Perfumes have been used by people for thousands of years and the prevailing view has been that this was to mask our natural body odour to make us smell more attractive. In fact, what we have found is there is a strong individual interaction between perfume and body odour. People choose fragrances to complement their own odour.
— Dr Jan Havlicek of Charles University in Prague, quoted in Choice of fragrance 'influenced by our body odour' at the Telegraph.
Finally! I could never accept LT’s view that perfumes smell the same on everyone. This article makes sense to me.
As is so often the case, this is a teensy little sample size…it’s interesting, but hard to draw conclusions. But I don’t think perfumes smell the same on everyone either.
Interesting – apparently my body odour is all about iris.
LOL…yes, and my body odor requires spendy perfumes!
Even more intriguing to me is this:
“There is statistical correlation that shows there is a link between our immunotype and our fragrance preference. It seems that you chose the perfume that reflects your immune system.”
I wonder what implications this has for connecting perfumes to health? How does one know one’s immunotype?
You’ll find links to more info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Histocompatibility_Complex_and_Sexual_Selection
Oooh, nerdy! Thanks, Robin. Now, if someone could just please map my immune type to a selection of fragrances, I could be a much more efficient consumer!
OK, how many people apply their perfumes directly to their armpits? I know that I don’t (although I was strongly encouraged to buy a Bvlgari deodorant on Saturday).
I don’t believe this. Body odor coming directly from the source (eg, breath, arm pits, crotch) is quite distinct based on diet, hygiene, immune system and a number of other variables. However, I apply fragrances to my neck areas and wrists – places where body odor is not emitting.
There may be some truth to the idea that fragrances smell differently on different people, but this study doesn’t prove anything by applying it to the armpit.
Please note that I am not arguing that fragrances do or do not smell differently on different people – I’ll leave that to Luca Turin et al. I am arguing about the merits of this study.
Not sure the study is saying that perfumes smell different on different people so much as that the perfumes we select might complement our natural smell…I don’t see those as necessarily the same thing. But again, this is a teeny little study, so it’s interesting more than definitive.
Yes, it I agree that it’s not definitive since they studied so few women. However, I’m not seeing the difference between the study suggesting that perfumes smell differently on people based on their natural biochemistry and the idea that different perfumes complement different people based on their natural biochemistry. I would think that these two concepts go hand in hand – that they complement different people’s odors differently because the odors… are different.
Again, my real concern with the merits of this study is that to my knowlege, most women do not apply perfumes directly to their armpits. It would be a far more accurate study if participants applied a fragrance they chose to 1 pulsepoint, and the randomly selected fragrance to a different pulsepoint.
I do not think this study tells us much about anything based on the number of women involved and the methodology.
BUT! I will say that it’s interesting! Just not necessarily helpful
*well, maybe it would be helpful for knowing not to buy another person deodorant! I’ll continue to buy people fragrances, though