Does your favorite perfume have “fragrance” as one of its ingredients?

What is lurking behind those ingredients labeled as Fragrance?

Well to begin with, A LOT- Up to 3,100 different ingredients can be mixed together and labeled as “fragrance”. to be exact.

An average ingredient has 40-50 different ingredients within the label “fragrance”

17 brand-name perfumes where tested by EPA revealing 38 secret chemicals.

Most fragrances tested had 14 hidden chemicals not shown on the label.

Many of those chemicals are known to cause hormonal issues, allergic reactions and many have not even been approved for use in skincare products.

Source: EWG analysis of product labels, tests commissioned by the Campaign for Safe

Cosmetics, and industry reports of safety assessments by the Personal Care Products Council

and International Fragrance Association in the past 25 years.

It is totally legal for the manufacturers to hide these potentially harmful chemicals under the name “fragrance”, Because of a loophole in the Federal Fair Packaging and Labeling Act of 1973.

Fragrance – Known to cause skin, eye, and breathing reactions, is now considered one of the top 5 Allergens in Europe. (de Groot 1997; Jansson 2001)

Limonene – Commonly used as a solvent in degreasers, and cleaning products labeled “citrus oil”  is a chemical listed under the name fragrance.

 Limonene can react with the air to make pollutants such as the cancer causing “formaldehyde” and  “acetaldehyde”. These have also been known to cause/contribute to Asthma. (USEPA 2005; USEPA 2007a)

Linalool – and its derivatives linalyl anthranilate and linalyl acetate, Which are known to cause allergens when released into the air. (Hagvall, 2008; Skold, 2008)

Geraniol – Becomes more allergenic during storage and oxidation. (Hagvall, 2007)

Benzyl salicylate, Benzyl benzoate and  Lilial (butylphenyl methylpropional)

Have shown estrogenic activity in studies of human breast cancer cells. (Charles 2009)

“unscented” or “fragrance-free” personal care product may contain a “masking fragrance,” a mixture

of chemicals meant to cover up the odor of other ingredients (Scheinman 2000; Steinemann 2009).

One in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime; cumulative, lifetime exposure to estrogen is a known risk factor (Breast Cancer Fund 2008)

Studies indicate that girls enter puberty one to two years earlier than they did 40 years ago; exposures to synthetic estrogenic chemicals, particularly during critical windows of development, have been proposed as a possible cause (Roy 2009).

As Informed consumers we should:

Refuse to buy products with these hormone-disrupting chemicals labeled as “ fragrance”.

Demand from the cosmetics companies that they show on the label, all the ingredients they use so we can make our own decisions.

Where can you buy products without Fragrance, or other harmful synthetic chemicals?

At Naturligeprodukter.dk

I would love to hear your opinions so feel free to write in the comments or pop me an email at philliphobbs07@gmail.com.

Have a wonderful day!