B.O.

Most of us assume that perfumes mask b.o. Anyone who has been trapped in a taxi, and breathed in the aromas from the rear-view mirror air freshener and those of sweat and cologne, may appreciate that eaux de cologne, unlike perfumes, are, in fact, designed to mask our odors rather than accentuate them.

While I wouldn’t want the cab driver’s scent to be magnified, there are times when we need such smells to be carefully introduced. What we usually call perfume—extraits, eaux de parfum, and eaux de toilette—contain much more than the fresh smelling and so-called anti-erogenic compounds in cologne. Remember the clock diagram? It has refreshing anti-erogenic odors at 12 o’clock; stimulating, often spicy, aromas at 3 o’clock; erogenic animal smells at 6 o’clock; and narcotic aromas, usually florals, at 9 o’clock. In the classic French tradition, examples of each of these should be included in a finished perfume.

            To put this all rather bluntly, we’re attracted to B.O. It is the various odors of the human body—usually when undetected—that are responsible for erotic stimulus.

            Classic perfumers, including my favorite perfume author Paul Jellinek, describe several kinds of erogenic smells. First, there are aromas (often aldehydes) that are reminiscent of sweat. Second, are smells released from the urogenital region and the anus (not a fecal smell, but of an almost-odorless lubricant), and third, is the smell of the scalp. These smells are usually evoked with animal ingredients such as ambergris, musk, castoreum and civet. Ideally a classic perfume should contain smells of the sweaty regions, the scalp, and the urinal/genital/anal nuances. All this stuff must, of course, be disguised