How Can You Wrap Yourself in Seductiveness and Attractiveness? Try a Perfume with Hedione

Lab-Made Attraction

Years ago, a Swiss company tried to find an alternative to a popular but expensive perfume ingredient: jasmine. And it developed hedione, an aromatic synthetic molecule that has become one of the most used perfume ingredients thanks to its excellent properties.

 "In perfumes it is used as a notional highlighter which adds vitality and diffusion to practically any type of fragrance," Kateřina Nováková explains and adds: "It works as an important building block especially in floral and citrus compositions, and is indispensable for creating the well-known green tea accords."

Its superpower is the ability to enhance the other components and allow us to perceive them better, both in women's and men's fragrances. However, the fragrance of hedione itself is rather bland and in its pure form would probably not impress your olfactory cells. "Hedione has a rather subtle, floral-green fragrance," says the aroma expert, noting: "You discover its charm by comparing two fragrant accords, one of which uses hedione and one that doesn't."

Fragrant Pleasure

This ingredient has an ace up its sleeve that will probably help you understand its popularity better. "The name hedione is derived from the Greek word hédoné, meaning pleasure, which naturally inspires many fantasies," says Kateřina Nováková, referring to the fact that this substance is attributed with the ability to induce pleasure or arousal and is often referred to as an aphrodisiac. "It is a proven fact that hedione binds to the pheromone receptor VN1R1 located on the human olfactory mucosa, which influences socio-sexual behaviour, especially in women," explains the perfume designer. 

Scientists have also found that hedione can activate areas of the brain's limbic system associated with emotion and memory much more strongly than the common floral fragrance phenethyl alcohol.

Magic or marketing?

And so, in connection with hedione, you may encounter claims that this ingredient will increase your sexual attractiveness or make you feel love. "A 2021 study confirmed an increase in physiological stress levels, i.e. cortisol or blood pressure, in a group of women when they were in a room scented with hedione. And this indicates the opposite rather than the desired effect of the substance," the expert points out, adding another important aspect: "It should also be noted that a significant part of the population does not sense hedione at all or only very weakly."

Smell It to Believe It

So is there any point in looking for hedione in perfume? The decision is yours. But its ability to play with our brains never ceases to fascinate the perfume world. "The desire to find a universally functioning 'love potion' is, without exaggeration, as old as mankind itself and one of the main reasons for this fascination" explains Kateřina Nováková. And since hedione is part of many perfumes anyway, you can easily test its effects for yourself.

Whether hedione has been rightly nicknamed the fragrance of love and attraction, or whether it's more about the desire to believe in fragrant miracles, it has made us think about perfume a little differently again. And that's no small thing, don't you think?