Human body odors are playing a crucial role in the attractiveness of a sexual partner. This question has been studied by scientists, initially driven by a fascination with pheromones. Recent discoveries have debunked this approach and provided more substantiated perspectives. At the Paris Perfume Week, on the Smell Talks stage, Dr. Olivier David (Associate Professor and Chemist), Dr. Philippe Brenot (Psychiatrist, Anthropologist, and Director of Sexology Education at Paris Cité University), and Dr. Camille Ferdenzi-Lemaître (Researcher at the CNRS) will reveal their valuable research, shedding light on humanity’s inexorable evolution – from its animal intimacy to its individual and sexual freedom.
As an introduction to this enigmatic and fascinating topic, we invite you to read an excerpt from the article “The Chemistry of Attraction”, written by Eléonore de Bonneval and published in Nez #3 – The Sex of Scent
The scent of first love
Human psychologist Harald Euler believes that “olfactory comfort phenomena have been greatly neglected until now.” Yet, countless women have borrowed their partner’s pyjamas or T-shirt at least once to gain a sense of their presence. Euler also states that women and men “are similar on one point: the smell of their loved one raises feelings of happiness, closeness and satisfaction.”
We must not forget that in this context, individuals are aware that the garment belongs to their spouse. So psychological conditioning has a powerful effect, and this could be stronger than the role of smell. This is obviously not the only criterion for choosing a partner. A romantic encounter can take place “at 20-30 metres, because we are attracted to a certain body shape, so we approach it,” explains Philippe Brenot, a French psychiatrist and marriage counsellor. We hear a voice, or we notice gestures or an attitude. “We approach if it pleases us, we recoil if it doesn’t,” says Brenot. But he insists that a person’s scent is a discriminating factor when we initially meet the other.
For a relationship to last, the physical form of a person, the feeling of attraction and the way of speaking are not enough: smell is an important factor. Brenot refers to scents as secondary olfactory impressions. “I have heard stories of men or women who fall in love with someone who uses the same perfume as their first love,” he points out. “To smell a person or to be smelled by them is always to explore them on an intimate level and penetrate their innermost character,” says French philosopher Chantal Jaquet, co-author of Le Parfum et l’Amour (Perfume and Love). She argues that odour has the capacity to bring two bodies together and unite them to the extent that one feels they own the other.
Profound feelings are expressed through the sense of smell, which becomes the mediator of the deepest intimacy, even when the relationship is on the wane. “I had a case of a couple who were together for over 20 years. One day the wife said, ‘I can no longer stand the smell of his body’,” recalls Philippe Brenot. He believes his patient’s husband’s body odour had probably barely changed. A kind of lockdown occurs when a person’s smell is unattractive. At the same time, we can no longer bear the other’s remarks. “A kind of rejection,” he explains. “It’s real and it’s not uncommon.” It is through olfactory perception that his patient “manages to say no when they have not yet acknowledged the estrangement that is in progress,” argues Brenot, adding: “I think this sense is very profound.” The late French poet, writer, and philosopher Paul Valéry expressed it well: “There is nothing deeper than skin.”
To finally learn everything about the chemistry of attraction, join us on Friday, March 21, at 5:10 PM. This roundtable, moderated by Guillaume Tesson, is open to visitors with a Paris Perfume Week ticket.
