Follow your nose

Photograph: Roxana Marroquin

It’s time to settle that ongoing battle over who’s ringmaster of your love life: your head or your heart (or your libido)? Well it turns out that your nose just might be the one in charge.

“For women, I’ve found that scent is the most important factor in attraction, more important than appearance,” says Rachel Herz, a professor at Brown University and author of The Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell. While men are still primarily (sex) slaves to their vision, women get most aroused through their sniffing.

“Those Axe ads are relatively accurate,” Herz says of the TV spots depicting women mauling cologne-doused schlubs. “If a woman likes how you smell, she’ll be drawn to you.” (That’s not a license to shower in Drakkar Noir, gentlemen—we still have to like the stench you’re sporting.)

When it comes to attraction, it’s natural body odor—not artificial perfumes that “mask true identities”—that does the most damage. But what does that mean for pheromones, the chemical substances that stimulate behavior in animals and are now popping up in our beauty products?

They’re not necessarily secret weapons. “There’s really no evidence of pheromonal effect for initiating human sexual behavior,” says Herz. “It’s quite a controversial topic, whether they exist, period.” So far, all they’ve been proved to cause (tenuously, and just with one pseudo-pheromone) is a slight mood boost in women—not an onslaught of horniness.

But like the tooth fairy, just believing in the magic of pheromones can have a desirable result. “Marketing is very powerful and very effective,” says Herz. “If you believe it will make you more desirable, you’re already projecting a better version of yourself.” The confidence boost that comes with thinking you’re drenched in Eau de Irresistibility can do more than the molecules themselves ever could. Maybe, in the game of attraction, the mind trumps the nose after all.

LOWER LEGS
“Fragrance rises from the bottom to the top. So ideally, I tell people to start spraying at the ankles and behind the knees.”—Robert Geftner, co-owner of Aedes de Venustas (9 Christopher St between Gay St and Greenwich Ave, 212-206-8674; aedes.com)

NECK
“Wherever the blood is flowing. Try the lower neck, by the jugular.”—Wilfredo, perfumer at Barneys New York(660 Madison Ave at 60th St, 212-826-8900; barneys.com)

BEHIND EARS
“You don’t want to waste it on arms—behind your ears is the warmest spot. You should do this before you get dressed.”—Laurice Rahme, founder Bond No. 9 (9 Bond St between Broadway and Lafayette St, 212-228-1732; bondno9.com)

HOT OR NOT? PUBIC AREA
“Private areas...I wouldn’t do.”—Wilfredo

“You can spray the pubic hair; fragrance sticks to hair, so it holds fragrance. But you have to be careful; alcohol can be drying.”—Geftner

HOT OR NOT? HAIR
“It’s probably not good for the hair.”—Wilfredo

“The hair is the best part. But only if you use Eau de Parfum, which has less alcohol.”—Rahme