PARABENS. PEG. PROPYLENE GLYCOL.
There are plenty of ingredients in the clean beauty business that we’ve heard should be avoided, but what about fragrance? There’s a good chance the label on your favourite scent reads like a mystery – no one knows quite what’s inside, because all the ingredients typically aren’t listed. But as everyone becomes increasingly educated on labels, that’s starting to change – which is a good thing!
‘Consumers are concerned about the health impacts of chemicals in their products,’ says Michal Benmayor, vice president of conscious perfumery at Firmenich, a perfume and taste company. ‘In the absence of a universal definition of clean, each manufacturer, retailer and brand creates their own.’
And the more people ask and wonder what’s in the bottles, the more brands will take notice. ‘Consumers expect transparency now,’ says Cat Chen, founder and CEO of clean perfume and bodycare line Skylar. ‘When you read an ingredient label for a fragrance, you basically see alcohol – or ethanol, which is the type of alcohol most fragrances use – along with fragrance or parfum, which is a Trojan horse of what could literally be thousands of ingredients, including allergy-causing ones, and water.’ That’s why Skylar, like many clean brands, discloses its entire ingredient list (along with the reason a certain item is used) for every product. Their theory: once people understand what’s inside the bottle and why, it all seems a lot less scary. Discover more tricks of the new trade ahead.
Scent secrets
Fragrance has typically been a black hole when it comes to openness about ingredients because perfumes are classified as proprietary information, so companies don’t have to share the formulations, unlike in other sectors of the beauty industry. Plus, regulation is sparse, which essentially exempts the world of fragrance from spilling full lists. And as a result, brands are able to hide ingredients behind the word ‘parfum’ if they want to. Another difficulty is if a brand hires a fragrance house to develop a scent (a common practice), the brand itself isn’t always privy to what’s in the bottle, because sometimes the perfumery owns the recipe. (As many companies don’t have in-house perfumers, they turn to fragrance houses such as Givaudan and Firmenich to develop and manufacture scents for them.) ‘If someone is working with a perfume house, they can ask for ingredient transparency, but they’re not guaranteed to get it,’ says Bee Shapiro, founder of the clean perfume line Ellis Brooklyn. Lately, brands demand that perfume houses open up about their formulations. In order for products to qualify to retail at ‘clean beauty’ outlets such as Credo, they need to share the complete ingredients list.
‘We have entered the era of conscious perfumery, which gives us a whole new framework for creation,’ Benmayor says
Act natural (or not)
Though terms such as ‘clean’, ‘non-toxic’ and ‘natural’ are often used interchangeably to describe fragrances, there is a difference. Generally, ‘clean’ means that a fragrance is made without any potentially harmful ingredients, while ‘natural’ signifies that the ingredients are extracted from raw materials. But again, since there is no regulation, it’s up to brands to use labelling responsibly, and for consumers to do their homework. It’s easy to get confused, too. ‘People might think clean equals natural and that’s probably better, but actually, it can be the opposite. Many natural fragrances such as essential oils can cause allergic reactions,’ Chen says. That’s why they’re complicated to formulate with. ‘Most of the regulations in perfume are about naturals,’ says David Seth Moltz, perfumer of Brooklyn-based fragrance house D.S. & Durga. (Because they can be a trigger for allergies as well as headaches, the rules are pretty strict about what and how much is used, plus they are hard to capture and keep potent.) This leads us to synthetic ingredients, which are developed in laboratories – and are often a safer health (as well as environmental) bet than natural ones. ‘If you want a natural rose shipped to you from Bulgaria, that adds to the carbon footprint,’ Shapiro says. A planet-conscious case study: the way sandalwood is harvested recently changed, due to fears of depletion. ‘They used to demolish the entire tree,’ says Douglas Little, founder, CEO and perfumer for Heretic Parfum. ‘Then awareness shifted, and now they only harvest new growth, leaving the trunks so they can regenerate.’
Time to clean up
While many brands strive for cleaner formulas for altruistic reasons, fearmongering does happen. ‘There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors around the greenwashing of the clean movement,’ says Little. ‘A lot of companies market their fragrances by saying they don’t use phthalates or parabens, but phthalates haven’t been used in fragrance for a long time.’ So if you have sensitive skin, seek out a perfume with ‘hypoallergenic’ on the label to ensure it’s free of triggers, and avoid artificial dyes, BHT, BHA and sulphates. You should also know that a perfume’s ingredients make up a small portion of the formula, says Little. ‘The biggest volume comes from the alcohol, which is typically inexpensive and a combination of corn and other genetically modified materials.’ So if you prefer to avoid alcohol entirely, opt for an oil-based fragrance.
Speak out
For consumers who want to find out what’s inside a bottle, start with the brand’s website if the ingredients aren’t on the box. If the information isn’t there, Little recommends requesting an INCI (International Nomenclature Cosmetic Ingredient) from the brand, which identifies all the ingredients. That may seem like a professional-level move, but remember, ‘If the manufacturer is not willing to disclose what they’re making their product from and they’re just using [the term] ‘clean’, that’s a red flag,’ Little says. ‘Let’s not forget that the clean beauty market is on track to reach $22 billion by 2024,’ Benmayor adds. This creates a big opportunity for many retailers. Transparency will become the norm when enough people demand it, so ‘challenge brands on what they’re using’, Chen says.