Many of our everyday products and especially our makeup products contain added fragrance. But, added fragrance is sadly very toxic. Most conventional perfumes, colognes, body sprays, lotions, serums, shampoos, conditioners and well, basically everything we put on our bodies contain a dozen or more potentially hazardous synthetic chemicals, such as petroleum. This ingredient is hidden in the catchall ingredient called “fragrance”, and the problematic part is that to protect trade secrets, manufacturers and makers are allowed to withhold the actual ingredients making up the ingredient “fragrance”. It is also kind of silly to protect trade secrets since these products can be reverse engineered; so if you have the tools, you can figure out what fragrance really includes. So, keeping the ingredient hush hush is a little pointless; other manufactures and makers could definitely figure out what the fragrance includes.
The problem is that the normal consumer really cannot figure out what is in these products. The normal consumer doesn’t have the same tools or resources that manufacturers and makers have. This makes things really scary since we absorb everything through our skin. It is our biggest organ after all. So, the consumer can be really damaged by using these products without knowing what is really in them. Research has shown that the average conventional fragrance contains 14 chemicals that are not explicitly listed on the label. These chemicals are associated with effects such as hormone disruption, allergies, asthma, neurotoxicity, and carcinogenic poisoning. Added fragrance usually include phthalates to have the scent last longer, but phthalates can cause cancer, and hormone toxicity, among other issues.
So, what do we do? How do we protect ourselves from “fragrance”? It’s extremely difficult to avoid fragrance in our products we purchase. This is because even products labeled as unscented could have some sort of fragrance added to them to hide the smell of other chemicals. And, sadly, even products called “natural” or “organic” could still have harmful chemical fragrances as an ingredient. It’s important to read labels in grave detail and try hard to purchase products that don’t include the ingredient fragrance at all. Products that use essential oils and herbs as their fragrance are the best option, and if you have the energy or desire to make certain everyday products yourself, that is even better. Even if you only limit your usage of a few products with fragrance as an ingredient, you are better off greatly, and the more you are able to avoid, the better.
Because of this, for example, I use fragrance free Seventh Generation detergent, Dr. Bronner’s dish soap and hand soap, and tea tree oil for pimples and almost everything else.
Here’s to being well preserved.
Always,
Taylor
