I had a perfumer friend rave about a new molecule he made in his lab/garage. I asked if he had it tested. “What does it do in the human body?” He looked at me like I was crazy and asked, “Why would I get it tested?”
We know designer drugs meant to replace cannabis when changed by a single molecule can cause death or psychosis. So how does no one think to test the effects of scented molecules made in labs meant to spray all over your body. We are policed within an inch of our formula on percentages of natural ingredients–essential oils—because of allergies, but no testing to see what a newly designed perfume molecule will do to a human. That makes no sense, unless profit is more important than safety.
We know our skin is our biggest organ. What you put on the skin seeps into the body and blood stream. We know this like we know topical ointments and patches can be used to deliver medicine. Yet, we do not think about what is in the perfumes we spray on our skin and how these will affect us physically.
We know most of our modern medicine is based on the healing power of plants, yet we discard herbal medicine and aromatherapy as “alternative” medicine. When did the origin story become the alternative? That would be at the turn of the century, when automation was everything and the industrial revolution was underway. That would be around 1910 when the Flexner Report criticized “medical sects” like homeopathy. Twelve years later we had the first synthetic molecule introduced into perfume.
Now conventional, synthetic based perfumery will tell you scent only impacts us through association. That is true of artificial scent molecules. The body does not react to these molecules in the same way as a flower. Memory association does impact how we react to a scent. However, that truth is not the whole story.
You cannot disregard how natural scents can impact our moods. We know smelling lavender–from the plant– can calm. Is this from grandma's excessive use of lavender and her calming presence? Maybe, if that is your story. However science on lavender essential oil and lavender plants explain how smelling lavender actually lowers our heart rate and can lower breath rate. Clary sage has been proven to lower blood pressure. In fact there are warnings about clary sage possibly increasing the effect of alcohol. That is your sense of smell affecting your mood. This is physiology.
Synthetic fragrances can cause migraines, allergic reactions, and hormone disruptions. People seeking fertility treatments will be told to stop using synthetic fragrances, only to discover they are in everything–shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, lotion, and of course, perfumes. We do not know if the layering of synthetic fragrance can cause reactions, because we do not know what these synthetic molecules are (patent protected) or how they interact with each other. Now as we enjoy more unnatural scents as perfume, we have to realize this cocktail of chemicals may be negatively impacting our health and our moods.
I have also heard from conventional perfume makers that it is a sustainability issue. So many brands offer “clean beauty,” synthetic alternatives to over-harvested materials. As one who has negative physical effects from synthetic perfumes, I can say the chemicals of “clean beauty” may be cleaner than other synthetics, but the physical impairments come as quickly. Clean beauty may work for some, but if your body is chemically-sensitized, a chemical solution has a reduced chance of working.
IFRAs “new” perfume regulations will tell you roses are allergenic and we must limit the dilution of real roses in perfumes. To some people who are allergic to rose flowers, absolutely true. But for those of us who can put our faces in rose and smell deeply, who can roll around on a bed of rose petals and never have a reaction, I wonder if this “allergic” quality of roses is actually a means of pushing the market towards cheaper synthetic alternatives and not about the actual allergens in roses. The push back on natural citrus in perfumes during the last regulatory debate was (allegedly) squashed when Spain pushed back because of the economic impacts on their orange groves. Apparently concerns about economic impacts weighed heavily in regulatory discussions about health risks and allergens.
I am not saying synthetic perfumes are bad. Some can be beautiful, but they can also cause physical harm to your scent-sensitive neighbor. Though the industry will gaslight you and say this is not the case, look at how many “fragrance Free” zones have popped up in offices. That has a reason and it is not that we don’t like the smell. It is that your smell is literally making us sick. That lingering cloud of scent you leave behind is phthalates, “forever chemicals”.
I am not saying that synthetic perfumes cannot be beautiful. I am saying be aware of what you are putting on your body. We are in a time, much like the Gilded Age, where we must investigate what we are being sold. This may not be adding chalk to bread anymore, but corporations have given us high fructose corn syrup because it was cheaper. It took years for advocates (activists) to test and understand the cheaper sugar alternative in most of our foods and juices was making us sick. So when corporations have concerns about safety do they mean human health safety or profit margins?
