Women Are Vabbing to Make Themselves More Attractive

We have yet another word to learn in today’s increasingly unhinged TikTok-ified dating landscape: vabbing.

A combo of vagina and dabbing, the trend involves dabbing vaginal fluid onto your pulse points—your wrists, neck, and behind the ears. You know, like a perfume. The goal? To entice a “mate” using your natural scent.

It all blew up thanks to a now-deleted TikTok from influencer Mandy Lee, who swore by the technique and said it had her “getting free drinks all night.” Since then, TikTok has become a battleground of opinions—some swearing by vabbing’s mysterious powers, others calling it disgusting, unsanitary, or straight-up delusional.

Women Are Vabbing Instead of Using Perfume to Make Themselves More Attractive

But what does science say? It’s true that many animals use pheromones to signal sexual readiness, but the science around human pheromones is fuzzy at best. A 2012 review of all available studies concluded that the evidence for human pheromone communication is “weak”. Most of what we know comes from animal models—and trying to map that onto human behavior hasn’t been very successful.

That said, some studies hint at the possibility. For example, researchers have found that women produce copulins, a group of volatile fatty acids that exist in vaginal secretions and that these spike during the most fertile phase of the menstrual cycle. In one study, men exposed to copulins rated both women—and themselves—as more attractive.

There’s also evidence that natural body odor plays a subtle but real role in partner selection. A study involving over 500 participants found that relationship satisfaction and sexual attraction were tied to the immune system’s HLA complex, which is released in bodily fluids like sweat and saliva. So, while vabbing might sound like a stretch, the idea that scent plays a role in human chemistry isn’t entirely off base.

Still, no definitive human pheromone has ever been identified. Which means, at best, vabbing is pseudoscience with a dash of placebo—but hey, that might be the point. For many women, it’s less about science and more about confidence.

If vabbing makes you feel hotter, you might just act hotter—and that shift alone can change how people respond to you. Disgusting or genius? Depends on who you ask.