rogue

This woman wore her vaginal fluid as perfume to attract men.

You know how you’ve always wondered whether your vaginal secretions would work as an aphrodisiac if you used it (…them?) as a perfume?

Same.

Well, wonder no more, because one brave Cosmopolitan writer, Allison Ramirez, recently decided to try it.

Her journey began, as all great journeys do, with research. She found there’s a strong historical precedent of wearing your vaginal fluid as perfume, which just confirmed her original idea: she had to do it.

Of course, there’s also a historical precedent for using crocodile poo as contraception, and human urine as mouthwash, but that doesn’t mean you do it.

Anyway. Ramirez found the process was pretty straightforward: you simply stick your finger ‘down there,’ dab it on your neck, or behind your ears, or on your wrists, and wait for people to fall madly in love with you.

But she thought she’d go one step further, and incorporate all the ‘pheromone-y’ research there is, to make a really, really special scent. I imagine it to be like Brian’s Sex Panther fragrance in Anchor Man, which is meant to be an aphrodisiac but really just disturbs people.

Image via Giphy.
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Ramirez met with the founder and director of the Institute for Art and Olfaction in Los Angeles, and together, they designed a scent. It comprised of cedar, rose, a synthetic fragrance called 'Civette,' which mimics the smell of anal gland discharge excreted by civet cats (wtf) and, of course, vagina.

Because bodily fluids don't really 'hold' well, the plan was for Ramirez to extract her vaginal fluid separately with a Q-tip, dip it in her cedar-rose-Civette perfume, then apply it to her pulse points.

She wore it on two occasions.

On the first, Ramirez says she ended up hooking up with an 'old friend.' During a kissing session, he accidentally bit her, and then commented, "I can't help it. It's that scent you have."

What. No. Image via Giphy.
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THIS CAN'T BE TRUE.

THAT CANNOT HAVE HAPPENED.

On the second occasion, Ramirez had dinner with another 'friend,' although the reaction definitely wasn't as strong. He messaged her after dinner saying he had fun, and invited her out again, but she admitted it could've been, you know, her personality he found attractive.

But let's be honest, it might have also been her vagina.

After reading Ramirez's story, I was fascinated by whether a woman's vaginal scent actually plays a role in attraction.

Listen to The Prude and The Pornstar, where the ladies discuss how online dating is interfering with physical attraction. Post continues after audio.

In some species, sex pheromones convey important information about sex, age and reproductive status, as well as genetic information, which encourages organisms to seek out a genetically different mate (with complementary immune systems, for example).

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But to date, no study has been able to confirm whether these exist in humans.

While a small number of studies have found some research that men rate women as more attractive when exposed to a particular female pheromone, it's likely that in humans, our focus on cleanliness, as well as the widespread use of the Pill, interrupts these processes.

Does that mean... Ramirez made a vagina perfume... for nothing? Image via iStock.

But perhaps future research will be able to isolate these pheromones, and more reliably measure their effects.

Who knows, maybe Cosmoplitan writer Allison Ramirez is just way, way ahead of her time.