Michelle Pfeiffer thinks you should know what’s in your perfume
CELEBRITIES have used their firepower for many causes. Refugees. Vaccines. AIDS. But transparency in big perfume?
Michelle Pfeiffer, known for roles in ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ and ‘Batman Returns’, has announced a line of five fragrances under the label Henry Rose. Created in collaboration with 130-year old scent maker International Flavors and Fragrances, the company makes a bold claim: It is the first to disclose all its ingredients and attest to their safety.
“Fine fragrance is still the black box of transparency for ingredients,” Pfeiffer, 60, said during an interview last month at New York’s Public Hotel. The sleek bottles now before her, with names like “Torn” and “Last Light,” are the result of a nineyear effort that both she and outside industry experts say have wedged the box open.
“Fragrance formulations are like Mom’s special recipe,” said Mintel analyst Sarah Jindal, speaking before Henry Rose’s launch. “No one wants to tell anybody what their ingredients are.”
Over the last two years, Unilever, Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson have begun disclosing fragrance ingredients in products like shampoo and cosmetics. But fragrance houses have remained mum, even as health advocates caution that some of their ingredients contribute to hormone disruption and cancer. Concerns about transparency aren’t hurting growth. Euromonitor International projects global perfume’s retail value will reach US$57 billion by 2022, up from US$52 billion today.
A 2018 report from Breast Cancer Prevention Partners listed big-name perfumes among those that contain chemicals with long-term problems. It says many synthetic chemicals disrupt the endocrine system, harm the reproductive system, contribute to asthma, and can affect foetal development when pregnant women are exposed. Around 11 per cent of the US has also become “sensitized” or allergic to chemicals, causing things like contact dermatitis, according to its report.
“The fine brands continue to be major laggards when it comes to removing chemicals of concern like phthalates,” said Mike Schade, a campaign director for Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, which presses retailers to disclose ingredients.
Frederic Pignault, a vice president of sales at IFF, said “there is no concern” about the safety of the fragrance ingredients it or other perfume houses use, but that IFF was excited to work with Pfeiffer to answer growing consumer interest in transparency.
“I went down the rabbit hole,” Pfeiffer said, describing how in the mid-90s finding out both her father and best friend had cancer awakened her to environmental health risks. She became an avid label reader and went fragrance-free-even turning down endorsement opportunities - when she couldn’t find enough data on perfumes. Around nine years ago, missing perfume, she decided to make one she could prove was safe.
“It was a dead end,” she said, recalling how one fragrance house said it could be only 75 per cent transparent. “What’s that? It’s like being 75 per cent organic.” Another backed out after she’d already done a considerable amount of work, and thought she was close to a final product. She declined to name them or say how much she spent on false starts.
When asked about perfume transparency, two major fragrance houses, Givaudan and Firmenich, referred inquiries to the International Fragrance Association and Personal Care Products Council. IFRA said it helps the industry to self-regulate by disclosing around 4,000 ingredients used and submitted anonymously by its members. PCPC, a trade council for personal care companies, said it’s working on a plan that “responds to all stakeholders’ interests around greater ingredient transparency.” Other companies in the perfume business, like Coty and Revlon, declined to comment when asked about why they don’t disclose ingredients.
Retailers and startups are stepping into the void left by the big manufacturers. Sephora’s “clean” fragrance line offers formulas without certain infamous ingredients, like parabens, phthalates and formaldehyde. The startup brand Phlur says its scents are “crafted with clean ingredients that won’t harm your skin or the planet,” and another, Skylar, says its are “hypoallergenic, vegan and free from harsh chemicals.”
Jindal said such diverse and vague promises show the industry’s challenge-no one has fully addressed all the fractured demands of health-conscious consumers. “Some want ‘organic,’ or ‘vegan’ or ‘plant-derived,’” she said. “It’s hard to slap one label on it.”
The breakthrough for Pfeiffer came approximately three years ago when she met Ken Cook, a co-founder of the Environmental Working Group, a Washingtonbased nonprofit with a database that scores the toxicity of chemicals.
“My reaction was, that’s impossible,” Cook said. But Pfeiffer’s determination soon won him over. She took a seat on EWG’s board, and soon Cook was going with her to meetings at fragrance houses.
IFF was moving towards transparency when Pfeiffer approached them two years ago. It certifies sustainably-produced goods and eliminates plant-based allergens, two big hurdles for the fragrance industry.
That led to new challenges-like finding a scent that Pfeiffer liked while using less than 1 per cent of the usually available ingredients. Pfeiffer was drawn to vetiver, with notes of lemon grass.
“We put in wells so they had access to water, and gave them chickens and goats,” she said. “We helped the community become sustainable.” — The Washington Post.