Picture this: You’re heading out for the evening, ready to mingle. You listen to some jams that get you pumped up, put on your hottest outfit, and, before you leave, spritz on some pheromone perfume. Once you get to your destination, just a mere whiff and a glance cause men and women to fall at your feet. They offer to buy you drinks and beg for your number, hoping that you will bestow the honor of your attention on them.

Can a pheromone perfume really do all that? Hard to say. These perfumes designed to attract others can contain synthetic pheromones, versions of substances naturally produced by our bodies that can communicate with and entice others. Some iterations of fragrances within this category won’t contain pheromones, but rather scents that evoke the scent of skin. And there are others that just contain fragrance notes that translate into a bottle of sex appeal.

While scent is highly subjective, we decided to put pheromone perfumes to the test. To determine if these scents can really lure secret admirers out of the woodwork, we narrowed down all the best pheromone perfumes on the market to 17, and since this fragrance category is wholly dependent on individual body chemistry, we recruited other InStyle editors so we could experiment each scent on three different editors' skin and hair, as well as fabric to give them a fair shake. We judged the fragrances based on a set of criteria, including wearability (could we only wear it at night?), longevity (if it didn't last, what's the point?), strength (will people smell us coming before they see us?), scent (do we even like it?), and of course, the bottle (we love beautiful things).

Best Overall

Frédéric Malle Carnal Flower

Our Ratings

• Scent

  4.9/5

• Wear

  5/5

• Performance

  4.4/5

• Efficacy

  4.7/5

• Packaging

  5/5

What We Love: This perfume makes you feel sexy, confident, and sophisticated from the moment you put it on.

What We Don't Love: Because this is a heady, potent fragrance, it’s best reserved for evening wear.

This fragrance is known to be one of the sultriest scents on the market, making it a must-try when you’re in a magnetic mood. Upon application, we noticed that we instantly felt mysterious and powerful. Carnal Flower has a bold sillage, meaning you can smell its lusty notes of tuberose, jasmine, and musk from a distance as well as leave a trail of scent wherever you go. This makes for a fabulous fragrance to wear when you want to stand out at a crowded party or on an intimate date. A little goes a long way and lasts for hours — we found the scent stayed strong on our skin, even with just one spritz. 

We’re reiterating that this is a potent perfume because it may not be for everyone, especially those who are prone to headaches caused by strong fragrance; we found this to be the case when we tested it on hair as it held the scent a bit too well! Similarly, you may also want to avoid wearing this one during the day so as not to affect the noses of coworkers. (That said, a friend of ours tried it and found that it wore down to a more mellow, flirty scent on her skin, which just goes to show how big of a role body chemistry plays when wearing perfume.)

If you’re looking for a showstopper of a fragrance you can wear on big nights out, definitely grab yourself a bottle of this one — the sleek packaging will also add a touch of quiet luxury to your vanity.

Type: Eau de parfum｜Key Notes: Tuberose, jasmine, bergamot, musk｜Fragrance Family: White floral｜Size: 1.7 oz

Best for Women

Byredo Blanche

Our Ratings

• Scent

  4.8/5

• Wear

  4.8/5

• Performance

  4.9/5

• Efficacy

  4.9/5

• Packaging

  5/5

What We Love: This scent offers impressive longevity for such an airy and unobtrusive fragrance.

What We Don't Love: The fragrance smells dramatically different on hair, and not in an appealing way.

Of all the scents we tested, this one was the best for daytime — it smells like fresh sheets that were washed with a subtly floral and feminine laundry detergent. It wears close to the skin and lasts for hours, making it very inoffensive and easy to wear, whether that’s at the office, to brunch, or running errands. It’s also one of the best luxury perfumes we tried, thanks to the heavy, sophisticated bottle, which is an aesthete’s dream (though may be harder to wield if you have smaller hands).

Beyond testing it on skin, we tried spritzing the scent on fabric and hair. It misted out beautifully (in a star pattern!) without leaving any stains or residue, and we found it smelled especially delightful on sweaters. 

However, we weren’t fans of how it performed on our hair. For some reason, Blanche smells very sharp and overpowering on hair, a total contrast to how it wears on the skin. Keep this in mind if you’re the kind of person who likes to liberally spray on scent — concentrate your application on yourself and your clothing for the best result.

Type: Eau de parfum｜Key Notes: Aldehyde, peony, violet, sandalwood, musk｜Fragrance Family: Floral｜Size: 1.7 oz

Best for Men

Escentric Molecules Molecule 01 Eau de Toilette

Our Ratings

• Scent

  4.4/5

• Wear

  3.5/5

• Performance

  3.5/5

• Efficacy

  3.5/5

• Packaging

  4.5/5

What We Love: This single-note scent is very simple, yet wears differently on everyone.

What We Don't Love: Some people may be “nose blind” to it. 

The star of this scent is just one note: The woodsy iso e super, a lab-made aroma which is somewhat reminiscent of sandalwood, giving this scent a subtly masculine quality without being heady or overpowering. To our surprise, it’s pretty delicate, and we needed to spray on multiple spritzes to detect its faint, clean smell. (We should note that this will deliver a blast of alcohol, which can be off-putting at first, but it quickly dissipates.) Its smell was strongest on heavy fabrics, like tweed, on which it smelled a bit musty, like a coat you recently pulled out of storage for the season. 

On the skin, it was fresh, clean, and sophisticated, and we felt like it would layer nicely with other perfumes in our scent wardrobe. We also think with regular wear, we’ll find the fragrance to be quite cozy and believe it to be a nice pick for fall's cuffing season.

However, while the scent seemed to last on our skin, it was often hard to detect during testing. This isn’t uncommon in skin scents — in fact, other people can often smell them on us when we can’t! —so if you’re looking for something subdued and a little mysterious, this is worth checking out. 

Type: Eau de toilette｜Key Notes: Iso e super (synthetic sandalwood)｜Fragrance Family: Woody｜Size: 3.4 oz

Best Unisex

Juliette Has a Gun Not A Perfume

Our Ratings

• Scent

  4.3/5

• Wear

  4.1/5

• Performance

  3.9/5

• Efficacy

  3.8/5

• Packaging

  5/5

What We Love: This perfume completely evolves on the skin throughout the day, making it almost like multiple fragrances in one bottle. 

What We Don't Love: This scent wears very, very differently depending on your unique body chemistry, so it’s best to test before buying. 

From the first spritz to hours after application, this perfume will take you on a journey. Two of us tried the scent and had totally different experiences. One of us found that it initially smelled a bit pungent, with a sour smell that almost reminded us of sweat before becoming more powdery and somewhat cardboard-like as well as masculine. Another found that it smelled plasticky and synthetic at first, then wore down into a floral, feminine, and musky aroma that sat close to the skin — earning us loads of compliments. 

These differing experiences during the testing process were due to the single note in this scent, cetalox, which is a synthetic form of ambergris (aka whale vomit, which used to be used in perfume because of its unusual musky, sweet, earthy, and animalic qualities).

It’s imperative to try a fragrance like this firsthand to determine if it's a fit for you. Beyond that, we found it lingered well on skin, hair, and fabric (though it left an oily residue behind) and we enjoyed the wide-spraying mister and luxe, weighty packaging.

Type: Eau de parfum｜Key Notes: Cetalox (synthetic ambergris)｜Fragrance Family: Warm and spicy｜Size: 3.3 oz

Best to Bring Out Your Own Natural Scent

D.S. & Durga I Don't Know What

Our Ratings

• Scent

  4/5

• Wear

  4.9/5

• Performance

  4.3/5

• Efficacy

  4.8/5

• Packaging

  4.8/5

What We Love: This is an effortlessly wearable scent that just enhances your own body chemistry.

What We Don't Love: The bottle can be a little challenging to use. 

This D.S. & Durga perfume features some of the notes you’ll find in a lot of skin scents, like iso e super and ambrox, but there’s also bergamot and vetiver, which made us decide during the testing process that it can be worn by both men and women alike. It was fresh, clean, and musky, with a touch of greenery. It was one of the best lightweight scents we tried; we admit that it wasn’t always easy to detect on our skin (though others could!) but it was easy to smell on fabric, paper, and hair. While we only tested it solo, we’re confident it would work well layered with other fragrances.

We will say that we didn’t love the bottle. Though it’s very attractive and has a nice, luxurious heft, it had a short nozzle that wasn’t easy to mist and the bottle’s shape and size made it a challenge to hold and spray on — we actually needed two hands to do so. However, if you like the aroma, enjoy a minimalist design, and have slightly larger hands, you’ll probably be satisfied with this investment.

Type: Eau de parfum｜Key Notes: Bergamot, iso e super (synthetic sandalwood), vetiver, civettone (a synthetic musk), ambroxan (synthetic ambergris — a woody amber)｜Fragrance Family: Amber｜Size: 1.7 oz

Best Sensual

Diptyque L’eau Papier Eau de Toilette

Our Ratings

• Scent

  5/5

• Wear

  5/5

• Performance

  4/5

• Efficacy

  4.4/5

• Packaging

  4.8/5

What We Love: What you smell out of the bottle is what you get — it smelled like this on two InStyle editors who tested it on their skin, and the scent remained completely intact all day.

What We Don't Love: It did leave a stain behind when we tested it on fabric.

Sensual without being sexy, impactful without being overpowering, and totally soothing, this was the best musk we tested. It was soft and light, woody with a delicate sweetness courtesy of the steamed rice note that smelled good on all of us. It’s also noteworthy that while our body chemistry enhanced the scent, it didn’t change it — every tester smelled the same, as did our fabric testing swatches, paper, and hair. 

We’re fans of this long-lasting fragrance and can envision ourselves wearing it to bed, to the office, and other intimate settings in which you’d want to wear a low-projection scent. Just be careful of which types of fabrics you mist it on: There are some oils in the formula, which left stains behind when we tested it on lighter materials, including linen and cotton. 

Type: Eau de toilette｜Key Notes: White musks, mimosa, blonde woods, rice steam｜Fragrance Family: Floral-musk hybrid｜Size: 1.7 oz

Best Mood Booster

Moodeaux Worthy Eau de Parfum

Our Ratings

• Scent

  4.7/5

• Wear

  4.8/5

• Performance

  4.5/5

• Efficacy

  4.8/5

• Packaging

  5/5

What We Love: This perfume is sweet and cozy — the best vanilla we tried.

What We Don't Love: Though it’s marketed as unisex, it reads more feminine to us.

If you’re looking for a perfume that will create comforting and cozy vibes, look to this one from Black-owned brand Moodeaux. With a blend of traditional gourmand notes, it reminded us of stopping by a delicious bakery, thanks to sweet notes of vanilla, cinnamon, and a subtle bourbon scent, all enhanced by delicate florals. Its warmth makes it well suited for winter wear, ideally if you can spritz it on before unwinding in front of a roaring fire. The fragrance sat nicely on our skin — we only needed one spritz to get a full day of wear out of it — and lasted especially well on hair, though we did notice some slight staining when we spritzed it on fabric. 

We’ll admit that we were surprised to see that this clean perfume was marketed as unisex. While the packaging is very modern and gender neutral, the scent inside was quite feminine and more youthful than the bottle would imply. That’s not to say that we didn’t enjoy the scent — we can definitely envision people making this their daily fragrance so long as they know what they’re getting!

Type: Eau de parfum｜Key Notes: White tea, orange blossom, red rose, lavender, dry musk, amber, vanilla｜Fragrance Family: Warm floral woods｜Size: 1.7 oz

Best Perfume Oil

Pure Instinct Pheromone Unisex Perfume Oil

Our Ratings

• Scent

  4.8/5

• Wear

  4.6/5

• Performance

  4.3/5

• Efficacy

  4/5

• Packaging

  4.5/5

What We Love: This product is easy to toss in your bag and apply on the go.

What We Don't Love: We wish the packaging was more elevated.

You can’t beat the convenience of buying a product on Amazon! This one arrives quickly and once you try it out, you’ll likely be impressed with your purchase — the oil-based formula lasted all day and night once we applied it (on both skin and hair) and was quite easy to apply due to its rollerball format. The essential oil-infused perfume is quite strong, especially at first, with a scent trail that’s possible to smell from two feet away. It features an unusual blend of fruity, floral, and spicy notes that ultimately wore down to a vanilla-y floral aroma over time. 

Though we enjoy the convenience of the rollerball bottle and its travel-friendly size, the packaging is not high-end by any means, with a simple printed label that we found to be a little cheesy. But if you’re looking for an affordable pheromone perfume, it’s worthy of your consideration.

Type: Roll-on oil｜Key Notes: Mango, mandarin, honey, cinnamon, white musk｜Fragrance Family: Fruity floral｜Size: .34 oz

Best Sweet

Pure Romance Basic Instinct Pheromone Perfume

Our Ratings

• Scent

  4.3/5

• Wear

  5/5

• Performance

  4.9/5

• Efficacy

  4.9/5

• Packaging

  4/5

What We Love: It’s a very straightforward and playful fragrance that’s easy to wear.

What We Don't Love: You might be a little embarrassed by the packaging — it’s not discreet.

If you were the person with a collection of Victoria’s Secret body splashes in your locker, you’ll likely love this perfume. We found it to be sweet, juicy, and fruity with something of a candy-like quality to it, making it a nice pick for daytime wear. It was quite strong at first (a little goes a long way; we only needed one or two passes of the rollerball), but it mellowed out nicely throughout the day. Even though it’s oil based, it didn’t stain any fabrics or leave behind greasy strands when we applied it to our hair, though it did leave a bit of residue on our skin after application.

Though we appreciate this formula, we think the packaging needs a significant upgrade. It looks pretty lowbrow, like it could have come out of a child’s makeup playset, with a cheap label that has an overly youthful colorway. What bugged us the most during testing is that it says “sex attractant” directly on the bottle, which is a feature of this pheromone fragrance that you may not want to advertise to others. Considering it’s travel-sized and designed to be taken on the go, we’d be wary of keeping it in our purse, lest it roll out and announce our intentions.

Type: Roll-on oil｜Key Notes: Not listed｜Fragrance Family: Sweet fruity floral｜Size: .34 oz

Best Long-Lasting

RawChemistry Delight Pheromone Perfume

Our Ratings

• Scent

  4.9/5

• Wear

  4.6/5

• Performance

  4.9/5

• Efficacy

  4.5/5

• Packaging

  4.8/5

What We Love: This is a nicely balanced scent with an interesting and appealing blend of notes. 

What We Don't Love: It leaves an oily residue behind. 

We didn’t know what to expect from this purple-packaged fragrance, but we were very pleasantly surprised. The scent features floral, fresh, fruity, and spicy notes that makes for a very unique perfume. While you might think such a broad-ranging blend of notes wouldn’t work, it’s very easy and enjoyable to wear: It evolves from a sweet floral you can wear during spring or summer to a warm apple-cinnamon-like fragrance that would be great for fall or winter. You only need one spritz to get plenty of coverage, and that initial spray will last the entire day.

We will say that we didn’t expect this eau de toilette to have any oil in it, which became apparent both when we tested it on fabric and on our skin. That said, it didn’t leave any residue behind when we wore it on our hair, which held the scent beautifully, smelling like we washed with high-quality shampoo. 

We’d absolutely recommend this scent to others in our network, especially if they’re looking to enter the pheromone perfume category without spending too much money.

Type: Eau de toilette｜Key Notes: Honey, jasmine, patchouli｜Fragrance Family: Fruity floral｜Size: 1 fl oz

Best Budget

Venom Scents Original Scent

Our Ratings

• Scent

  5/5

• Wear

  4.8/5

• Performance

  4.3/5

• Efficacy

  4.6/5

• Packaging

  3/5

What We Love: The white floral scent is gorgeous, especially for the price.

What We Don't Love: The packaging can get very messy if you’re not careful.

Those that love a white floral will be hooked on this shockingly affordable fragrance — it boasts a heady blend of white florals, most notably jasmine, with a sultry, spicy quality from the pepper note. The scent had significant staying power, likely because of its jojoba oil base, which left a slight film on our skin and hair (though just left it feeling moisturized, not greasy). It did admittedly stain the fabrics we tested it on, so we’d recommend focusing your application on skin.  

Though the perfume is spicy, that quality fades away to let the white florals shine, which makes this a wearable scent for all seasons. The aroma is very strong, which we didn’t mind as we loved it, but keep that in mind if you don’t like a fragrance that projects — we were able to smell this one from over five feet away. 

The only downside is its packaging. Though the bottle looks like it might have a rollerball or a mini atomizer, it actually only has a stopper, so once you unscrew the cap, you’ll have to carefully dab on the perfume. We found this highly dissatisfying and during testing, we spilled out too much several times. We wouldn’t trust the integrity of the packaging for traveling — the probability of dousing everything in our bag with perfume is way too high.

Type: Perfume oil｜Key Notes: Coffee, pepper, orange blossom, jasmine｜Fragrance Family: Fresh floral｜Size: 1 oz

Our Testing Process

Once we narrowed down our selection of pheromone perfumes to 17 different options, we shipped them off to our team of InStyle editors, who assessed the fragrances on five different categories: scent, wear, performance, efficacy, and packaging. Each scent was tested by two different InStyle editors to analyze how the perfumes interacted with different body chemistries. In addition to sampling the fragrances on their skin, we tried them on several types of fabric (including silk and spandex), paper, and hair extensions to determine how the scent evolved or if it left residue behind after application. After collecting and analyzing our editors’ feedback and wrote about their positive and negative experiences of each formula, including more specific details from their perfume trials, as well as interviewed three fragrance experts to get their insights on pheromone perfumes.

What to Keep in Mind

Fragrance Notes

Some pheromone perfumes will actually contain synthetic versions of the real thing. “Pheromones are chemical signals that humans release that can relate to mating and fostering social bonds,” explains Ashlee Posner, founder of transparent fragrance manufacturer Lucent Laboratories and State of Change. “You won’t be able to smell those ingredients, at least in a traditional way — they’re sensed.” 

“Unlike other perfumes, pheromones are not perceived by the olfactory glands of the nose, but by what is called the Jacobson's organ,” says Ben Krigler, the fifth-generation perfumer of House of Krigler. This organ is located in the base of the nasal cavity. When it’s triggered by a pheromone, it sends a signal to your brain to stimulate your pleasure centers. 

However, you’ll be able to smell other notes used in perfumes designed to enhance your attraction. Some are subtler than others. For example, one of the most common types of perfumes in this category are “skin scents,” which are designed to make you smell like you, but better. In these formulas, “the notes that you can expect are warm and alluring, meant to be smelled close to the body,” says Meg Gray, Director of Merchandising at Bluemercury. 

Notes that fall into this category include iso e super and musk, which you’ll find in D.S. & Durga I Don't Know What Eau de Parfum and Escentric Molecules Molecule 01 Eau de Toilette. “Skin scents can end up smelling woody, powdery, or like fresh linen,” she adds. (Byredo Blanche Eau de Parfum is a good example of this.)

There are also more noticeable scents known for smelling especially alluring. Krigler recommends warm, sensual aromas, like patchouli, caramel, rose, and fruity and sugary notes. You can also look to animalic notes like tuberose or cetalox (the latter of which is inspired by ambergris). You’ll find these in Frédéric Malle Carnal Flower by Dominique Ropion and Juliette Has A Gun Not A Perfume Eau de Parfum respectively. “Animalic” is just a more discreet way of saying it smells like sex, sweat, or other “dirty” aromas. 

Longevity

When shopping for any perfume, longevity is the name of the game — you don’t want to apply a fragrance in the morning, only for it to dissipate by lunch. That’s especially true if you’re trying to make yourself magnetic. 

One way to boost your wear time is to start with a perfume rather than eau de toilette, as the former is made with a stronger concentration of scent and will last longer. If you can find an extrait de parfum, go for it: “It has the highest concentration of fragrance at 20 to 30 percent, which can last for 12+ hours,” says Gray.

Application makes a difference, too. “Apply to moisturized skin and to pulse points or anywhere warm on your body,” says Posner, who also recommends storing your perfume out of direct sunlight and heat, which will limit degradation, preserving the lifespan and performance of your fragrance. 

Keep in mind, though, that if you hold on to the same bottle for years, you may not like it as you get older. “Your chemistry evolves with age,” explains Krigler. “You won’t react the same way to a perfume if you are 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 — it's normal and part of life.”

Your Expectations

Don’t expect a bottle of perfume to transform you from a wallflower to a sexual dynamo with one spritz! “A European researcher told me that so-called human pheromones sold commercially have no scientific basis,” points out Krigler. 

But a good perfume can and will go a long way towards making you feel your best — which will inherently help boost your charm. “It makes you feel more confident, more interesting…if you feel sexy, another person will be attracted to your confidence,” Krigler adds.

Your Questions, Answered

What is pheromone perfume?

Simply put, pheromone perfume is a fragrance designed to amplify your sex appeal. In some cases, they may contain synthetic human pheromones, says Posner. “Scientific evidence supporting this in humans is limited.”

According to Krigler, these pheromones will differ between scents designed for men and women. “Pheromone perfumes for women generally contain the pheromones androstenol, androstadienone and other copulins, which stimulate desire and romantic passion,” he says. “Pheromone perfumes for men generally consist of androstenone and androsterone, which combine to evoke strength and sexual attraction.” You’ll find synthetic pheromones in Pure Romance Basic Instinct Pheromone Perfume, Pure Instinct Pheromone Perfume (Roll-On), and Venom Scents Original Scent.

However, not all pheromone perfumes are formulated with pheromones. In many cases, “a pheromone perfume is a scent that mixes with your naturally-occurring pheromones and body chemistry,” says Gray. These might be referred to as “skin scents,” or they could just be especially sexy fragrances that will make you stand out.

Do pheromone perfumes work?

Maybe — the jury’s still out, at least on the fragrances designed with faux pheromones. “Pheromone perfumes are an attempt to synthetically recreate these signals, which at this point is not scientifically proven,” explains Posner. “With that being said, science is amazing, so who knows what the future and biotechnology hold.” 

However, we do know that perfume overall can make you smell sexier to others; it’s just the matter of picking the right scent. “Certain people are attracted to specific scents, so if someone is already attracted to your skin scent, these fragrances will only enhance that attraction,” says Gray. 

And anecdotally, it’s worth a try: “I have a client who literally told me that when she smells a pheromone perfume, she has a small orgasm,” Krigler reveals. We’ll have what she’s having!

What does pheromone scent smell like?

No pheromone scent smells the same. Whether it has added synthetic pheromones or is a traditional perfume designed to enhance your allure, it’ll smell different, thanks to the blend of notes, whether they’re warm and woodsy, sweet and fruity, or lush and floral. 

The most important thing is that you like it — and you test it to see if others like it, too. “Honestly, it must tickle your senses,” says Krigler. “When you smell a perfume, it might have an effect on you but not on another person. The secret is to know what you are attracted to.”

Why Shop With Us

Emily Orofino is a beauty writer, editor, and consultant with more than a decade of experience in the industry. She is a perfume junkie and has collected dozens, if not hundreds, of bottles of perfume and can’t stop adding to her collection. For this piece, she interviewed Meg Gray, Director of Merchandising at Bluemercury, Ben Krigler, fifth-generation perfumer House of House of Krigler, and Ashlee Posner, founder of transparent fragrance manufacturer Lucent Laboratories and State of Change.