“Fragrance” is the easiest, simplest ingredient to avoid in your personal care products! And ditching this one ingredient will greatly reduce your toxic chemical exposure because it’s likely in A LOT of your products.
Maybe you’re skeptical, or maybe you’re overwhelmed by all the information out there, whatever the reason you’ve avoided switching to safer personal care products, I want you to know I get it. I’m a recovering Sephoraholic. Yes, it’s a real thing. 😉
Unless you’re a chemist, learning to read product ingredient labels can feel daunting. That’s the main reason I started writing The Safer Beauty Tribe monthly newsletters, to provide a simple resource for learning more about harmful and questionable ingredients, so that you can navigate the cosmetics department with confidence and read ingredient labels like an expert.
In those monthly newsletters we tackle one toxic chemical ingredient at a time. But even if you have no interest in learning about Polyethylene glycol, Hydroquinone or Toluene, there is one simple, and quite sneaky, ingredient lurking on the label of many products that you can easily spot and avoid without struggling to pronounce the word. 😉 And just by avoiding products with this one ingredient you will be reducing your toxic chemical exposure. So, let’s talk about “fragrance”.
Take a minute and go look in your bathroom cabinet, how many of your products have “fragrance” listed in the ingredient section? Have you ever wondered, “What exactly is fragrance?”
“Fragrance” is considered a trade secret, which means according to U.S. law, companies are not required to disclose the ingredients used to create their fragrances. Although all other ingredients in your lipstick, body wash and other cosmetic products must be disclosed on the label by specific name, the so-called “fragrance loophole” in federal labeling law means that ingredients added to provide a pleasant scent, or to mask a bad one, need only be listed under the generic term “fragrance.”
-> Here slather this stuff all over your body, all over your children’s bodies, and don’t worry about what we put in this stuff. You don’t need to know about the chemicals we use to make this lotion smell like a ‘rain blossom’………………
More than 3,000 materials have been reported as used in fragrance compounds found in cosmetics and other consumer products. The blends often include phthalates, synthetic musks, and other ingredients linked to hormone disruption, allergies and cancer.
Speaking of phthalates specifically, you know how a lot of brands advertise that their products are “phthalate-free”? Well, because of the fragrance loophole, those phthalate-free products may actually contain phthalates if the ingredient label includes “fragrance” on the list.
The Environmental Working Group, a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to protecting human health and the environment, found that 75% of products that list fragrance contain the hormone-disrupting chemical, phthalates. Phthalates are used to help fragrances last longer, however they have been linked to reduced sperm counts, liver and breast cancers, diabetes and thyroid irregularities.
Finding Fragrance on an Ingredient List
This is an easy ingredient to locate!
Referred to as fragrance, parfum and even “natural fragrance”, which is also questionable if a company is not willing to disclose the natural ingredients used to create their fragrance.
I also find it suspect when a company goes out of its way to highlight the ingredients it doesn’t have in it, but then still adds fragrance to their ingredient list. For me this raises a red flag. Why hide behind the fragrance loophole unless you have something you to hide?
But What About the FDA?
Maybe you’re thinking, “But how worrisome could this “fragrance” loophole be?” Surely the FDA is making sure that products are safe for consumers.
Well……..under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act of 1938 (the federal cosmetic law that has not had a major overhaul in 80 YEARS!), the FDA has virtually no power to regulate the cosmetic industry.
- The FDA’s authority over cosmetics is different from other products it regulates, such as drugs, food, biologics, and medical devices. Personal care products are some of the least-regulated consumer products on the market.
- The FDA does not require that cosmetic ingredients be assessed for safety before they go on to the market, and they cannot issue a product recall.
- According to the Office of Cosmetics and Colors at FDA, “…a cosmetic manufacturer may use almost any raw material as a cosmetic ingredient and market the product without an approval from FDA.”
You can find all of this information directly on the FDA’s website. But in a nutshell, there’s not a lot of oversight in this $62 billion industry. In fact, a mere 2 pages of law regulates the entire industry!
So you’re best bet is to be your own gatekeeper. And one of the easiest and most effective ways to reduce your toxic chemical exposure is simply to ban “fragrance” from the products you use on your body and in your home.
I believe I have the right to know what I’m putting all over my skin, what my children are putting on their skin…..so if a company wants to keep their fragrance as a trade secret…..
Avoiding Fragrance
It’s really an easy thing to do! Simply do not buy products that list fragrance as an ingredient. And good news, if you’re looking for an easy way to find fragrance-free alternatives you can download the Environmental Working Group’s free Healthy Living App. With this app you can scan a barcode, search by name or browse by category, and EWG will give you an easy-to-understand 1-10 score (1 being the best!) that is backed by science you can trust.
As many of you well know I’m a big fan of Beautycounter who leads the cosmetics market in ingredient transparency by committing to a list of more than 1500 harmful or questionable ingredients they’ve pledged to never use in their products, of which includes synthetic flavor and fragrance.
However I’m also a fan of Dr. Bronners, Young Living Essential Oils, Mineral Fusion (love their lipliner) and W3ll People (best mascara ever!). So there are plenty of options and brands out there that aren’t hiding behind the fragrance loophole and are disclosing each and every ingredient used in their products.
Stink Movie
I encourage you all to watch the Stink Movie on Netflix which dives deeper on the stinky subject of “fragrance”.
And if you want to learn more about detoxing your beauty routine, sign up for my free Safer Beauty Tribe monthly newsletters! You can also follow The Safer Beauty Tribe on Instagram.
I went to the Dermatologist because my Rosacea was getting worse. I sometimes change moisturizers but didn’t notice when. They gave me a cream medication and the first one made it worse. the second one helped for a while, then it flared up. They did allergy testing and found out I was allergic to “fragrance”. You have to read the label, like you said, because even if it doesn’t have an odor, it can still be in it. I use clean and clear everything now….shampoo, conditioner, face wash, chapstick and sunscreen. I can hardly see the Rosacea now. What a difference. Thank you for addressing this issue!