SMELL CLEAN

For those who suffer through warm-weather reactions to their scent in summer – a common problem with high-alcohol concoctions – rejoice, as a new wave of brands adopting conscious labelling is here. Flipping the traditional secrecy and mysticism attached to what goes into making fragrances on its head, labels such as Bee Shapiro’s Ellis Brooklyn are creating scents with a “clean” label, so you know precisely what you’re spritzing. “I saw that products were going green in makeup and skincare but not in fragrance. Fragrance was still stuck in this very old-school way of thinking,” says Shapiro, who’s also a columnist at The New York Times.

Global beauty juggernaut Procter & Gamble (behind products such as Pantene and Herbal Essences) is also doing its bit to improve transparency. It’s aiming to have all fragrance ingredients for its 2,000-plus scented products listed online by 2019. So it’s happening slowly, but it is happening. “The beauty labs in the US weren’t intent on innovating for cleaner formulations. It takes brands and brand founders who are willing to go there, to push them, for change to happen,” adds Shapiro.