The main ingredient in pheromone cologne comes from pig balls.
It's called androstenone. It was the first pheromone science ever identified — in 1971, in the testicles of a boar. Fifty years later, it's still in almost every "attraction" spray sold to men. Here's how that happened, and what finally replaced it.
Science's first pheromone was found in a pig's testicles.
In 1971, researchers isolated a steroid compound in boars and confirmed it did something remarkable: when a sow in heat smelled it, she would immediately freeze and assume the mating stance. One molecule, one sniff, guaranteed response.
They named it androstenone — the first mammalian pheromone ever identified. It's produced in the boar's testes, concentrates in his saliva, and to this day it is one of the most reliable behavioural triggers in all of biology.
For pigs.
Androstenone identified
Isolated from boars. Produced in the testes. The first pheromone science ever confirmed in a mammal.
Pig farmers get a spray bottle
Synthetic androstenone goes on sale as "boar odor spray" — farmers spray it near a sow's snout to check if she's ready for breeding. It's still sold at farm supply stores today, for about the price of lunch.
Someone puts it in a bottle for men
The logic: it's a pheromone, men want pheromones. The species difference gets left off the label. "Pheromone cologne" is born — and androstenone is its engine.
It's still the default
Flip over most pheromone colognes and you'll find androstenone or its cousins (androstenol, androsterone) on the ingredient list. Same molecule. Same origin. Same species mismatch.
Nearly every pheromone product runs on it.
This isn't one shady brand. Androstenone and its derivatives are the backbone of the entire pheromone cologne category — the sprays, the oils, the "unscented additives," the $80 bottles with the sports-car names.
And here's the detail the industry doesn't lead with: in humans, roughly a third of people can't smell androstenone at all. Of those who can, many describe it as sweaty, urinous — like body odour. That's not a rumour; it's one of the most studied quirks in smell genetics.
So the best case is she smells nothing. The common case is she smells a compound from pig balls that reads as stale sweat. There is no case where it works the way the label promised — because it was never a human signal to begin with.
Nobody asked the obvious question.
For fifty years, the pheromone industry kept refilling the same bottle. New brands, new labels, new promises — same boar molecule underneath. Whole careers were spent marketing it. Nobody stopped to ask the only question that mattered:
Is there a pheromone that was actually found in a human's world — and studied on actual humans?
There was. It had been sitting in plain sight for decades. And the moment you ask the question, every bottle on the shelf quietly sorts itself into one of two piles.
Made from pig balls.
Tested on pigs.
Made from jasmine.
Studied in humans.
Hedione: found in jasmine. Studied in humans.
Hedione was first synthesised in 1962 from a compound found in jasmine flowers. Perfumers fell in love with it — it's the radiant, transparent note at the heart of Dior's legendary Eau Sauvage, and it's been in fine fragrance ever since. No barn required.
Then, in 2015, researchers at Ruhr University Bochum found something the perfume industry hadn't been looking for: hedione activates VN1R1 — a putative pheromone receptor in the human nose. In brain-imaging, it lit up the hypothalamus, the brain's hormonal control room, with a measurably stronger response in women. Ordinary fragrance notes don't do that.
Read that timeline again. Androstenone: discovered in pig testes, tested on sows, sold to farmers. Hedione: discovered in jasmine, worn in one of the most iconic men's fragrances in history, and shown to engage a receptor in the human nose. One of these belongs near your mouth. The other belongs in a barn.
Pig-grade vs. human-grade.
- ✕Androstenone — from pig testes
- ✕Behaviour proven in sows, not people
- ✕Sold at farm supply stores as boar spray
- ✕~1 in 3 humans can't smell it at all
- ✕Often reads as sweat or urine to those who can
- ✕Worn on the wrist — fades before it reaches anyone
- ✓Hedione — found in jasmine flowers
- ✓Activates VN1R1, a receptor in the human nose
- ✓Worn in fine fragrance since the 1960s
- ✓Clean, subtle, fresh scent
- ✓Doesn't make the wrist-to-nose journey — more on that below
- ✓Zero ingredients sourced from livestock
Moné Eros. Human-grade, by design.
Remember the geography problem? Here's the answer. Eros isn't a cologne — it's a breath elixir. Hedione, delivered on the breath, at the one distance that actually matters: face to face. Most guys show up to that distance with funky breath. Eros shows up with the molecule that has human research behind it. No wrist. No waiting. No pig balls.
- 🌸 Hedione — the jasmine-derived, human-studied molecule
- 🚫 Zero androstenone. Zero pig-derived anything.
- 💨 Breath delivery — works at conversation distance
- 🇺🇸 Made in the USA
- 🛡 90-day money-back guarantee
90-day money-back guarantee · Free shipping over $50 · Dispatched within 24h
Human-grade results.
"She asked what cologne I was wearing. I wasn't wearing any. Didn't tell her."
"Definitely works. I pulled an unlikely prospect for the long weekend and for 3 days they were whispering sweet nothings into my ear. Lol"
"So first thing….My wife loves the smell on me and it definitely gets her going ;)"
Everything you're about to Google anyway.
Is androstenone really made from pig testicles?
Does my current pheromone cologne have it?
What makes hedione "human-grade"?
Why a breath spray instead of a cologne?
What if it doesn't work for me?
You're a human.
Wear the human one.
Fifty years of pig-grade is enough. Jasmine over pig balls. Breath over wrist. Ninety days to decide.
Try Moné Eros — Human-Grade →🌸 Hedione · 💨 Breath delivery · 🛡 90-Day Guarantee