single blind study

[a.k.a.]

OK. This isn’t really a scientific experiment. Just something to satisfy my curiosity.

I’ve accidentally come up with a mix that’s gotten me compliments from an aromatherapist at the apothecary where I buy my mixing paraphernalia. One day I was buying a bunch of dram bottles and she jokingly asked, “You’re not using these to sell drugs, are you?”
I told her that I liked mixing my own scents, and she commented that she sometimes caught a whiff of something on me and wondered whether it was me or something I was wearing. I let her smell my wrist and she said it was very masculine and \"mysteriously compelling\". On my next visit I let her smell it out of the bottle. She loved it and offered to buy a big batch to sell in her store. I declined, but it got me thinking...
So I filled up some dram bottles and gave samples to five very different guys, under the pretext that I’m thinking of selling the stuff.

My first “subject” is a 22 year old intern where I work. He’s African American, average looks, intelligent, and “alpha” in the BEST sense of the word— except that he stands just under 6 feet. He’s muscular, loves competitive sports, works out a lot, very gregarious, lots of initiative and likes to take charge. He got his bottle on Friday.

My second subject is a long time friend that doesn’t need pheromones in the least. He’s a bartender/published author, very intelligent, 33, 6’, slim build, long wavy hair, excellent social skills, wicked good looks, intense dark eyes, Italian descent, and “bad boy” magnetism. (Think Johnny Depp.) He burns through girlfriends like they grow on trees and there’s always a flock of gorgeous women at his bar. He also got his bottle on Friday.

On Saturday I gave out a bottle each to two guys that could really use an edge.
One of them is Asian descent, 38, slightly over 6’, nice masculine looks, slim build with a slight pot belly, high paying high tech job with clothes to match (very conservative and somewhat geeky — think Dockers). Overall not a bad prospect, except that he’s very nervous around people and that goes double for beautiful women. He doesn’t really know how to hold a conversation and pretty much lets others dominate the social scene. He’s been divorced for 5 years, tried several dating services, never got past the first date, and is getting dangerously close to turning into a hermit.

The other is North European descent, 35, rather short, pudgy, unexceptional looks (the kind of guy you could never describe to a police artist). Decent job but horrible spending habits. His biggest assets are his intelligence and social skills. Gregarious, great story teller, loves to tell jokes, capable of starting a conversation with anybody, no problem making girl FRIENDS, but no real girlfriends since his wife dumped him several years ago. He’s a very good hearted guy and a close friend. So I worry about him because he’s starting to show early warning signs of depression: letting his grooming habits go, gaining weight, long nights wasting his social skills on barflies, and etc..

Today I gave my last bottle to a neighbor that I don’t care to hang out with, but seems like an interesting subject in that he’s alpha in the WORST sense. North European descent, late thirties, somewhere around 6’3”, private contractor, muscular build with a bit of a gut, strong jaw, rugged but not quite handsome, has to be the center of every conversation, talks loud, walks with a strut, hits on practically every woman he sees (with lines like, “Hey, honey, what’s your name?”), his idea of friendly conversation is either bustin your balls or forcing you to check out some girl’s T or A, talks your ear off but never listens... and I’ve had to warn him to keep his efing hands off of me because he loves to give guys “friendly” slaps on the back or “joking” punches in the shoulder. Normally I would hate him, but he’s fixed my toilet, helped me assemble my desk, diagnosed my car troubles, and has this dogged sense of loyalty that makes me feel he’d be the only one I could count on if my car happened to break down in a bad part of town on some cold, blustery night.

I don’t have much of a “hypothesis”, just hoping that my pudgy friend scores and that I can get some outrageous hit stories from my bartender friend. (Although I don’t see how things could get any better for him. I once saw him talk three very sexy women into a kissing contest. And they REALLY got into it.)

So stay tuned. This might get educational.


PS Just in case somebody wants to replicate this “study”... My mix consists of 1Rone: 3NPA: 4Nol: 5 Pheromol Factor: 5Rogue Male : 5 A1: 7APC : 15 Tunisian Amber. It started out as an effort to combine all my favorite products and mixes into one “supermix” and Amber seemed to be the only scent that could balance things out. I call it “Mystique” because I once overheard a (drunk) woman, that kept checking me out at a latin dance club, say “I don’t know what it is. But there’s just something very sexy about that man.” (Not to mention “Mystique” is the name of my favorite X-character.) It’s not my biggest attention getter, but it seems to exert a very strong magnetism over women and makes men (including me)very friendly. (Not to mention my girlfriend literally snorts it off my neck & chest whenever we’re in the throws of passion.)

[franki]

Do they know what to expect? If they think they are just testing out a fragrance, they might not be as interested/involved in this as you would like.

[a.k.a.]

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Do they know what to expect? If they think they are just testing out a fragrance, they might not be as interested/involved in this as you would like.

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All they know is what the aromatherapist told me. The intern told me he loves the smell, so I\'m pretty sure he\'ll give it a shot. If the others go a week without trying it out, I\'ll think of something else to pique their interest. But I don\'t want to tell them it\'s pheromones unless I absolutely have to.

[Sagacious1420]

a.k.a.-

Good post.

I might be able to pull something like that off, myself. All my friends know that I make my own colognes and some perfumes for my gal pals. So I think it would be fairly easy to recruit some test subjects. The \"I\'m thinking of selling the stuff\" approach should work.

I\'m definitely going to give that some serious thought. Thanks for sharing the idea.

In the meantime, keep us posted.

[a.k.a.]

Hah! I just got back from a trendy yuppie bar where my pudgy friend picked up a big breasted blond girl in less than two hours. This will be the 3rd time he’s had sex in nearly four years and — even though she’s not exactly the “sharpest tool in the shed” — she’s probably the hottest looking girl he’s had in ages.
He walked out of that bar with eyes glowing and an ear to ear grin. If I see no other results from this experiment, I already feel it was worth it.

Meanwhile, this past Monday I got to see an OD from the receiving end. And, let me tell you, it was an eye opener.
Apparently my intern was encouraged by the fact that his girlfriend liked my mix. So he came to work wearing probably twice as much as I recommended. (I could smell it at least six feet away.) My first impression was, “Who does he think he is?”
He looked all pumped up and kind of greasy, like he’d just finished an intense workout. He struck me as incredibly smug and his browline seemed too big.
It was weird. I couldn’t separate my impressions from possible effects the OD was having on his behavior. He seemed to lead with his shoulders as he walked (like he was out to kick somebody’s ass), he seemed to be short with me at times, and I kept having this feeling that he was trying to challenge my authority every time he talked.
I tried to keep him behind the phone or in front of a monitor throughout the day. But the few interactions he had with other people didn’t seem to go so well. I do PR for a teaching hospital and the head of Infection Control stopped by my office to discuss a potential law suit. My intern was the first to greet her and she nearly jumped when he offered his hand to introduce himself. Also my (overweight, middle aged) secretary complained that he was “mentally undressing” her every time he walked past her desk. By lunchtime, the effects were starting to diminish. But I noticed that everybody in the cafeteria was giving him wide berth, and he was wondering why everybody was giving him a “funny vibe”.

I suppose I should have thought out the ethical issues before engaging in this little experiment. But what’s done is done.
I reminded him that my mix was more concentrated than cologne, that it’s supposed to BLEND with his natural scent and mentioned that it was unprofessional to wear so much perfume on the job. He hasn’t shown up wearing the stuff since. So no more OD’s, but I’m afraid he might have dropped out of the experiment as well.

PS. Pardon my incoherence. I’ve had a bit to drink.

[Sacogoo]

aka writes:
&lt;&lt;I call it \"Mystique\" because I once overheard a (drunk) woman, that kept checking me out at a latin dance club, say \"I don\'t know what it is. But there\'s just something very sexy about that man.\" (Not to mention \"Mystique\" is the name of my favorite X-character.) It\'s not my biggest attention getter, but it seems to exert a very strong magnetism over women and makes men (including me)very friendly. (Not to mention my girlfriend literally snorts it off my neck &amp; chest whenever we\'re in the throws of passion.)&gt;&gt;

aka, you needed to go no further than this. Any guy who not only knows the name of an X-Men character, but actually has a \"favorite\" X-Men character and also has a girlfriend who lets him have sex with her - Wow. You just got to know that the mojo juice you\'ve concocted is one of, if not the best mix on the entire planet.

However, didn\'t I recently read somewhere that Rogue Male was discontinued?

[franki]

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I suppose I should have thought out the ethical issues before engaging in this little experiment. But what’s done is done.
I reminded him that my mix was more concentrated than cologne, that it’s supposed to BLEND with his natural scent and mentioned that it was unprofessional to wear so much perfume on the job. He hasn’t shown up wearing the stuff since. So no more OD’s, but I’m afraid he might have dropped out of the experiment as well.



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It is too easy for people to f%%k up an experiment like this.. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Whitehall]

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My first impression was, “Who does he think he is?” ..... He struck me as incredibly smug and his browline seemed too big.


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Obviously, AKA, you\'re not ovulating!

[a.k.a.]

Now here’s a result I could have never predicted.
I ran into my macho neighbor while we were coming out of a neighborhood theater (“Lost In Translation” is a GREAT movie by the way). First of all I would have never pegged him as an “Art Theater” type, but that’s just the beginning.
I expected him to either OD and get himself in a bar fight or get it right and end up with some silly, young bimbo. But there he was with a beautiful woman in her mid thirties. She was so charming and intelligent that it made me jealous. But the weirdest thing is that HE seemed charming and intelligent as well.
I don’t know. Did being with a classy woman bring out hidden aspects of his own personality? Did the pheromones somehow transform his mood, perhaps chilling out his more obnoxious qualities? Were the pheromones altering my own perception of him? (He didn’t LOOK any different.) Some combination of the above? Or maybe my mix had nothing to do with any of this and I’m just trying to draw connections where there are none.

[belgareth]

Was your macho neighbor wearing mones? If not, he may have some hidden qualities you have overlooked.

[a.k.a.]

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However, didn\'t I recently read somewhere that Rogue Male was discontinued?

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I didn\'t know this, but I can live without RM. What worries me is that PF has been discontinued. Guess I better stock up while I still can.

[Holmes]

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(“Lost In Translation” is a GREAT movie by the way).

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Good man! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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I don’t know. Did being with a classy woman bring out hidden aspects of his own personality?

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Happens. Could\'ve been that he was just trying to act more sophistcated in front of her--or even change his style because her. Or maybe he was chill because he didn\'t feel at that moment that he had anything to prove. Or all of the above plus the -mones...hard to say. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]


Holmes

[a.k.a.]

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Was your macho neighbor wearing mones? If not, he may have some hidden qualities you have overlooked.

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No doubt he has some hidden qualities I\'ve overlooked, but I could also smell my mix on him when we shook hands. (I know it wasn\'t me because I was wearing straight A1 with Lolita Lempicka cover.)

[MysteriousMan]

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I was wearing straight A1 with Lolita Lempicka cover.

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Do you have to cover A1? I can\'t smell it.

MM