New social media trends come and go, but a new one on TikTok has people turning up their noses.
The trend is called "Vabbing" and it's quickly grown popular on the app, with people posting about their own attempts with the hashtag "vabbingperfume" now at nearly 14 million views.
"Vabbing" is a combination of the words "vagina" and "dabbing." The whole point is for the person to dab a little bit of their vaginal fluid to the places they would normally apply perfume, like their inner wrists and hollow of their neck.
It's supposedly a way to attract a partner because of the pheromones contained in the fluid. But though this has proven effective in the other animals, and while pheromones are said to increase a sexual interest, there's little research to prove a positive correlation between vabbing and human attraction.
Interest began to rise in the concept when it was described by Mandy Lee, or @oldloserinbrooklyn, in a since-deleted video.
But the trend absolutely took off when Julia Sena, or @jewlieah on TikTok, began experimenting with it and focused her content on vabbing and body positivity.
In Julia's first video about it, she stated:
"I don't know who needs to hear this, but vabbing works."
She went on to explain that multiple men had purchased her drinks, and one man even came around a second time and gave her a gift, while she was out having drinks.
Another woman, Palesa of @palesamoon on TikTok, also described the positive benefits of vabbing, including having a very successful first date.
Palesa explained:
"I went out on a date with this guy, and he couldn't keep his hands off of me. We were in a public place, a restaurant, and he was [very close] to me, and it was the first time I met him [in person]."
TikTok was super divided over this concept, with some hoping for something that would help them in their relationships, while others were concerned about germs and other things.
Some were just grossed out and wished they could unlearn the information immediately.
@jewlieah/TikTok
@jewlieah/TikTok
@jewlieah/TikTok
@jewlieah/TikTok
@jewlieah/TikTok
Others were genuinely curious if vabbing was actually effective.
@palesamoon/TikTok
@palesamoon/TikTok
@palesamoon/TikTok
@palesamoon/TikTok
@palesamoon/TikTok
Julia continued to produce videos about her experience with vabbing, presumably successfully, and she also responded to questions and concerns her followers had.
She even went so far as to create a video that focused on vabbing "best practices" for anyone who wanted to try it out:
The tips included some of the basics, like washing hands before and after vabbing, and not intentionally touching items or people with the vabbed-on areas.
This is one of those trends that is absolutely going to leave some people feeling disgusted and skeptical, while others will insist that it's working for them, and they'll presumably continue the practice long after the trend has passed.
Without medical research, there's really no way of knowing if this will work for everyone, or even if it is anything more than a placebo effect.