Word: scenting
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...declined slightly in 2007. Niche perfumes were only 9% of that market, but their sales have risen 60% since 2005, says Karen Grant of market-research firm NPD--especially striking since most niche brands start at about $100 for 1.7 oz. (50 ml) while the average cost of a scent that size is $31, according to Euromonitor...
...access to perfumers at European houses like the 250-year-old Creed and to retailers like niche specialist Aedes de Venustas. Recently the group met with Chanel for a lesson in the art and origin of its iconic perfumes and even got an exclusive sneak sniff of its new scent Sycomore, which launched two days later...
...Scent not only tells males which females are primed to conceive, but it also lets both sexes narrow their choices of potential partners. Among the constellation of genes that control the immune system are those known as the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), which influence tissue rejection. Conceive a child with a person whose MHC is too similar to your own, and the risk increases that the womb will expel the fetus. Find a partner with sufficiently different MHC, and you're likelier to carry a baby to term...
...only does kissing serve the utilitarian purpose of providing a sample of MHC, but it also magnifies the other attraction signals--if only as a result of proximity. Scent is amplified up close, as are sounds and breaths and other cues. And none of that begins to touch the tactile experience that was entirely lacking until intimate contact was made. "At the moment of a kiss, there's a rich and complicated exchange of postural, physical and chemical information," says Gallup. "There are hardwired mechanisms that process all this...
Precise as the MHC-detection system is, it can be confounded. One thing that throws us off the scent is the birth-control pill. Women who are on the Pill--which chemically simulates pregnancy--tend to choose wrong in the T-shirt test. When they discontinue the daily hormone dose, the protective smell mechanism kicks back in. "A colleague of mine wonders if the Pill may contribute to divorce," says Wysocki. "Women pick a husband when they're on birth control, then quit to have a baby and realize they've made a mistake...