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Dominique McMullan

This tasteful seaside home in Co Waterford is on the market for €775,000
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Sarah Finnan

‘Passages’: A messy (and undeniably sexy) look at modern relationships
‘Passages’: A messy (and undeniably sexy) look at modern relationships

Sarah Finnan

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Sarah Gill

What to eat tonight: Sri Lankan devilled prawns, ideally paired with a Friday tipple
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Meg Walker

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Megan Burns

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‘I didn’t expect the level of anger setting boundaries would cause’

Amanda Cassidy

The tights edit: Patterned, fishnet and everything in between
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Image / Editorial

Scent Of A Soulmate?


By Jeanne Sutton
20th Feb 2014
Scent Of A Soulmate?

We were all wrong. The latest dating craze isn’t flipping through prospective matches on your phone during your daily commute. It actually involves that most maligned of body parts – the noble armpit.

Before you flinch let us explain with copy and pasted science.

Pheromones are the chemical you secrete when you meet someone towards whom you can’t help having a social response – be it fear or attraction. Sex pheromones in women signal how prime they are for breeding while men’s pheromones indicate how suitable their genes are for procreation. The main source for pheromones in humans? Armpit sweat.

Pheromone parties have been sweeping LA, but of course, and next month they land in London. Based on this science of smell attendees are asked to bring a t-shirt they’ve slept in to the party and everyone then gathers around for an exploratory sniff. Whoever’s odour captures your fancy might be the biologically mandated one! Think speed dating without any shame. As the organisers say: the nose knows.

What with all that science and cavewoman intuition I guess the only question left is when will Dublin get the cast off t-shirts?

For details of the London Pheromone Party see here.

Jeanne Sutton @jeannedesutun