Fragrance is a combination of fragrant oils that can be added to perfumes, colognes and other products to create a unique scent. Fragrance is also used in products like laundry detergents, dryer sheets and room sprays to give a product a pleasant aroma. Some people use fragrance to keep body odor at bay or to help boost confidence and enhance moods.
Fragrances are made up of ingredients that create a pleasant smell through volatile reactions. While these chemicals might please our noses, they can be toxic to skin. They can disrupt skin barrier function, trigger or worsen redness, irritate or sting, cause dryness and deplete vital substances that protect and nourish our bodies’ largest organ.
A fragrance can be anything from the aroma of flowers, pine trees or a perfume to the smell of someone’s sweat, body odor or food. In addition to a fragrance, an individual can have a “scent profile” that is characterized by seven different types of smells: camphor, mint, musk, floral, ether, citrus and herbs [1].
Perfumes are manmade mixtures of aromatic chemicals that were traditionally composed of natural, essential oils. These perfumes are layered with “top,” middle and base notes to create the distinctive, complex, lasting scent we associate with the term fragrance. Perfumes are categorized by their oil concentration with labels such as extrait, EdP, EdT and EdC (the term “EdT” is misleading, as it indicates that a perfume contains less oil than an EdP). The amount of oil in a particular perfume may vary among different perfumeries or fragrance houses, so even the same perfume in a different dilution may have a very different effect.
The international Fragrance Association and the Research Institute for Fragrance Materials set voluntary standards that most countries in the world rely on to regulate the use of chemicals in perfumes and other consumer products. These include hazard identification, toxicity assessment and dose-response testing to determine whether the fragrance is safe. Fragrance ingredients that are marketed as treating specific conditions, such as easing muscle aches or improving mental alertness, can be treated as drugs by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and are subject to the same safety regulations as other over-the-counter pharmaceutical medications (4).
Fragrance can contain more than 3,500 different chemicals that are used to give personal care, cleaning and other products their unique aromas. However, unlike other ingredients, manufacturers aren’t required to list the individual fragrance ingredients on their product labels. Some of these fragrance chemicals are known to be toxic, and exposure to them can lead to a range of health harms — including hormone disruption and allergic contact dermatitis.
The best way to avoid the negative effects of fragrance is to choose nontoxic natural alternatives. Many companies offer a wide range of natural fragrance products, such as jojoba oil and essential oils that can be used to make soaps and cleansers. These products provide a more pleasant aroma and are free of the hormone-disrupting and allergenic fragrance chemicals found in most conventional perfumes, colognes and other commercial perfumes.