A new ‘Smell Dating’ service matches you based on body odour

We'd heard of love at first sight. But love at first sniff..?

The aptly named New York dating agency "Smell Dating" lets people make connections based solely on smell. You send them a dirty T-Shirt, they send you the love of your life. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500"] via Giphy / LucasFilm[/caption] Claiming to be the 'world's first mail odor dating service', the tongue-in-cheek but totally real site promises to find participants a 'chemically attractive' partner in no time. A checklist on the Smell Dating website reads:

1. We send you a t-shirt
2. You wear the shirt for three days and three nights without deodorant.
3. You return the shirt to us in a prepaid envelope.
4. We send you swatches of t-shirts worn by a selection of other individuals.
5. You smell the samples and tell us who you like.
6. If someone whose smell you like likes the smell of you too, we'll facilitate an exchange of contact information.
7. The rest is up to you.

The creators, who it's worth noting are artists and not scientists, justify their creation with a bunch of deep and meaningful-sounding pseudoscience on their page:

"At Smell Dating we understand the metrics of compatibility are chemical..."

And:

"Smell is one of the most poignant and evocative experiences afforded by the human sensory apparatus... Although much remains unknown about smell perception, this cognitive process may be the reason that smell is so hard to describe in words, and often thought to be subjective."

Nevertheless, the concept is pretty intriguing. Unfortunately it not for everyone, the concept is limited to 100 participants in the New York area. On signing up participants pay a one-off fee of $25 (£15). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0Sxklpx-WE Clip via AJ+ If you're looking for love and have an inventive way of finding it, hit us up at hello@JOE.co.uk.