Love & Sex

Science says: this is the formula for the perfect kiss

By Sophie Rietmulder | #!31Wed, 19 Jul 2023 11:00:43 +0200+02:004331#31Wed, 19 Jul 2023 11:00:43 +0200+02:00-11Europe/Amsterdam3131Europe/Amsterdam202331 19am31am-31Wed, 19 Jul 2023 11:00:43 +0200+02:0011Europe/Amsterdam3131Europe/Amsterdam2023312023Wed, 19 Jul 2023 11:00:43 +02000011007amWednesday=9#!31Wed, 19 Jul 2023 11:00:43 +0200+02:00Europe/Amsterdam7#07-19-2023#!31Wed, 19 Jul 2023 11:00:43 +0200+02:004331#/31Wed, 19 Jul 2023 11:00:43 +0200+02:00-11Europe/Amsterdam3131Europe/Amsterdam202331#!31Wed, 19 Jul 2023 11:00:43 +0200+02:00Europe/Amsterdam7#

Do you remember your first kiss? I do. I was 14 years old and although I now find that very young, I thought it was high time for that first, real kiss. After all, I was almost 15 and didn’t want to enter the fourth grade without ever having kissed. Mega embarrassing. So I started dating the first boy who showed interest (because kissing could only happen if you were dating) and weeks later I finally went for it. I found it terrible. It was wet, weird, and very awkward. At that moment I decided: kissing is not for me and I will never do it again. Fortunately, I changed my mind later and I would like to tell that 14-year-old girl that it really gets better. Even nice. Still, not everyone has received the memo on how to make a kiss actually successful, so for all the washing machines among us who have never looked beyond the tongue tips in the BreakOut!: could you please pay attention?

First of all, kissing within your relationship is more important than you might think. A study from 2020 showed that couples who kiss more often are more satisfied with their sex life and talk more positively about their relationship. Among singles, they discovered something different: about 44 percent of participants indicated that they lost interest in someone after a bad kiss (is it just me or is this still low?), and about 14 percent reported that they felt significantly more attracted to someone after a great kiss. You know, one that you can still dream about in the days that follow.

Anyway, to ensure that the world is eventually freed from bad kissers, the scientists behind this research came up with a formula for a perfect kiss. Notably, this has hardly anything to do with the kiss itself or the technique, but with the following four things:

1. How it feels physically
How do your lips feel against each other? Is it soft or hard? Try to gently explore each other's lips and wait a bit before going all in with 100 percent force. Building tension is key.

2. Who the person is
Have you been ‘crushing’ on this person for a while and have you fantasized about how this kiss would be about 350 times? Or is it a random person who offered you a nasty shot in the bar five minutes ago (whether I speak from personal experience I’ll leave in the middle)? Who your kissing partner is can make a world of difference.

3. When and where it takes place
My boyfriend didn’t kiss me on our first date. I thought that was stupid, and he thought it was silly to have our first kiss in the middle of a busy station, next to a homeless person with a fake guitar. He was completely right. It made our first kiss all the more special.

4. The emotions evoked
What do you feel during the kiss? Are the butterflies racing through your body? Then you’re doing well. To achieve this, it’s again important to build the tension between you. The higher those feelings of love, passion, and desire rise, the better your kiss will be.

Bad kisses, on the other hand, are rarely judged on all of the above, as you often have already been turned off at step one: the physical aspect. I don’t blame you, though. From such a hard tongue that races through your mouth at turbo speed (where do people learn this?), I don’t think a happy marriage has ever emerged. Do you think you might be guilty of this? Take a breath, read this list a few more times, and go practice. No one has ever become a worse person from that.

Source: Poosh