If you're over Tinder and you've given up hope of finding love on OK Cupid, stop trying to follow you heart and consider following your nose.
That's what artists Tega Brain and Sam Lavigne, the creators of Smell Dating, want you to do.
“It’s about trusting subconscious intuition and not falling back on inevitable preconceptions and prejudices,” Brain told BuzzFeed News of the new dating website, which matches people entirely based on body odor.
- You pay $25 and receive a t-shirt in the mail. Wear the shirt for three consecutive days without showering or applying deodorant (you're going to want to apologize in advance to your coworkers).
- After wearing the shirt for 72 hours, send it back to Smell Dating. In exchange, you'll receive 10 shirts from other people (yes, the same shirts they wore for 72 hours without showering) for your sniffing pleasure.
- If you like the smell of any of the shirts (and they like yours too), Smell Dating will give you each other's phone numbers. Smell Dating doesn't ask for any user info, such as gender or sexual orientation, so your matches could be just about anybody. Only your nose knows.
From there, you're on your own with introductions and date planning, though standing around sniffing each other probably isn't a bad place to start.
It's worth noting that site was created in association with Useless Press, a digital arts group known for jokes an stunts, so you probably shouldn't bet on finding your soulmate through Smell Dating. Still, if you want to give it a try, here's what you need to know: Smell Dating is only available in New York City. The website is limiting the service to 100 participants and as of February 16, BuzzFeed reported that 35 of those spots had already been taken. Full disclosure: one of them is me.
You can find more info about Smell Dating here.
