It's the brain-child of Michelle Roark, the 2009 U.S. freestyle skiing champion (who, yes, also studies chemical engineering) who credits some of her success to a custom scent, yes, Confidence. ("Ego" was apparently already taken by the hundreds of celeb unguents flooding the agora.) She's also concocted Focus, Balance, Adventure, and Imagination. And while this may all seem more "snake" than "essential" oily, she's a true believer, telling the Wall Street Journal, "It's not just mumbo-jumbo...There is a science behind it."

You don't need to have studied Stanislavsky to know about scent memory, and scents like Roark's work on the same principle. As the WSJ explains,"scientific studies have shown that smell and emotion exist in the same network of neural structures known as the limbic system-an ancient core of the brain that dates to the beginning of human evolution." Otherwise known, yes, as "aromatherapy." And the problem, as killjoy scientists are quick to point out, is that everyone's associations are different: if a horrible relative always had grapefruit breath, that's not going to spell "energizing" as much as "nausea." I like the smell of Lysol disinfectant because it reminds me of my grandma, but I'm guessing this isn't a winning formula for "Comfort."

So, yeah, chances are Confidence's success is down to placebo effect. But so what? That's real, too. And it's always unwise, it seems, to overestimate the skepticism of the buying public. We want to believe! And a vial of perfume is a lot safer - and cheaper - than a vial of Beta-blockers. And clearly the manufacturer has faith in her product, which is a lot more than you can say for most snake-oil salesmen. The danger, of course, is in attempting freestyle skiing under the influence.

Can Perfume Make You a Winner? [Wall Street Journal]

According to a story in the new issue of the Economist, selling men on scent is a tricky business, and a lot of companies have to couch it as "aftershave" and "deodorant." But a new breakthrough study reports that men are so sensitive to the way they smell that — get this — "when a man changes his natural body odor it can alter his self-confidence to such an extent that it also changes how attractive women find him."

In the article (a section of which is oddly titled, "Born chicka wah, ker-ching chicka ching,") the author explains that perfume and cologne use fall into three basic categories: masking odors; pheromones; boosting natural smells. These all are sort of real and mostly psychological. And it's the psychology that's important: which kind of explains why guys drenched in vile scent apparently have no problem attracting women.

But, what I wonder is, does the confidence a scent imparts actually offset the negative associations some of us have with cologne? A lot of women, after all, hate it with a visceral passion. "Cologne" as a concept can signify cheesiness, vanity, a certain horrible hybrid of B.O. and chemicals, and middle-school nerds awash in Cool Water. It's one of those ingrained double-standards a lot of people just can't fight. While women are encouraged to change scent with their mood, the same behavior would seem suspect in a man. The much-ballyhooed metrosexual backlash led to a lot of pieces claiming women just wanted manly smells — B.O., sweat, that kind of honest stuff.

So, if a lot of women hate cologne — not all, obviously — why does the wearing of it create such confidence in men? Are they that susceptible to lame "Axe Effect" style campaigns? Do they feel that bad about their natural odors? Are they that convinced that "cologne" equals seduction and effort? And if that's true, why is it so hard to get them to wear it in the first place? Is it more that they need to be convinced, but once they are, they are sold? Or do they require this kind of scientific justification to feel okay about wearing perfume? Or — and here is a big question? — do men not know how women feel about cologne? Inquiring minds — and noses — want to know.

The Scent Of A Man [The Economist]

According to another study, ladies consider a man less attractive if they sniff something foul while looking at him — even if he's not the source of the stink. Pleasant and neutral odors make women find men more handsome. What is it about smell? And why does it make us feel things? Bruce Turetsky, a University of Pennsylvania associate psychiatry professor, says scents may "have a greater ability to bring up an emotional memory in you than seeing a picture or hearing a voice." Turestky found that sense of smell can also be linked to emotional disorders; In one study, he measured the olfactory organ sizes of patients with schizophrenia (a disease characterized by emotional flatness) and they were 23 percent smaller than normal.

Meanwhile, Marissa Kristal of Psychology Today polled her girlfriends by asking them to smell certain scents and then describe how they pictured the man who'd wear them. Nivea aftershave balm made them think the guy was "soft and smooth"; Demeter's Grass fragrance prompted them to imagine a "very manly" outdoorsy guy and a Bulgari cologne made them conjure up a "confident, practical and handsome" man. Hmm, what would they say if they got a whiff of Vulva?

A Sniff of Your Sweetie [Psychology Today]
Beauty Beat: The Nose Knows [Psychology Today]
The Emotional Power of Smell [Psychology Today]
Earlier: Upper East Siders Love Crotch, Hate "Vulva"

Vulva Original [Vulva]