Study: Where a Woman Lives Determines What Scents Turn Her On

Fragrance companies have been hitting us with this for years: Smells have the power to get us in the mood. It’s one of our ingrained mating triggers.

So The Smell and Taste Treatment & Research Foundation (yes, that’s a real organization), recently partnered with AXE to determine the scent preferences for women in 10 of the top cities for singles. And find which smells got them the most turned on. And some of what they found was, well, not exactly expected. (Click here for a larger map.)

For instance, in New York, if you smell like coffee, you’ve got the best shot at getting her engine revving, because that was the scent that they responded to most. (So that’s why there’s a Starbucks on every corner.)

Even more interesting is what gets the women of Houston ready to roll is the smell of some good barbecue. (Although I doubt AXE is going to want to make a new scented spray with the essence of pork butt.) And there’s gotta be something in the air in Texas, because the ladies in Dallas get hot for the smell of a roaring fireplace.

The complete list of the Top Turn On Scents by City looks like this:
Los Angeles: Lavender
San Diego: Suntan Lotion (No shocker here.)
Phoenix: Eucalyptus Dallas: Smoke/Fireplace
Houston: Barbecue
Atlanta: Cherry (Be the only guy who doesn’t smell like peaches.)
Philadelphia: Clean Laundry
New York: Coffee
Chicago: Vanilla (I would’ve guessed bratwurst.)
Minneapolis: Fresh Cut Grass (Good place to start that landscaping business.)

Still not convinced how much smell plays into dating? AXE conducted two other surveys to figure out what scents do to women, and here are some facts they uncovered:

56% of girls say they won’t date a guy who smells like their dad.

1 in 4 girls will wait anywhere from two weeks to a month before washing their sheets in order to keep their guy’s scent under the covers.

2 out of 3 women (66 percent) said they would be more likely to make out with a guy on the first date if he smelled good.

One out of two girls admits that she has committed theft by stealing an article of clothing from a guy to smell when he’s gone.

More than half of girls (58 percent) sleep in their guy’s clothes because they like his lingering aroma.

60 percent of girls still remember the smell of their ex’s cologne.

For more on the AXE studies, you can click here. I’m gonna pour a latte in my lap and head to NYC.