Let music and scents be the food of love!

In many a boudoir scene on the silver screen, not only do candles predominate, but before the person to be romanced arrives, some scent is sprayed in the air and background music begins to play.

As difficult as it is for me as a scientist to admit it, the directors and script writers again seem to be onto something that research can support.

There is continuing debate about the effectiveness of pheromone type air fresheners which supposedly introduce odours into the air that potential romantic partners will be unable to resist.  While pheromone sprays are debatable, it is incontestable that humans do use scents to send messages, some that might be of monumental importance during romantic encounters.  We send signals about our mood, whether we’re happy or sad or excited (!), for example, and even smell differently when we’re concentrating—and none of these scents is simply tied to whether we’re sweaty or not.  Any scents added, need to be very subtle, so that they don’t overwhelm our olfactory messaging systems.

It seems hard to resist the drive to add some sort of scent to a romantic space, however.  Flower odours are often selected and they are likely to put people, worldwide, in good moods, which has all sorts of advantages for getting along well with others, to say the least. Lavender is a good option because smelling it has been tied not only to feeling more relaxed, but also to trusting others more—we can debate another time if trust in romance is a good thing or bad, but generally it is seen as a relationship goal.  Jasmine is another floral smell linked to romance.

Dr. Alan Hirsch from Chicago has reported that women are aroused by the smell of liquorice and cucumber, and the odour of baby powder, while men respond the same way to scents such as pumpkin pie.

Scents have a powerful tie to our emotional unconscious and we can have unique scent-memories, that can be romance-related that haven’t been investigated yet by researchers.  We’re particularly likely to link the smells of foods we enjoy (say the vanilla of a warm cookie) to pleasant thoughts, so cooking a dinner of old favourites on February 14 can be a good idea.

And also:  men who smell women who smell like grapefruit are apt to think that they’re significantly younger than they actually are.

When you’re soundscaping for romance remember that our hearts start to beat at the same pace as whatever we’re listening to, music or otherwise.  Music with less than 70 beats a minute (you can Google to find the number of beats per minute in most music) while faster music gets us all revved up.  As in many things, there is clearly a best time for each sort of music to play.