. As you open the door, you are hit, even in the hottest summer, by a delicious smell of linalool. Linalool is the molecule that gives an impression of freshness to so many flowers. I tend to avoid florals, but linalool? It’s the lively and fresh part of the flower, the part I love. Every time we go to the island we search for what flower could possibly be blooming in the scorching summer heat, but we have never found it. It’s like a distant ghost flower that comes in on the breeze. If I hadn’t encountered this unknown flower on the path I would never have thought of including that much linalool. But it’s perfect. It adds something light-hearted to the deep woods of the fragrance.

Synthetics form the skeleton of Escentric 05 but its flesh and its soul are the naturals

Escentric 05 is closer to nature than the other Escentric fragrances. Synthetics form its skeleton, but its flesh and its soul are the naturals. Along with cypress, laurel, pine, mastic and all the herbs, there’s a little jasmine absolue, some irone – the main component of orris - bergamot, mandarin, lemon and orange. Orange makes you smile like no other ingredient. It’s the smell of happiness, and that's how I feel when I set foot on the island. There’s also a little fig note. If you didn’t know you probably wouldn’t detect it, but it had to be in because of the fig tree that adds its tonality to the aroma of the path.

And then there’s the ingredient that, to my mind, smells closest to sunlit air. Bisabolene, which is a molecule originally found in bergamot. You know those summers when you spend the whole day on the beach, swimming, sunbathing, swimming again .. .and as you roll over to get up and head home, you catch a whiff of your own underarm? That’s bisabolene. Sun-kissed outdoor skin. An essential element to the smell of summer.

Fragrance has no gender. Perfumery sells a story, a concept, a dream, a memory — all of which have no distinction between male or female in their ability to enthral us. So why should we limit the experience of these creative expressions to such binaries?

The truth is that gender in fragrance has been the solid, albeit antiquated, foundation for marketing purposes for centuries. The glistening Adonis in a cologne advertisement or the coy ingénue in a floral fragrance campaign feed into aspirational stereotypes. Advertisers prey on the fact that consumers believe buying said bottle of publicised perfume will bring them that tiny step closer to such an ideal.

Fragrance has no gender, so why should we limit their experience to such binaries?

Furthermore, for those who fear being too experimental with their scent purchases, gender binaries offer a small cage of comfort. Stay within the prescribed framework and you will never risk someone calling your scent too masculine or feminine.

The bias doesn’t merely infiltrate fragrance products, but even the raw materials themselves. More delicate components like florals are often attributed feminine qualities, whereas robust notes such as cedarwood are adorned with notions of masculinity. A Freudian perspective would even go so far as to declare the visual and characteristic similarities between certain materials and their corresponding gender as a sexual metaphor.

The bias doesn’t merely infiltrate products, but even the raw materials themselves

Analysing gender-prescribed fragrances requires both a biological, but more importantly a cultural, component. According to Anna Lindqvist at Stockholm University’s Department of Psychology, a majority of consumers choose fragrances which land in the middle of the gender spectrum, regardless of whether they are male or female, thus making a case for the proliferation of unisex fragrances. A study on sexual dimorphism in olfactory function states that women have more neurons and glial cells than men, which, combined with hormonal fluctuations, indicates more scent sensitivity. This could explain an overall tendency towards softer smells in traditional women’s fragrances, like a soft white musk or light-bodied jasmine scent.

In a time where the best-selling mass-market women’s fragrances include highly saccharine, dare one say almost juvenile, gourmand florientals, could the delicately sweet nature of these perfumes be a method of belittlement? As the gender gap becomes narrower, one could almost see scented bodies as helping maintain the status quo of bold-smelling alpha males and obedient females, adorned with a fragrance that makes them smell more like a delectable dessert than mature woman.

As the gender gap narrows, one could see mass-market scented bodies as maintaining the status quo of alpha males and obedient females

However, in a day and age where an increasing number of individuals identify as gender fluid, these distinctions needn’t exist. While the likes of CK One have been deemed as revolutionaries in the marketing of unisex fragrances, gender-bending scent adoration has been around for much longer. It has taken the recent rise of niche fragrance, which sells a story rather than a gender ideal, to make mainstream audiences comfortable with adapting their purchases to personal preference rather than prescribed gender category. For example, many men often feared wearing a floral scent at the risk of being perceived as less masculine, yet rose scents have proven particularly popular among this demographic in recent years.

Consumers shouldn’t be denied a plethora of scent possibilities based on whether they are male or female

But ultimately, individual smell perceptions remain the biggest factor at play. How gendered this approach will be is dependent on a multitude of factors such as taste, upbringing, current environments, or what French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu referred to as ‘habitus’. It is a matter of personal choice, but consumers shouldn’t be denied a plethora of possibilities based on whether they are male or female. In a future where gender identity has become non-binary, it’s about time our fragrances did the same.

We are animals and deep down we desire the smell of the other sex. Unlike the other animals, though, we spend our time eliminating our own body smell and replacing it with secretions from other creatures. And not just any secretions, but secretions from their nether regions. Civet comes from glands right next to the civet cat’s anus, musk is located in the penile sheath of the musk deer, and castoreum comes from little sacs tucked under a beaver’s tail. The beavers smear the castoreum around their territory as a kind of Morse code to communicate quite complex messages to other beavers. Weird as these ingredients may sound, and stinky as they may be at concentration, at the right dilution they have a natural magic.

An Auranone would look like a deer but with jasmine vines in place of antlers

Only a couple of the animal ingredients used in perfumery nowadays ever come from a real animal. The rest owe their existence to a zoo of lab-created molecules and bases: the animal imaginarium. The imaginarium is inhabited by fantasy animals. Some of them, such as the molecule ambroxan, are nature-identical which means they have exactly the same chemical structure as molecules found in nature. The Ambroxan that is our Molecule 02 is made in the lab, but the same molecule is found in ambergris, a substance formed in the belly of a whale.

An Applelide would have a pair of Cox’s Orange Pippinicles dangling from its underside

Some of the creatures in the animal imaginarium are a bit more hallucinogenic. Take applelide, which is a musk-type molecule with a green apple topnote, or Auranone, a musk base with a floral note. Auranone is like a cross between a musk deer and jasmine. If you can imagine a future where synthetic biologists created an Auranone, it would look like a deer but with jasmine vines in place of antlers. While an Applelide would have a pair of Cox’s Orange Pippinicles dangling from its underside in place of testicles. Pippinicles? A hybrid of testicles and apples.

When you see ‘musk’ listed as an ingredient in a fragrance, know that it could be any one of the dozens of fantasy musks out there. These each have a different scent-profile and names like Shangralide, Nirvanolide, Celestolide, Sylkolide. Sometimes you will see ‘white musk’ mentioned as an ingredient. This is the name given to fantasy musks with a clean smell. The best-known white musk is Galaxolide, which to my mind has a paper note. It’s so good that these days it is used in everything.

For Escentric 02 I combined muscone with vetiveryl acetate and ambroxan, they fused together to make a radiant bomb.

But if you use those big musks like galaxolide your fragrance will smell like every other perfume. I would rather leave it out. I prefer muscone, which is the nature-identical musk. Muscone is beautiful, but it’s not cheap. Galaxolide is around 4€ per Kilo, whereas a kilo of muscone costs several hundred euros. For the base of Escentric 02 I combined muscone with vetiveryl acetate and ambroxan and the three fused together to make a radiant bomb that’s warm, clean and cocooning.

Fantasy animals are strange, but nature has some pretty strange crossovers too. Some plants have musk notes, while ambroxan is the key aroma-molecule in ambergris, yes, but it also occurs in the herb clary sage and the Mediterranean plant, cistus labdanum. Nobody knows why these aromas should occur in plants as well as animals.

Ambergris is formed in the whale in much the same way that a pearl forms round a grain of sand in an oyster.

And then anyone smelling ambroxan without knowing what it was would never say it was animalic. It had a mineral freshness and a dry woodiness to it. But then ambergris has a different natural function than the other animal ingredients. It is formed in its digestive system of the whale in much the same way that a pearl forms round a grain of sand in an oyster. The whale builds up the paste-like substance to protect its innards from the razor-sharp beaks of the deep-sea squid it eats. Eventually it ejects an ambergris bolus studded with squid beaks. It will then take years of floating on the ocean for the ambergris to refine its distinctive smell.

There’s a note in Animalis that smells like ‘clean bum’, that’s the only way I can describe it.

Some of the most flagrant animals in the imaginarium are down to bases. Take Animalis, a famous base created 80 or 90 years ago. There’s a note in there that smells like ‘clean bum’, that's the only way I can describe it. Clean bum is a smell we human animals are drawn to, whether we admit it to ourselves or not. Think of a big male fragrance like Saint Laurent’s Kouros - that's basically raging Animalis. There’s around 10% of it in there and 10% of Animalis will hack right through anything else to give the impression you’ve landed in the lion’s den at the zoo.

The wackiest animal ingredient in perfumery has got to be hyraceum. This is the fossilised shit and pee of a small furry creature called a hyrax. These African animals always use the same rocky area or cave as their lavatory, and in some of these hyrax loos, the poo has built up over thousands of years till it turns to stone. Collectors gather the petrified poo at the bottom of the pile. No harm to the animals here, they are probably delighted to see it go. Some perfumers say it can be used as a substitute for synthetic musk. But when it comes to hyraceum I like to apply my key rule of fragrance: it’s not what you put in, it’s what you leave out.

Don’t expect petrified poo in Escentric Molecules anytime soon.