The best fragrances for finding love and getting laid

Valentine’s Day is upon us yet again, and when it comes to seduction, scent is one of the key weapons we have in our arsenal. The right fragrance can fan the flames of desire while the wrong one can send someone running. So what are the best fragrances to wear to find love, fuel lust and get someone’s heart racing?

“The most romantic scent, for me, is undeniably rose,” says Cherry Cheng, founder of Jouissance, a perfume house inspired by feminist erotic literature. At first, this could seem somewhat predictable; an obvious choice since roses have become a cliché shorthand for romance (and Valentine’s Day, in particular). However, Cheng believes the versatility of the flower and its multifaceted nature makes it forever captivating. “It can be interpreted in endless ways – emphasising its thorny, untamed nature or its soft, velvety petals; the crisp freshness of a dewy bloom or the wistful, melancholic beauty of a wilting one. Each variation tells a different story, evoking its own kind of romanticism,” she says.

Cheng’s suggestion is Serge Luten’s Fille de Berlin, a deeply pungent rose with a fresh, thorny greenness and slightly earthy undertone. Another classic is Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s À la rose – sparklingly feminine, mildly musky, and very ‘clean girl’. In the same vein, Byredo’s Rose of No Man’s Land opens with a raspberry freshness before melting into deliciously honeyed petals laden with fresh dew drops. And no list of saccharine hyper-feminine perfumes can be complete without the famed Delina, a Parfums de Marley gourmand of lychee, peony, rhubarb and rose loved by #PerfumeTok and Snoop Dogg alike.

If you’re looking for something with a bit more edge, in a cloud of incense and lustfully layered spices, Reine de Nuit is a crepuscular noir rose for heading out to break hearts, a Vogue cigarette gently burning down between freshly lacquered black talons. Horace’s Oud Rose metamorphosises from a fizzing freshly cut stem to something with a touch of Axe body spray, in the most sexy way imaginable. 

What if it’s pure lust that you’re after? Hedione is a note reminiscent of jasmine that not only improves sillage but is also said to stimulate the brain’s pleasure cells. It is the central element of cult “beast mode” brand INITIO’s Carnal Blends, with perfumes including Psychedelic Love and Narcotic Delight said to ignite the senses. While – much like the human pheromones myth – there is no solid scientific evidence that hedione has such panty-dropping powers, anecdotally, I can report that I received increased attention and myriad compliments when I wore the scents. “The initial interest comes from the way that this molecule may stimulate one of the few vomeronasal olfactory receptors that humans still have,” explains evolutionary biologist Dr Tristram Wyatt. “It’s not clear that, in humans, these receptors in the nose would actually work. However, the pleasure centres may be stimulated by association like the presence of jasmine.”

Jouissance perfumes capture the tension of lust with the addictively unnerving play between what we find repulsive and attractive drawing us in with a maddening limerence. “For me, the scent of seduction is always slightly unsettling — teetering on the edge of the unexpected, even the uncomfortable — because it reflects the paradoxical nature of our deepest desires,” Cheng shares. La Bague D’O captures sacred submission with a steel chain note wrapped around “a bruised bouquet”, whilst Les Cahiers Secrets is an evocation to sex with lily, orris, heliotropin, and cumin. “When I first tested it on a close friend, she remarked that it smelled just like her vagina— but in really a nice way.” En Plein Air drenches your skin in a grapefruit citrus that turns to rain-soaked grass and musky skin, inspired by the countless alfresco trysts of Catherine Millet, a French art critic whose sordid autobiography inspired Lars Von Triers’ Nymphomaniac films.

“Wearing perfume in a sexy way isn’t unlike wearing clothes in a sexy way. It’s all about confidence and how you align yourself with your presentation,” Camryn of @cammyreviews, wisely shares. Similarly, scents are so personal and the fragrance you find the sexiest might have nothing to do with certain “romantic” notes or ingredients and everything to do with who is wearing them and the memories that they evoke. For instance, some of my favourite scents on my partner are Discothèque’s Heathens, after my tester became his scent on our first trip to Berlin. A swirling, sweat-stained cloud of Andrea Maack’s Pavilion permeates my memories of when we first met, while Halfeti on the nape of his neck truly corrupted any vestiges of self-preservation I had when trying to play it cool. 

During a time so driven by visual stimulation, scents draw us out of our heads and into our bodies, stimulating and satiating a part of us that is animalistic, primordial and deeply emotional. If you wanted to go the extra mile in the name of Saint Valentine, you can now get someone to lick your perfume too – Amorecco’s Late Night Gelato is a sticky sweet vanilla and coconut scent that is made to be sprayed and tasted. At least it’s a good pickup line.