Back in the 1980s and 1990s, he says, various compounds were proposed as being human pheromones, including a family of steroids related to testosterone. “But there is no good evidence that these actually are the human pheromones,” Wyatt says. “The evidence is always circumstantial and rather poor.”
Wyatt says if you bought a jar of something called human pheromones, it would be “wasted money.”
— Tristram Wyatt of the University of Oxford talks to NPR about pheromones. Read more (or listen to the radio spot) at Pheromones: No Love Potion No. 9.
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Does anyone remember Jovan's Andron from the early 1980s? It supposedly had human pheromones in it, which I always thought was a load of bunkum, but it must have had SOMETHING in it, because 1) my grandmother thought it smelled like sweat, and yet 2) I knew a couple of women who thought it was sublimely sexy and nuzzle-worthy. (I pretty much forced the boyfriend of a female friend of mine to wear it, because she found it so irresistible.)
I don't know about pheromones, but individuals' scents can be powerful attractants. I almost married one man because he smelled so good, I couldn't think clearly. My high-school boyfriend smelled of scented powder, which he didn't use. 35 years later, he smells the same. Another smells of sulphur. Sulphur shouldn't smell good, but he does. Which should have warned me.
I worked with a guy who came in after a morning spent hunting with the guys. He smelled so amazing I was dizzy.
I was gaga for a guy for along time that I never bedded, and I think our smells would not have meshed, I didn't like his smell. Loved him, but not that. Funny.
Sulphur!!! I'd watch out for that one – that's the Devil's smell!! lol
I don't remember that one at all! “Andron” doesn't sound like a perfume.
Should I be glad or not glad that I don't have any idea what any of my high school boyfriends smell like these days?
The smell of a morning hunting doesn't sound appealing, but I'll take your word for it
There were two, one for men and one for women, in tilted bottles: you can see the men's version at Basenotes, but I can't find the women's bottle anywhere online (it was a sort of oval to the men's rectangle). I don't believe I ever smelled the women's, but the men's was really and truly fantastic (at least to my eighteen-year-old nose). I don't know if the effect was due to the supposed pheromone, androstenol (which obviously gave the scent its name), or to the fact that it had all four animal-derived notes (civet, castoreum, ambergris, and musk), though presumably synthetic, in its base, but it was just a knockout. So good.
Heh. Depends on which boyfriend.
lol – I don't know how he did it but every woman in the office was reeling. He had a great smell of being out in the woods all day – fresh and green, with a bit of loamy dirt and sweat. We all found an excuse to touch him.
My cat, of all people, came in smelling so amazing I could hardly stand it – pine sap, crushed nasturtiums, his fur – I had my face in his belly for a while.
Wow — sounds like some serious skank! And a quick google search reveals that it had lots of fans. Too bad it can't be had — do you ever look on ebay?
Healthy cats smell wonderful! Don't know how they do it, but then again, maybe you have to like cats in the first place.
I dated a guy years ago who was the outdoorsey/hunting/fishing type. He always smelled like fresh cut hay/greens/woods. Amazing how good he smelled. There is something to those pheremones for sure.
No, I think it's one of those things better left to the past. I don't want to pay a hundred bucks or more for a half-bottle that might or might not have turned, and might not live up to my memory of it.
If Jovan ever re-launched it, though, a lot of people would have to fight me for first place in line to buy it.
I love the smell of warm furry kitty belly! Even better when they are purring too!
Those are all smells I love…
I like that air freshener ad where the guy picks up the cat to use as a gas mask – now that's a guy who knows a good thing!