The right perfume can have miraculous powers to increase fanciability. The idea is that a scent not only invites someone towards your body, but also extends your presence into the air around you. Olivia da Costa, founder of Olfactive O, tells me that when she is developing perfumes designed to be alluring, this is precisely what she has in mind: “That’s why we will often use animal notes, because they will subconsciously switch on that part of your brain. Just as a bee is drawn into the heart of a flower or dogs smell one another to determine attraction, humans are driven by scent.”
A perfume needs to hit certain key notes to be sexy. First, it should contain the promise of a good night out with someone intriguing — a blend of heady food and booze notes. “Think big-shouldered amber perfumes laced with tobacco, leather notes, ribbons of vanilla,” says da Costa. Next: skin, the first frontier of being closer to someone physically. “Modern musks that aren’t too clean or soft but rather lean into the dirtier, naughtier side of the scent are brilliant on skin, and warm it up, making it more sensual, more tempting,” she says.
