What are Pheromone Perfumes, plus the Best in Men and Women’s Versions

Pheromones are in the air — perhaps more than usual.

Coined by Peter Karlson and Martin Lüscher in 1959, “pheromones” refers to a class of naturally secreted chemicals said to emit olfactive signals between members of the same species. Examples include copulin and androstadienone, female and male pheromone respectively, both believed to have a potential impact on human attraction.

Though evidence of pheromones’ influence on arousal remains minimal, this hasn’t stopped fragrance brands from attempting to replicate their purported effects synthetically — an effort that has been met with both enthusiasm and skepticism from the fragrance community.

“While our sense of smell is definitely underutilized and underrated, there is no proof that humans can smell pheromones — we don’t have a functioning vomeronasal organ like other animals,” said Isaac Sinclair, master perfumer at natural fragrance brand Abel, adding that the appeal of pheromone perfumes is “primarily a marketing thing: sex sells — even if it might be an empty promise.”

Data from Spate shows that TikTok videos mentioning pheromone perfumes garner 3.6 million average weekly views, a 121.1 percent year-over-year increase. While Google searches for pheromone perfumes are rarely brand-specific, the brands most aligned with the trend on TikTok include DLA Cosmetics and Pure Instinct, the latter of which has logged more than 238 million total views across user-generated content mentioning it.

Like many other viral beauty trends, this rise has led to a boom in Amazon’s fragrance business, which is still nascent compared to the e-commerce giant’s skin and makeup categories, which are increasingly onboarding established players like Clinique, Kiehl’s, Too Faced and more.

According to Market Defense, Pure Instinct’s roll-on pheromone perfume in the scent Crave is the top-selling women’s fragrance on Amazon, netting just under $300,000 in monthly sales on the platform. Male fragrance sales, too, are dominated by a pheromone perfume player: Cupid’s Original Hypnosis Pheromone Cologne sells at triple the price point of Pure Instinct’s $17 hero and rakes in roughly $600,000 in monthly sales.

“Some of these pheromone perfumes feel like a legitimate fragrance purchase — they’re not necessarily in the $15 range the way an Axe fragrance might be — so it feels more like an investment than something the consumer is just grabbing off the shelf,” said Vanessa Kuykendall, chief engagement officer at Market Defense.

While interest in women’s pheromone perfumes has seen steady growth over the last year, male pheromone colognes saw a particularly steep ascent in July around Amazon Prime Day, with monthly searches exceeding 600,000 during the period, which Kuykendall said was likely driven by a surge in male influencers mentioning the product. After a post-Prime Day drop, searches begun climbing again in August, presently topping 500,000 monthly searches among men.

“Because fewer established fragrance brands have set up storefronts of their own on Amazon, it can be kind of the Wild West for fragrance on the platform — it doesn’t yet have the intentionality of Amazon’s skin care, hair care or makeup assortments,” Kuykendall said.

Still, that Amazon — unhampered by the need to hedge its bets the way a Sephora or Ulta Beauty must before expanding its assortment — is one of the few places consumers can purchase pheromone perfumes, gives its fragrance business a boost in the interim.

The top five pheromone fragrances by estimated monthly units sold on Amazon in 2024, per Market Defense.

1. Pure Instinct Crave Roll-on Pheromone Perfume, $17.71

2. Cupid’s Original Eau de Parfum Hypnosis 2.0 Pheromone-infused Cologne, $58.95

3. RawChemistry for Him Pheromone-infused Cologne Spray, $30.95

4. Goda For Her Pheromone Perfume for Women, $13.43

5. Cupid’s Hypnosis 10-ml. Roll-on For Men, $29.99