Your Candle Has Bewitched Me. And It’s All In The Nose

A while ago you sent me a candle. You have its exact same partner on the other side of the world. It carries the most extraordinary sexual scent. How is this. Pheremones? Could be.

Like a candle on the window-sill

It doesn’t smell like anything I know. Certainly not in the current candle world. 
And I know too that there is such a thing as ‘sensual candles’. But those things tend to smell like, well, not very sensual. Think air fresheners and you’ll see where I’m heading.

Your candle has been moved upstairs to my bathroom. Lying back and thinking of nothing but hot water, I looked up and there you were on the shelf looking down at me. It was rather erotic to find you there, unannounced like that.

It was a bit like when Samantha suddenly appeared to Dick when he was in his office in Bewitched. Quick sidetrack – wasn’t Elizabeth Montgomery the most gorgeous woman from your childhood? Literally bewitching. I miss her.

I digress. I struck a match and let your hazy hues fill the room.  I think I am extremely sensitive to smells. It is said that an aroma can transport one back to childhood instantly. It can evoke sadness or joy. It is for me, one of the key senses. I always trust my sense of smell – where it couldn’t be said as much for my eyesight ;)

I’d imagine if you lined up ten men in my bathroom - stay with me – and asked them if they found the smell worked on them, I bet you’d get ten very different answers. Maybe I’d be the only one to find it erotic, who knows?

In the same way that it’d be pretty boring if we all chose red cars, I suppose.

I looked up just how pheromones work (once I’d got out of the bath). 

They are something that can subconsciously change our behaviour. I like to think a lot goes on in our lives subconsciously. Some clever scientists at Rockefeller reckon they’ve identified a human gene linked to pheromones. The gene, named V1RL1, is the first to be reported in humans. The researchers believe it makes a protein that can detect pheromones. They suspect this 'pheromone receptor' is in the mucus membranes lining our hooters.

Most mammals have a gland at the top of their nose, called the vomeronasal organ. 
More clever types in white coats believe this detects the sex pheromones and triggers sexual excitement.

Having said that, there's no real evidence that we hoomans have a vomeronasal organ. 
The question of whether we act involuntarily to pheromones is still unanswered.

Whether I’ve got a vomeronasal organ is not really important.

But I do know which organ you reached last night and you weren’t even trying xxx