It’s Valentine’s Day again. How do you express the connected twosome? Looking back in the archives of Kent and Surrey Bylines, we have noted how some say it with gifts.
Some go for flowers or chocolate, some like a romantic meal together, while in the animal world, there are spectacular behaviours.
So now, how about combining a theme of animal mating and human gifting? Let’s try that around the sense of smell and move from the pheromone molecules of chemical mating to the merchandising of perfume.
What scientists say about smelling and mating
Darwin was one of the first to suggest that smelling could be part of sexual selection. He noted that males of several mammal species, from goats to elephants, stink more in the mating season, and females seem to prefer the smelliest. It is also known that male dogs respond to the smell of bitches on heat.
The chemical composition of mating smells was first identified in silk moths, said Tristram Wyatt, a biologist at Oxford University. The female silk moth releases a species-specific smell to attract the male, which was eventually analysed chemically as a ‘pheromone-binding-protein–bombykol complex’. Then scientists found the same behaviour in some beetles but with different chemicals in the pheromones. Indeed, ‘insects largely perceive the world through chemistry’, declare the authors.
Pheromones are useful to many species, but humans lack nasal organs for them
Social insects like ants, bees and wasps use pheromones not just for mating but also for vital purposes, such as queen signalling, raising the alarm and indicating food trails.
Various molecules and proteins have been identified for the signalling purposes of pheromones in mammals, including elephants, goats and pigs, and the most studied, the house mouse. Reptiles, amphibians and some fish also utilise pheromones. Even species living underwater use scent cues. For example, American lobsters telegraph their dominance through their urine to attract a mate.
The mammals that use pheromones need to detect them through an organ in their nose called the vomeronasal organ (VMO). So, the answer to why some animals sniff before mating is that they are picking up clues about their intended partner, such as their hormonal readiness, via the pheromones reaching their VMO. Unfortunately, humans lack this organ.
Are there smells that cause sexual arousal?
So, is sniffing an aid to human copulation or not? Research by Dr. Arnaud Wisman at the University of Kent, published in a peer-reviewed journal in 2020, claimed that smell can detect sexual arousal in humans. In the experiment, men processed the axillary sweat samples from anonymous sexually aroused and non-aroused women. The sample of men in the experiment claimed that the sweat from the aroused women was more attractive and increased their sexual motivation. The scientist commented:”[W]e hope that the current findings encourage further research to examine the role of sexual olfactory signals in human communication.”
Poetry says it
The poets of perfume do not need experiments from science. For aeons, poets and lovers have praised the smell of their beloved:
“Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the maidens love you.”
…
“My lover is to me a sachet of myrrh resting between my breasts.”
(online translation from Hebrew of verses from the Song of Songs)
Shakespeare famously associated forbidden love with “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”.
Baudelaire proposed combinations of perfumes:
“With power to expand into infinity
Like amber and incense, musk and benzoin
That sing the ecstasy of the soul and senses”
(online translation)
What is amber in expensive perfume?
From the poets, an online search for perfume to buy easily jumps to solemn pronouncements about scents:
“The beauty of amber scents is that they lend themselves well to both masculine and feminine scents. Amber base notes pair well with notes often found in light and seductive perfumes such as florals, fruits and greenery.”
If one pushes one’s nose further into the ingredients, there seems to be some confusion between amber, the fossilized resin, and ambergris from sperm whales. The glowing yellow-brown resin has been prized for jewellery since the Stone Age (originating mostly in Nordic countries, which have plentiful supplies). It actually does not have a smell.
Ambergris, by contrast, is a waxy substance produced in the digestive system of sperm whales, which can be found washed up on the shore. As hunting killed off whales from many parts of the world, ambergris became a very expensive ingredient for perfume. A cheaper substitute is labdanum, which comes from the rock rose plant (Cistus ladanifer). This and ‘amber’ are often described as ‘musky and slightly sweet’.
Merchandising perfumes
Perfume-making runs deep in Middle Eastern culture, with ancient traditions of classification of perfume derived from different natural sources. When I first started using Dubai airport on long-haul flights from South Africa (Emirates flew direct from Durban), I found one had to walk through acres of perfume rooms on changing flights, a rather bizarre experience in the middle of the night and with no spare Arabic dirhams to spend.
The merchandising of perfumes has also been a successful enterprise of industrial chemistry. We tend to think of perfumes with French names – Chanel, Dior, eau de Cologne, etc. It is noteworthy that the third richest man in the world is Bernard Arnault at $198.4bn (compared with Elon Musk at $436bn and Jeff Bezos at $249.9bn). Arnault heads LVMH, the conglomerate for luxury goods, which announced a strategic alliance with Chanel in 2023. So, perfume makes good profits, and there must be plenty of rich customers ready to buy it for their loved ones, even in Dubai in the middle of the night.
The language used to market perfume
The language used to market perfume online is erotic:
“COCO MADEMOISELLE L’Eau Privée.
The essence of a bold and free woman. A soft and sensual fruity ambery fragrance, especially created for the night.
L’Eau Privée has a light formula for full and rich perfuming, night after night.”
In contrast, the Gucci ‘Guilty Essence pour homme’ gives an avalanche of words:
“Extending a loving invitation to explore, create and connect with our truest selves. An ode to self-acceptance, friendship and love in all its forms, Gucci Guilty Essence Eau de Toilette for Men presents an aromatic Fougère, that inspires a fresh take on blending sensuality with living authentically.
The aromas open with fresh and heady Lavender – a beautiful flower historically used by the Egyptians and Romans for its powerful aromas. At its heart, the non-conformist ideals of Gucci Guilty coincide with non-conventional fragrance-making using Orange Blossom, a scent traditionally used in feminine fragrances as a symbol of romance and innocence. Dynamic and seductive, Patchouli – the hallmark of Gucci fragrances – enriches the base notes with a woody embrace.”
Wow.
Why use deodorant?
Deodorants are regarded as essential to the modern body (in contrast to rural dwellers in Africa, who mostly do without). But isn’t it ironic that the scientists, as indicated above, are trying to prove that sweat is what stirs the couple towards the embrace? But we moderns first dowse the potential pheromones with deodorants and then spray on other scents that we are eloquently assured have seductive powers.
Roll on Valentine’s Day – it’s good for the perfume trade!
