Written By: N. Amma Twum-Baah
As I engrossed myself in the day’s headlines on the commute to work, my female senses (if you know what I mean) were rudely awakened by the sweet, sexy smell of “a man.” I apologized to this 40 something year-old, good-looking (may I add) gentleman, but I just had to ask. “Sorry for intruding”, I said, “but I just have to ask you, what scent are you wearing?” Then to cover my obvious drooling and slight embarrassment, I continued, “I would love to get that for my husband for Christmas.” Of course this started a general conversation on politics (the auto bail-out, Obama’s win and other topics), after which he told me he was wearing Bvlgari Agva Pour Homme shave lotion (I had to write that down), and, of course, that I smelled nice too.
When he disembarked, I was still having a “damn that man smells good!” moment and I was not in the least bit embarrassed that he had awakened my sexual senses with his aftershave. Wondering whether this was a weird and out of the ordinary occurrence, I decided to do a little research. And what i found was that my reaction to this total stranger was normal. Good looks aside, it was obviously his scent that had tweaked my sexual radar. I hope I just didn’t admit to cheating.
It’s a proven fact that scent can affect a person’s mood and entire sense of well-being. Smell is a powerful sense that goes directly to the core of our emotional brain and it plays a key role in attraction, according to Ian Kerner, a sex therapist, relationship counselor and author. It has also been proven that women are sensitive to male pheromones (scented sex hormones) during the period of ovulation. That’s a “voila” for me right there! I’m consoled by the fact that I’m not just a sex-crazed woman attracted to a good-smelling stranger. It’s my hormones out of control during a period I have no control over. Among body pheromones, androstenol is the body scent produced by fresh male sweat and is often attractive to women. Men (and producers of male fragrances) have caught up with the concept of our scent-weakness – for lack of a better term – and have proceeded to use pheromone-based scents to draw women to men. An experiment in a dentist’s waiting room showed that women more often opted for the pheromone-sprayed chair placed in the waiting room. It does not say what the other chairs were sprayed with.
I am yet to find out if androstenol is a key ingredient in Bvlgari Agva Pour Homme shave lotion, or, in any of the other scents my husband wears that cause me to lose control of my sexual senses, but I bet you it’ll be right there on the label (or maybe not – that would be a dead giveaway). So there you have it; one more woman bait for all you sex-crazed men out there!
