Can Victoria's Secret Bombshell Really Repel Mosquitoes?

By Audrey Noble

A fun fact about me: mosquitoes love me. If you hang around me, they will completely ignore you and feast upon my skin. This happens no matter who I'm with or where I am (e.g. I once came back from Thailand with 37 bites and my then-boyfriend whom I traveled with came back with none). That said, I am willing to try anything and everything to protect myself from what I believe to be are nature's most annoying insects. So when the internet says there's something that can be done to repel these tiny little monsters, I am all in to give it a shot. The latest TikTok hack taking over my FYP is using the iconic Victoria's Secret Bombshell and Amber Romance as mosquito repellent sprays.

Before you roll your eyes at another TikTok beauty hack, this one actually has evidence backing it up. A study done in 2015 shows that Victoria's Secret Bombshell fragrance repelled mosquitoes for up to 120 minutes while multiple first-hand accounts in comment sections swear that Amber Romance is just as effective as any commercial chemical spray. So can I actually replace my beloved DEET spray with these fragrances? To get a definitive answer, we must turn to the experts.

Before diving into what to actually use to repel them, we have to understand what attracts mosquitoes to people in the first place — and, unfortunately, the answer isn't entirely straightforward. Mosquitoes, says Floyd W. Shockley PhD, entomology collections manager at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, use a combination of olfactory cues to find their source of proteins, with the three most important cues being body heat, carbon dioxide, and skin odor. He also notes that the specific mechanisms that make one person more attractive to mosquitoes than another person are unknown but calls out skin odor as likely being the most important because, unlike body odor, it varies from individual to individual.

"While body odor is uniform to all humans, the exact chemical combination of one's skin odor has a genetic and physiological basis [that likely makes them] more or less attractive to mosquitoes," he explains. Other factors that may make you more attractive to mosquitoes could include whether you are pregnant or not (he says there are some studies that pregnancy can increase one's attractiveness to mosquitoes), your sweat composition, diet, and alcohol consumption.

In short: It could, but don't go replacing your DEET-based sprays just yet. The main notes in Bombshell are purple passion fruit, Shangri-La peony, and vanilla orchid, while the main notes in Amber Romance are amber, cherry, and vanilla. Shockley says that there aren't reputable studies showing that Amber Romance has proven to be an effective repellent as there are with Bombshell, but both do share vanilla notes, and different studies have shown that pure vanilla extract can be an effective mosquito repellent for a short period (think less than 30 minutes). That said, these ingredients in general aren't known to deter mosquitoes from biting you anyway. "I don't see anything in the ingredient list that would specifically be repellent to mosquitoes," he says.

"Perfume is complex," adds cosmetic chemist and founder of FanLoveBeauty Ginger King, noting that while studies clearly indicate that the scent of Bombshell can repel mosquitoes, she can't be sure if the formula as listed contains any ingredients that are known mosquito repellents or just the notes. So while the perfume may smell like vanilla and peony, it might not contain the ingredients themselves.

One reason Dr. Shockley suggests that Bombshell may have shown to work in the study (which would be impractical in real life) is the amount of fragrance used. He explains that the volume that was used in the 2015 study was well above the normal spritz that a person would use: a typical dose is closer to 0.1 ml whereas they used 0.5 ml and thoroughly doused the volunteer's hand in perfume for the study. By that logic, you would need to do about the same and apply the same amount every couple of hours for the method to be effective.

To that end, Dr. Shockley says that the perfume is more likely to be camouflaging the body and scent chemistry mosquitos are attracted to rather than acting as an actual repellent. "Remember that female mosquitoes base their feeding decisions on heat, carbon dioxide, and smell," he says. "So, if you use enough [perfume] then mosquitoes won't 'see' you as a potential host because you won't smell right."

However, this plan could also attract different types of pests: Dr. Shockley notes that you may want to be careful when spritzing floral scents around insects in general, as they might attract them instead. He explains that male mosquitoes only feed on nectar, so you might be making yourself more attractive to them. While only female mosquitoes consume blood in order for egg maturation to proceed, you don't want to be dealing with male ones flying around you.

There are a lot of chemical repellents out on the market as well as essential oils that claim to repel mosquitoes. For the commercial chemical options, all the experts interviewed for this piece say the absolute best defense against mosquitoes is the ones that contain active ingredient N, N-diethyl-meta-toluamide, a.k.a DEET. Mosquitoes are not only repelled by DEET's smell, but also by its taste. Commercial chemical sprays with DEET have the longest period of protection, which can range for a couple of hours before you need to reapply.

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"DEET is the gold standard in preventing insect bites," says Joshua Zeichner, MD, associate professor of dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and director of cosmetic and clinical research in dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital. He says DEET is safe to use on unbroken skin and to look for concentrations that contain 10 to 30 percent of DEET; lower concentrations can be used for when you're going to be out for a short period of time.

If you want to go the essential oil route, King says citronella is commonly used to repel mosquitoes. (She points out that Avon Products Inc. was the first beauty company to discover its efficacy against mosquitoes). Dr. Shockley adds that lavender oil and lemon eucalyptus oil has shown consistent repellency to mosquitoes, but all of these do have some limitations.

He says that the specific formulation and concentration of citronella have an impact on its efficacy; if the formulation and concentration are off, it can actually have the opposite effect or evaporate quickly. Lavender is only effective as an oil that's derived from the plant itself; something that just smells like lavender won't do anything. While lemon eucalyptus oil is the essential oil he recommends, he does say that it needs to be of high concentration to work well. He also notes that other natural repellents, such as garlic in the diet and taking vitamin B, have been disproven to repelling mosquitoes in clinical trials. Dr. Zeichner confirms that these DEET-Free natural options often have limited effectiveness.

In the end, Dr. Shockley says, you'll want to take this study on Victoria's Secret Bombshell with a grain of salt. "I would remind everyone that they only tested two species [of mosquitoes] and the perfumes were included as more of an after-thought, an inclusion of opportunity rather than a purposeful selection by the research team," he explains. "So, while it was a fun and interesting finding from their study, I think most people should not expect either of those fragrances to work at normal doses."

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