What Does Your Perfume Contain? Perfume Ingredients You May Not Know Of

There are so many perfumed or scented products that we use – soaps, lotions, eau de colognes, deodorants, room fresheners, detergents, cleaning agents, the list goes on. If you look at the list of ingredients on the package, you will likely encounter only the word “fragrance” other than the usual alcohol (denatured), water (aqua), and bunch of other chemicals.

What does fragrance contain?

The fact is that there is no legal requirement to list out all what constitutes this word “fragrance” and this may actually be made up of any number of chemicals, many of which have not been tested for safety or toxicity to humans. There is also the fact that some imported perfumes that you use may be formulated under even laxer guidelines and may have even more chemicals in them that the manufacturer is not legally bound to list on the label.

What problems can these chemicals cause?

There is the apprehension that long term exposure to the chemicals that perfumes contain, can have a lot of negative impacts on one’s health. Though they may not be evident immediately, the longer term impacts can be serious.

The fact that some fragrances can cause allergic reactions, sinusitis, headaches, nose and throat irritation and so on can be evident quite quickly.

Asthma, wheezing and dermatitis could also be exacerbated if not caused by these perfume chemicals according to some experts.

In addition, it is thought that over the longer term these chemicals could impact the central nervous system, hamper coordination, and create memory problems and so on. There is also the apprehension that hormonal disruptions can take place because of these chemicals getting into the system over time causing problems related to the thyroid and even estrogen disruptions.

The problems are caused in several ways, say experts – because the scent of products we use is inhaled into the lungs and then spreads to other parts of the body and also because the perfume that we apply to the skin is absorbed into the blood stream.

What do the manufacturers say?

Obviously with charges as serious as those set out above being directed at them, perfume manufacturers have often been called upon to offer their defense. What is most often offered as and by way of defense is the fact that the harmful chemicals, if at all used, are in too small a quantity to really create any problems.

As in most things, the truth of the matter is probably somewhere between the scaremongering and the outright denial. As an aware consumer it is up to you to be prudent about what you use and how.