This all sounds frighteningly New Age but whether you’re into the chanting bit or not the product made

This all sounds frighteningly New Age, but whether you’re into the chanting bit or not, the product made my skin smell delicious, feel baby soft and I still had change to buy a bumper box of chocolate mini-rolls. Suffice to say, my sense of well-being has rocketed to supermodel size.Available from Liberty (0171 734 1234) and Space NK (enquiry line 0870 607 7060). THERE COMES a time in every woman’s life when she really has to show out. It would have taken an hourly booster jab of Prozac to make me smile, so the little pheromones had their work cut out.Also, my friend – a realist at heart – didn’t expect men to rush up to her declaring their undying love and bombarding her with roses, but she had secretly hoped to feel more self-assured and gorgeous.Unfortunately, neither my friend nor myself felt any real change. Having said that, I am still resolutely wearing it – Philosophy say it takes from four days to four weeks for Falling in Love to take effect and I’ve decided to stay for the long haul.In the meantime, Philosophy have a product that gives more immediate results.

After a week of wearing Falling in Love under our perfumes, there was no real improvement in either a) her love life or b) my mood. I tested this product during a particularly trying week of flat-hunting, on top of the ravages of chronic PMT. “The idea that it works on you and makes you feel better is interesting It’s one of the first products made from a new technology. It makes you wonder about what’s going to come out in the future.”As a spoken-for woman, I was the “control” for the experiment but my single girlfriend tester was the real McCoy (or is that McBeal?). Pheromones are chemical substances secreted by animals that trigger a response in animals of the same species, and Philosophy claim their pheromones can “help increase your sense of well-being and therefore increase your attractiveness.”So it’s a man-magnet, then? Well not exactly, but it sounds like high tech stuff Susanna Cohen, Junior Beauty Editor at Marie Claire agrees. BE AFRAID, be very afraid! The ditsy American TV character Ally McBeal has infected our mass consciousness like nits spreading through a primary school.

The gossip in offices across the land on Thursday mornings focuses on whether ex-boyfriend Billy should leave new wife Georgia for Ally: the single women say yes, the married ones a resounding “no!” And the blokes usually want it both ways.
Single girl characters like Ally and Bridget Jones are highlighting the Nineties career woman’s problem: disastrous love-lives Too much time in the office, not enough on the prowl. So as luck would have it, US beauty company Philosophy have created a timely product to help singletons out there find true romance.Falling in Love (an expensive pounds 48 for a tiny 4ml) is an odourless liquid containing artificial pheromones to be worn under your own perfume. Happiness Now! seminar Saturday 31 October 1998, tickets pounds 49 to ‘Independent on Sunday’ readers, details from The Happiness Project, Elms Court, Chapel Way, Oxford OX2 9LP tel 01865 24441 (telephone enquiries Monday only). “Happiness is about being part of social networks, having genuine stable relationships, achieving real intimacy rather than the kind of bogus intimacy you see on television all the time. Fulfilment comes from good relationships and work you enjoy that is creative. It’s necessary to look for a deeper sense of wellbeing that underpins everything, not a quick buzz.”So there we are. Michael Argyle’s own personal recipe? “I have a secret weapon in the happiness stakes,” he writes.

“It is Scottish country dancing, and I have been doing it every Wednesday for years.”‘Happiness Now!’ by Robert Holden pounds 7.99 Hodder & Stoughton; ‘The Art of Happiness’ by HH Dalai Lama and Howard C Cutler pounds 9.99 Hodder & Stoughton. Happiness is out there, albeit contentment rather than permanent ecstasy and whether it is attainable through EastEnders, workshop seminars, meditation or therapy is a matter of opinion. The net result of it is to be clearer about how you, with your own personal history, fit in and can best take advantage of the wonderful opportunities that new technology gives.”And once again, when it comes to the bottom line, his conclusions are not so different from those of Professor Argyle, Mr Holden, the Dalai Lama et al (everyone but John Patten, in fact). “Therapy can be very useful, it’s definitely an anti-capitalist device. “We have become a wannabe nation, we want what we haven’t got – we expect more and feel entitled to it.