Dollars and Scents
If perfume is on your shopping list this holiday season, manufacturers want you to believe their fragrance will make you seem sexier, livelier, and more attractive. But younger? Believe it or not, there may be some science behind that claim.
Alan Hirsch, Chicago neurologist, psychiatrist, and expert on smell and taste, has done some research that suggests the fragrance of pink grapefruit could make people think you're up to 6 years younger. That's if you're a woman, and a man is the one guessing your age.
The youth effect was less for men smelling of grapefruit, but who wants a man who smells like grapefruit, anyway?
A quick search of perfumes with notes of citrus and grapefruit suggest that this research was not lost on the cosmetics industry. If it's a fragrance you like, perhaps you can do your own survey! At least it won't make you look fat when you put it on.
Read more:
Source:
A R. Hirsch, Y. Ye. "Effects of odour on perception of age." International Journal of Essential Oil Therapeutics (2008) 2, 131-138.
