Picture this: You are preparing for an evening out. Your hair is finished, your makeup is flawless, and the outfit’s a slay. The ultimate touch? A bit of perfume, in fact! But wait — as an alternative of your signature scent in a elaborate bottle, you are pondering of reaching for something a bit of more… naturally-derived.

That is the thought process behind vabbing, a practice that has recently gone viral on TikTok to potentially make it easier to attract a partner. “Vabbing” is a portmanteau of “vagina” and “dabbing,” because to vab, you utilize your natural body fluids — specifically vaginal discharge and secretions — as perfume, dabbing it behind your ears and in your wrists where you’d traditionally wear fragrance. 

TikTok users claim that using your natural aroma can result in all kinds of romantic magic due to the pheromones emitted from it, and a fast scroll through the hashtags #vabbing and #vabbingtrend reveals each firsthand trial videos and stitch videos of other users who cannot consider such a thing exists. Probably the most popular videos comes via user jewlieah, who tried vabbing on the gym and claimed it worked for her, and has since made many videos in regards to the phenomenon.

• Dr. Mona Gohara, M.D., a Connecticut-based board-certified dermatologist. She also serves because the associate clinical professor of dermatology on the Yale School of Medicine.
• Dr. Rosemarie Ingleton, a Latest York City-based dermatologist. The board-certified specialist can be a beauty brand owner together with her namesake skin-care line.
• Marissa Zappas, perfumer and creator of her own fragrance brand.

Is there any legitimacy to this now-viral fragrance ritual — and what’s more, is it secure and healthy? Dr. Mona Gohara, a board-certified dermatologist in Connecticut and associate clinical professor of dermatology at Yale School of Medicine, says that there isn’t any scientific research to back up these seductive claims. “There isn’t a science behind the concept of using vaginal secretions as a fragrance to draw a partner,” she explains. Dr. Rosemarie Ingleton, a board-certified dermatologist in Latest York City, agrees. “There’s little scientific evidence to support that pheromones work for human attraction the best way they do for some animals, and ‘vabbing’ as a practice has not likely been studied,” Dr. Ingleton shares.

While Dr. Gohara doesn’t necessarily recommend using your vaginal fluids as fragrance, she says that when you’re going to try it, there are just a few best practices to follow. “I’d definitely recommend that one makes sure that their vaginal health is in check before doing this to be certain that there isn’t any infection that would spread,” she says. She suggests washing your hands before and after the “harvesting process” in order that, to place it politely, “you don’t spread the wealth on communal surfaces at work or play.” Dr. Gohara also recommends skipping out on vabbing if you’ve gotten a known STI and says to be sure others don’t are available in contact with any “vabbed” body parts.