Victoria's Secret just proved that apart from smelling sexy, their customers can have a fun time anywhere without having to worry about getting mosquito bites. According to a scientific research published in the Journal of Insect Science, Victoria's Secret's award-winning Bombshell perfume is also an effective mosquito repellent.
Stacy Rodriguez, a research assistant at the New Mexico State University's (NMSU) Molecular Vector Physiology Lab and a member of the team who held the experiments, included the popular fruity and flowery scented perfume in order to demystify the theory of mosquitoes being attracted to fruity and flowery scents. "There was some previous literature that said fruity, floral scents attracted mosquitoes, and to not wear those," Rodriguez said of her choice. It turns out that the idea is really just a myth because the sweet scent of Bombshell surprisingly worked just like DEET-laced insect repellents.
"Insect repellents can be highly efficient, but you need to find out which work," NMSU Associate Professor of Biology Immo Hansen said.
The items the team included in their experiments were all commercially available: DEET-laced and DEET-free repellents, and Vitamin B1-based insect repelling skin patch and perfumes. These items were applied or placed on one hand while the other was left untreated. Each item was given a four-hour observation period where the results were written during the initial 30-, 120- and 240-minute mark.
The surprising results showed that VS Bombshell effectively repelled mosquitoes for up to two hours - just as well as DEET-laced insect repellents. The untreated hand which attracted 60% of the mosquitos in the holding chamber attracted only 17% of the mosquitoes when scented with the Bombshell perfume. However, the team has not formed a conclusive reason as to why this happened and can only attribute the result to the perfume creating a temporary masking effect.
In case anyone was wondering, the Vitamin B1-based insect repellent patch was completely ineffective.
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