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Our Bodies, Our Smells

I don’t know about you, but a good-smelling neck is my downfall. When I hugged a recent date hello, I got a whiff of a sweet combination of her, her perfume and what soon revealed itself to be her drama. It was enchanting. You can’t control your pheromones — and hopefully if you have any drama, you’re working on it — but you can choose a fragrance that works with your body chemistry to make your love objects swoon. I’ll even show you how to choose a fragrance over the Internet.

But first, a brief note on scent etiquette, or scentiquette as one might call it were one so inclined. Scent is a very personal thing, and not everybody is going to love yours. Consider perfume and cologne as you consider your other bodily... fragrances. Someone should need to be quite close to you to get the full effect. Spritz once in the air, walk through, the end. You’d rather incite intrigue than migraines, right? And by all means, if someone tells you that your fragrance is making them feel ill, be gracious about it, even if they’re not.


There are, arguably, five basic families of scents: Floral, Oriental, Woody, Fresh and Gourmand. As you might have guessed, Floral comprises flowers; Stella McCartney’s Stella and BeneFit’s Maybe Baby are both Floral-based perfumes. Oriental (I did not name these categories… paging Edward Saïd) refers to vanillas, ambers, cloves and other spices; Yves St. Laurent Opium is probably the most well-known of these types of scents. Woody means, well, wood — sandalwood, rosewood, cedar — and you can check out Dior Fahrenheit and Ralph Lauren Polo for some examples and some serious retro flashbacks. Fresh scents involve a lot of citrus, green and water scents, such as L’Occitaine Verbena Harvest, Hugo Boss Hugo, and Body Time’s China Rain, respectively. And Gourmand indicates desserts... caramel, chocolate, honey. Thierry Mugler’s Angel is a good representative of this category. You can keep up to date on scent trends on the excellent blog Now Smell This.

To find your dream scent, you’ll have to endure some trial and error. I recommend spending a few days in Sephora. Spritz likely contenders on test paper first, and if they appeal, spray your arm. Bring a friend and try the same scents on both of you. You’ll be surprised at what happens. Fragrances that smell amazing on my BFF smell like paper on me, and vice-versa. We found one overlap — Masaki Matsushima’s Cherry — and even though it smells great on both of us, it smells way more floral on me and way more fruity on her. The magic of bodies!

Amazingly, this perfume smells like floralized poon, in the best way:


During your Sephora spree, write down the names of the fragrances that speak to you and cause mysterious babes to buy you flowers. Keep sniffing yourself over the course of a few hours. The scent will unfurl gradually; something that initially smells delicious may end up smelling kind of disgusting, so wait and see. The top notes make themselves known right away and begin to fade after the first 15 minutes, the middle notes kick in anywhere from two to 60 minutes later and the base notes appear about a half-hour after application.


The Fragonnard perfume museum in Grasse, France.

And now the fun part for those of us who get sexually aroused by research! Take your list of fragrances that make you smell like queerbait and look them up online to find out their notes. Sephora’s website offers this information; enlist the mighty power of Google to look further. You will soon notice some patterns. Extrapolate your results, and "Hello educated-guessing-about-buying-scent-sight-unsmelled!"

Stay beautiful and subtly, beautifully scented,
--Chaia

42 Comments

povvo combo

i do not have much money. i am particular about my smell. what's a girl to do? well, i have it down to a combination of student budget-friendly stuff that my girl loves. shower daily (twice if possible) using radox ocean minerals shower gel. it brings a freshness to the undertone. then apply (fairly) odourless nivea antiperspirant to preserve it all. finish off with a spritz of impulse musk body spray. i think people are a bit biased against musk. they say it makes you smell like your mum. i say in combination with these other things it works just peachily. oh, and sometimes after i exfoliate my guitarist's fingers, i rub some lavender essential oils into my cuticles to soothe them. lavender has a calming scent which i find entrancing

ciao x

Nivea

NIVEA Aftershave for men!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhh! But I might be conditioned...

Latest perfume...

The beat by Burberry = pure heaven.
mmmmmm :)

mmmm...

dolcE AND gabbana lit blu is indeed delicioso!!

top 10 list

i definitely know that for me a woman who has that certain smell that you can't get out of your mind will drive you crazy. so i've gathered the info from my homo friends and we came up with a top 10 list for ya'll

1. Jake from Hollister (its been collectively decided that this will make any lesbian take a second look at you... and or drop her panties)

2. Abercrombie 8 (delllliccious)

3. Aqua De Gio by Armani

4. Very sexy for Men from victoria secrets

5. Peice of Heaven from victoria secrets

6. Feirce by Abercrombi

7. Axe (the commercials don't lie)

8. With Love by hilary duff

9. Lilu by PacSun

and
10. warm vanilla sugar

UmmmGoooood

Nothing but flesh. Natural, sweet , OMFG ..... I gotta go.

Floralized poon rules all.

Floralized poon rules all.

author

You know how I feel about

You know how I feel about floralized poon.

The power of scent

I wore Very Sexy for a good while but I was hording a little bottle of Light Blue by Dolce & Gabbana that a former girlfriend had gotten for me. It was the best thing that she ever did. Now I wear a combination of a Vanilla aromatherapy lotion from Bath and Body Works and Light Blue. I finally caved and bought myself the big bottle. It is amazing the power of scent. I have caught my partner when she thought I was asleep nestling herself against my neck, breathing me in and kissing the side of my face. I love when we are apart that she will tell me that she misses the way I smell. I try to keep my scent as simple as possible, unscented soap, unscented deodorant, lotion, and a little perfume.It seems to work for me.

aqua di gio by G.Armani ,

aqua di gio by G.Armani , Hypnotic poison by Dior , and my ex had this Brut deodorant ( the green one) by fabergé that i looooooooooooooved

Sa ki la pou'w dlo pa ka chayé'y

I agree

Nothing better than meeting a girl that has an amazing smell that leaves u wondering... its my downfall too!

Obssesion

Ive become obssesed with INTENSE BY HUGO BOSS... i love it! its my favorite smell.

Sexy, intriguing, intense, misterious! god amazing

I don't wear a fragrance

I don't wear a fragrance (I'd rather spend fifty bucks on shoes), but my girlfriend wears some Lancome scent. I don't know what it's called exactly, but I do know that it drives me crazy. So is it creepy of me that while she's gone in the Philippines for the week I took one of the shirts she left in my apartment and put it over a pillow to snuggle with?

Insert Shameless Self-Promotion Here

No it's not creepy

It's sweet. :) Melissa took a pair of my favorite, ahem, Paul Frank undies when she was out of the country. (i think you can figure out why) Peace, Jodie

....

After she has this effect with her perfume on you, why don't you try find yourself a perfume, too, so you can make her go crazy like she does.. ;)

love, love, love

Warm Vanilla Sugar body spray from Bath and Body Works...also can't get enough of Chance by Chanel

Too sexy for your perfume

Being a total allergy nerd and allergic to most perfumes...there is nothing more sexy than having to break out my inhaler after getting a slight asthma attack while on a date with a hot girl with too much perfume on.

"are you ok?"

"yeah..I'm fine."

"Do you need a glass of water?"

"No, really I'll be fine."

body oils ladies! they smell soooo much better.

Don't laugh...

But Axe For Men on a certain soldier I know gets my blood boiling. It's true.

Smelly

I think that running xc in college ruined me for perfume. We ran our long runs in a tight pack, and anyone who made the rest of us choke on their fragrance was not appreciated. I still can't enjoy perfume/cologne.

But I love the way my sweetie's skin smells, especially in the hollow of her neck. Perhaps that makes me more like a 4-legged mammal?

My cat goes nuts for the way I smell when I sweat - specifically, from exercise, not heat. Normally less affectionate than his brother, he is on me like glue the moment I come in from a run. He circles me while I stretch, rubbing on my skin, and has even been known to lick the sweat off my arm. It's gotta be scent, because he does not behave this way when I come home from any other activity. Anyways, it never ceases to amaze me. Does anyone else have a crazy creature that gets downright amorous when you're stinky? It's so weird...

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

"Does anyone else have a crazy creature that gets downright amorous when you're stinky? It's so weird..."

As an animal lover, I thought that was funny and cute to read. I've had dogs do that to my arms before, cuz of the salt in the sweat I think, but I guess your cat really digs the salt too. :) Peace, Jodie

hehehe

Pets just crack me up. The other kooky thing that my cat does, though less often since I moved, is watch me hit my heavy bag. The blind one (his bro) gets scared and hides, but the other must still be in a sweat-induced craze from my run, because he'll watch, and then if I offer my glove in between sets, he'll jab at it with his paw. I love it when he does that. I digress, though, as this cannot be linked to smell in any way.

Have a good one,
Lisa

i wear

I wear two different scents, I Love Love by Moschino, which is kind of reminiscent of Dolce and Gabbana Light Blue: A witty floral banquet, full of exurberance and envigorating whimsy with hints of Grapefruit, Orange, Lemon, Redcurrant, Tea Rose, Lily of the Valley, Cinnamon Leaves, Musk, Cedar, Tonka Wood. That's my scent for when I'm feeling very girly, or just on your average day

for when i'm feeling a bit more androgynous, i wear Ck Be, which is sold as both a mens and womens fragrance. refreshing, oriental, woody fragrance. This unisex scent possesses a blend of musk, mandarin, magnolia, peach and sandalwood. sexy sexy sexy.

You're like a walking house of good smells.

I wear CK Be sometimes too. Something about it is sexy and soothing. Have you ever tried wearing all your perfumes at once? Or would that create some sort of biological weapon?
Hmmm....

CK BE?

I was wondering what that scent was. All this time I thought it was squirrel girl. To the panic room! Oh wait, you're the moddy moderator there.

umbrellas for sale!

Grandmother's smell sexy...

well they do. Except Ben-Gay grandmas. It's something about a woman past 60, I don't know. Maybe, women past 60 are clinging to the perfumes and powders of their youth, but boy (girl) do they smell good. Maybe what I'm saying is, I want to smell like a sexy granny. Well unless it's the crazy granny who throws cats at people. Yeah, that smells not a rockin'.

Is it possible to smell like a cabbage patch kid? Or, was that too much information?

Good Smells '09

Is it sad...

that I actually nodded in agreement about smelling like a cabbage patch kid?

Oh yea!

I think fragrances, smells, perfumes etc. have the most affect on me. If a person is not that physically attractive, but she has amazing perfume on, I'm instantly interested! I've always been a sucker for the good smelling ladies haha! It really does have such a large impact. I wear Very Sexy by Victoria's Secret and thank God I picked out a good one. Everywhere I go, people tell me I smell great! It boosts my self-esteem, lol. Anyway, this was a great post! It definitley covers one of the things I like most in a woman. ;-) --Britt

My two scents

There is this girl I work with, every time she passes me I swoon. She smells sooo good too me, it makes my stomach hurt. I could just walk behind her all day, but I think I'd literally pass out. And I think it's just her fabric softener combined with her own scent. Hihi.

Fresh Scents

Do it for me. Totally. Weakness #2.

Scents I love 1. Natural

Scents I love
1. Natural scent of a woman.. one that showers regularly and deodorizes.
2. That green dove soap.. mmmm.
3. Clean laundry.

I really prefer floral scents than fruity.

I agree with Jesshogan

There is nothing sexier than the right scent on a woman. Often, getting a whiff of someone wearing a familiar scent as she walks by, puts me right back to settings that could have happened many years ago. Some women smell naturally sweet, perhaps just because they do.

There are two turn-offs for me. The first is someone who can't tell she's wearing too much perfume. The other is a anyone who doesn't pay attention to how they smell. With a woman, depending on what she eats, how often she washes her clothes, her hair, etc. the whole effect can be a real turn-off.
Lezbeth

Sensi

by Giorgio Armani - if you were wondering!!!!

Nothing but love

Tex

mm-mmmmm-MM

^_^

Lezbeth

That emotional memory you

That emotional memory you speak of - that's your amygdala (in yer brain). It's just a couple of connections away from your olfactory nerve, and responsible for those emotional memories linked to your sense of smell. It's pretty powerful, and, I believe, evolutionarily primitive (well, relatively speaking - don't think amoebae smell). Just a bit down the road is your hippocampus, which does less emotion, more memory. Don't know why I felt the need to share. It's just pretty cool.

Drunrchick yer turning me on talking like that woman

Haaa! Just playin' with ya (sort of). :) Peace, Jodie

Smell

Ooo...I love the way Bath & Body Works' Jasmine Vanilla lotion smells on one certain person ;). Makes me absolutely melt...for me, however, I like Adidas Moves for Men. The womens' scent smells funky.
Peace out girl scouts! Val

There is nothing sexier than

There is nothing sexier than a woman with a nice scent; it really does turn me on for some reason. The ones that suit me are Dolce & Gabbana The One, Giorgio Armani Emporio White Hers and CKIN2U hers, but for others I like Versace, Giorgio Armani Emporio She Ladies and Hugo Boss Deep Red - they're all just lovely!

Cool thread

I love Dolce And Gabbana Men by Dolce & Gabbana. I first smelled it on a beautiful gay boy working at my favorite (at the time) cafe in Ventura. OMG, Hugo smelled DELICIOUS, which led me to start wearing it. It works very good for me. My (incredibly fuggin HOT) French lover loved it too, which led her to get me and her Light Blue by Dolce & Gabbana for Women as well, also just WONDERFUL. :) Peace, Jodie

Oh oh oh

Light blue by D&G works for me too!! Also a fragrance by Roberto Cavalli, the name of which escapes me right now, had the unrequited platonic love of my life with her nose practically glued to my neck last week. I did not complain...
And, since you mentioned men's, Man from Alessandro Dell'Acqua is nice too!!
My fag-hag neighbour works for a cosmetics retailer, she brings home free samples!!
thank god for Google, Roberto Cavalli, Just Cavalli Her, is the one I couldn't remember

Ok, cool

I'll definitely check it out, thanks. :) Peace, Jodie

What about body oils that

What about body oils that are specifically blended while you wait.There a shop owned by a jamaican women that I just enjoy visiting for her oils.

Amen

Amen on the body oils. love em.