Happy Saturday, Love Scent fans! We hope you all had a great week.

In the past, we’ve talked briefly about how to properly test a new pheromone product. This week and next week, we’re going to take a more in-depth look at the topic, including some advice from actual pheromone users (courtesy of the Love Scent Discussion Forum).

As you know perfectly well by now, there are a lot of reasons people get interested in pheromones. Most people want to make their romantic and sex lives more interesting; others want to give their self-confidence a boost in their personal and professional lives; some people are trying to rekindle a relationship; and the list goes on. Your reasons for using them will have a big influence on how you need to test them, but there are a few general rules to follow no matter what. This week, we’ll cover these general rules; next week, we’ll get into the nittier-grittier details of testing out the pheromones themselves.

The general pheromone experimentation rules are:

1. Have “Control” Days

If you’re at all familiar with scientific experimentation, you know that “control groups” are a must. Take a pharmaceutical drug trial as an example: in the early stages, some trial participants are given placebos in place of the medication being tested. This helps the researchers know if an observed effect of the drug is an actual effect of the drug, or just something that’s a random coincidence. (If a bunch of people testing the new medication suddenly start sneezing, but there are a ton of people sneezing in the control group too, researchers know that it probably has nothing to do with the new drug.) It also helps sort out the “placebo effects.” (If someone thinks they’re testing out an awesome new headache medication, their headaches might decrease even if they’re taking a sugar pill instead, because the human psyche is just that powerful.) Control groups help you separate the real effects from the coincidences and the placebo effects. Control groups, therefore, are an absolute must if you want your research to mean anything.

How does this apply to pheromone tests? Well, when you start wearing a pheromone for the first time, you’re naturally going to be paying more attention to the people around you and how they’re responding to you, because you’re interested in how the pheromone is effecting them. This is a critical part of testing, but it can also result in misleading observations: you might be noticing things for the first time, but that doesn’t mean those things just now started happening. It might have been happening all along, but you didn’t notice because you didn’t think you had any reason to pay much attention. You might accidentally attribute something to the pheromones that is actually the result of your own personality. If you do this, you won’t have a good understanding of the pheromone and how it works for you, defeating the whole purpose of testing a pheromone out.

So be sure to have some “control” days when you don’t wear any pheromones at all. Behave just as you would if you were wearing pheromones. If you plan to chat someone up while wearing a pheromone perfume, for example, make sure to chat them up on a control day too. Make note of people’s responses to you, just as you would if you were wearing a pheromone. Pay close attention and remember as many details as you can. Then, later, when you are wearing the pheromones, you’ll have a baseline to compare everything to.

This seems simple, and, in retrospect, obvious, but people often skip this step in their excitement to try out a new pheromone. Make sure you don’t skip it! Start out with a few control days, and consider throwing a few control days after you’ve started experimenting too–especially if you’re testing out how the pheromones affect one person in particular.

2. Experiment Broadly

It’s very important to remember that there will be a huge number of factors influencing the people around you when you’re testing out your pheromones. You can’t know everything that’s going on in a person’s life, and you have no idea how these unknown variables could be affecting their behavior. If someone had an awful day at work and is trying to unwind with friends at a nightclub, for example, they might not be in the mood to socialize with strangers–even if one stranger in particular smells very intriguing. If someone is experiencing a crisis in their family, they might not be particularly responsive to inviting smiles or lingering looks. And, of course, if someone has very particular taste in partners, then a particular pheromone just might not do anything for them.

The solution? Experiment frequently with your new pheromones, in several different environments and with several different people, and repeat the experiments several times. You may well find that a person who did not respond at all to a particular pheromone last week will respond very well this week, and you’ll almost certainly find that some people are more responsive to certain pheromones than others. It all boils down to body chemistry and what people are interested in.

3. Know Your Body Language

If you’re going to recognize reactions to pheromones in those around you, you need to be able to read the signs, right? Inexperienced pheromone users will sometimes give up on product because they’re not able to recognize that it’s working. On the other hand, if you’re not observant, you might also not notice when the pheromone is causing a bad reaction in those around you, such as increased aggression in someone who’s being hit with a little too much AndrosteNONE.

So be sure to brush up on your knowledge of body language and the other silent signals we humans send each other. Some examples on inviting body language in women, from Pherolibrary’s own Phero Mixer Cookbook, are:

• “Open posture”–a body oriented invitingly towards you, not away from you
• When sitting, the legs aren’t closed
• Isn’t afraid of close physical proximity, and particularly isn’t afraid to have her face near yours (for example, to smell your cologne on invitation or whisper something in your ear)
• Doesn’t mind physical contact, such as the touching of arm/shoulder (just be sure she isn’t just trying to be polite)

Examples of female body language that say “I don’t want to be here” are foot-tapping, playing with the fingers, looking away frequently, avoiding physical contact, and showing nervousness and discomfort with physical contact. Be honest with yourself: if you think she’s uncomfortable, pull away. It’s the decent thing to do, and will show her that you’re trustworthy and won’t impose your presence on her if she doesn’t want you there.

There are plenty of online resources that can give you a primer on body language. Make sure you know and can recognize these subtle social codes before heading out to see what your new pheromone can do for you.

4. Be Respectful

Pheromones are not magic potions. If someone just isn’t interested in you even after you’ve tried to get them to be, there is, unfortunately, not much you can do about it. It’s not your fault, and it’s not their fault: people have different preferences and tastes, and while it can be painful to walk away from someone you’d love to be in a relationship with, sometimes we have to just admit to ourselves that certain things aren’t meant to be.

So the final piece of general advice is this: don’t force something that isn’t going to work. If someone is giving you the signal that they don’t want your attention, walk away; don’t force your presence on someone who does not want it. After long-term testing, if pheromones didn’t bring a person’s walls down, get them closer to you, or help recognize their attraction to you, and you did everything you could to be appealing to them but never succeeded, it’s time to move on and try someone else. You can’t force someone to like you that way, and, frankly, it’s unethical to try. Just give it your best and be ready to recognize if it’s not going to work out.

 

All right. Those are the basic rules of pheromone experimentation. Next week, we’ll go into more detail on how, specifically, to experiment with pheromones, where to experiment with them, and how to judge the results. See you then!

Do you have anything you’d like to add to these general rules? Let us know in the comments!

 

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