It's been called the gateway meat because, let's face it, one whiff of bacon's awesome sizzling, crispy goodness and even the most hardcore vegetarians teeter dangerously close to falling off the no-meat wagon.

And it's not just the veggie-types who're being tempted. These days, bacon is enjoying a popularity surge of near mythic proportions. It's everywhere; from the pedantic (tee shirts and bumper stickers) to the gourmet (dark chocolate covered and morsels swimming in gelato), to the downright weird (who's down for some bacon bit Chiclets or lardon-laden lollipops?), the pork industry's biggest money maker has become the go-to ingredient for Michelin heralded chefs and apron-wearing weekend BBQers alike.

The obsession doesn't stop there -- now, people are bringing home the bacon in a whole new way -- in beauty and body products. There's lip balm, shaving cream and, aack, even toothpaste. If you have a hankering for smelling like a beloved smoky, greasy breakfast staple, there's definitely something out there for you.

READ: Dunkin' Donuts' New Bacon, Egg and Donut Sammy is the Healthiest Breakfast They Offer

This proliferation prompted the smarties at BeautyBrains to investigate how these scented goods are created because there couldn't possibly be real bits o' bacon in shampoo, could there? Happily, the answer is a resounding "NO."

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The BeautyBrains looked in to soap -- specifically a bacon-scented offering from Man Soap. They used their expertise to determine that in crafting such fragranced products, perfumers use a technique called "headspace capture" to create bio-identical scents. "This is commonly used to capture the scent given off by a living flower. If you simply extract the chemicals from the flower they don't smell is same as the scent molecules that reach your nose. So perfumers put a glass globe over the flower and measure, which chemicals are in the air above it. They then synthetically create those chemicals to precisely replicate the scent of the flower. A similar process could be used to duplicate the scent of bacon."

That noise you hear is a resounding "PHEW" from those in the peanut (and bacon) gallery. But, it still begs the question, would you want to brush your teeth with, or have your guy smell like bacon?

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