Mid Brain muses:
The latest issue of of the Flavour and Fragrance Journal reveals that women are better than men when it comes to sniffing out body odor. According to researchers at the Monell institute, it’s tougher to block a woman’s sensitivity to body odor than it is for men. How do scientists know this? By sniffing vials of underarm sweat collected in the laboratory from volunteers, of course!
Sweaty sniffing
The researchers had both men and women rate the strength of underarm orders to get a Body Odor baseline. BO was rated equally strong by both sexes. Then they added different fragrances to the underarm extractions to mimic the effect of deodorants. For men, 19 of the 32 scents did a good job of covering up the body odor. In other words, it was pretty easy to fool men’s sense of smell. The women, on the other hand, were only fooled by 2 of the 32 fragrances. You go girl!
Also intriguing was the fact that women reacted differently to male and female body odors. Males scents were harder to block than female odors. Less then 20% of the fragrances could block male odors while over 50% decreased intensity of female underarm odor. So not only are women better able to detect quantitative differences in body odor, but they’re able to detect qualitative differences as well. (Hmmm, I wonder if they tested the odor of boob sweat.)
What does this mean?
The researchers theorize that women’s sense of smell has evolved to help us pick a mate by extracting biologically relevant information from sweat. According to the head researcher, “Taken together, our studies indicate that human sweat conveys information that is of particular importance to females. This may explain why it is so difficult to block women’s perception of sweat odors.” Does this means that Axe Body Spray
The Beauty Brains bottom line
Forget what all those online dating services tell you, when it comes to choosing a mate, the nose knows!
What do YOU think? Are you sensitive to body odors? Does it bug you when a guy (or gal) skimps on the deodorant? Leave a comment for the rest of the Beauty Brains community.
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Lol! That photo must have scared off half of the readers
! What only don’t they make reasearch on!
Interesting point. Women seem to be more perseptive than men… Maybe information about a mate that is “of particular importance to females” is how clean he is! Well… I just came accross an article talking about a study that revealed that the color red makes women appear more attractive to men. While the color red on men doesn’t really make difference to women… Not so easy to trick us! lol!
All I know is my husband works long shifts as a mechanic. He will then get off of work and come home to help with household chores. No complaints here except one. HE NEVER SMELLS LIKE B.O., BUT I DO!!! He actually smells like a fresh cologne smell. Even if he does not wear any. I on the other hand…Not so much;( If I over work at all. Then it’s on! I have tried to locate his b.o. while sniffing his pit. NOTHING at all! I make him smell mine and he’s like “OMG, you’re rank!” I can wear the clinical stuff and I’m fine. Still I wish I didn’t smell like the man of the house after cleaning! I’ve even made my friends see if they can smell it. At first they won’t(well cuz it’s gross). Then they are like “What the heck??? He does still smell good. No b.o. at all!!”
Mid Brain, you are really stretching it with your creative images.
Lighten up Lefty. It’s just an armpit. Middy’s pics are crackin’ me up!
hahaha great picture!
The picture cracked me up.
I am sooo sensitive to b.o. My commute is a nightmare between being crammed on the train next to smelly people and smelling their morning breath. Sometimes I forget that I put deodorant on and put more on because I’m scared of smelling.
I’ve been thinking of switching to deodorant without antipersperant because the chemicals in antipersperant can bleach out the armpits of your shirts, but I haven’t been able to find any deodorant without antipersperant that *isn’t* an armpit crystal.
Adidas Sensitive is an antiperspirant without alcohol. Not sure about the bleach but no white residue at all.
That picture is hilarious! Love your posts.
Moxie, look for that Tom’s of Maine stuff. It’s supposed to be natural and whatever; I have no clue if it is, but I do know that their stuff is usually deodorant and not anti-perspirant. You can probably find it at a Whole Paycheck if there’s one near you.
!!!!!! That picture!!!!!!!!! hahahhahaha
If I was a superhero I think that my power would be my sence smell, for real!
I love to sniff my boyfriend’s T-shirts, specially the armpit area! Cuality!!!hahahahaha
Contact me asap please!