Amsterdam, 22 April 2026 — According to research cited in Scientific American, men become up to 44% less aggressive after smelling women’s tears. Amsterdam-based creatives Carlota Real and Natalia Zapata took that insight and pushed it to its logical extreme: Tearquilizer.
Tearquilizer is the first ever male-calming spray made from 100% women’s tears. The project pushes a scientific finding to its most absurd — yet strangely logical — conclusion.
The spray is aimed at everyday situations many women will recognise: being interrupted mid-sentence, a date who can’t handle rejection, a boss with a fragile ego, or that annoying coworker mansplaining Tarantino to you.
“We’re not insane. The solution to toxic masculinity is not milking our tears and spraying men. But microaggressions at work, in dating, in politics, and in everyday life are so out of hand that we thought: let’s create an equally insane solution and ask the question… Is this really what it takes to make men less toxic?” highlighted Carlota Real and Natalia Zapata.
Complete with product design, launch film and a digital presence, Tearquilizer blurs the line between science and satire. While the product isn’t available for purchase yet, the need for it is very much real.
Created independently in Amsterdam, the project reflects Real and Zapata’s shared interest in using creativity as a tool to question and expose cultural norms — with humour as its sharpest edge.
