TikTokers are buying a $60 Victoria's Secret perfume after seeing viral videos claiming it works as a bug spray
- TikTokers are using Victoria's Secret perfume as a mosquito repellent.
- A 2015 study showed the fragrance to be effective, but the volume used is unrealistic for daily use.
Some TikTokers have taken to using a $60 Victoria's Secret perfume to ward off mosquitos after seeing viral videos claiming it works as a bug spray.
The perfume, Victoria's Secret Bombshell, is a "fruity, floral" formula with notes of purple passion fruit, Shangri-La peony, and vanilla orchid, according to the brand.
But it's now become the spray of choice to repel mosquitos during kickball games, or while visiting islands off the coast of Mexico, and for daily life in Mississippi. Some say they prefer the scent to that of standard insect repellent DEET and claim it works better than standard mosquito repellent.
TikTok is rife with unsubstantiated or unsafe hacks, but surprisingly, a 2015 study backs up Bombshell-as-bug-spray idea. The study tested eight common insect repellents plus Bombshell, and the perfume was shown to repel mosquitoes for up to 120 minutes — beating most of the botanical mosquito repellents included in the study.
Mosquitos are attracted to humans based on a combination of "olfactory clues" like body heat, carbon dioxide, and skin odor, Dr. Floyd Shockley, the entomology collections manager at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, told Insider. The perfume is more likely acting as a form of "chemical camouflage," Shockley said, than a repellent.
But while Bombshell may technically get the job done, using perfume as a mosquito repellent isn't exactly cost-effective. A can of OFF! — which was shown to be more effective than Bombshell in the same 2015 study — will cost you as little as $8, while a bottle of Bombshell Eau du Parfum will cost you $60; a mist $25; and a rollerball $20.
Additionally, it's important to note that participants in the 2015 study applied about five times the standard volume of perfume — about 0.5 ml, whereas a typical spritz of perfume is closer to 0.1 ml. So, while it's effective in large doses, those doses aren't exactly realistic for everyday usage — either for easy wearability or for cost.
"If you use enough then mosquitoes won't 'see' you as a potential host because you won't smell right," Shockley said of the Bombshell fragrance. But, "at the doses used in those studies, you would undoubtedly be repellent to other people too."