Spotting a good fragrance from an ingredient list

In my Creme de la Mer review I worked out that they were probably using an expensive fragrance at a high level from the ingredient listing.

Back to the eighties when dermatologists started suspecting that fragrances in cosmetics caused people to get allergic reactions.

They looked at what materials were used in fragrances, and highlighted the top 26. These weren't really the ones likely to cause skin reactions. In fact, it turned out that most of them were in fact components of essential oils. The law now states that if these are in the final formulation above a certain level they have to be declared on the ingdredient listing. If you know that you are allergic to say limonene, you are now able to avoid products that contain limonene.

The smell of most of the personal care products that you use comes from a fragrance oil. These oils are blended by specialist companies called fragrance houses. Fine fragrances, the more expensive blends tend to have more natural ingredients and these have the highest level of the so called fragrance allergens. The cheaper ones use synthetic chemicals which don't need to be declared. So if you can find one or several of the fragrance allergens on the ingredient list there is a good chance that it contains significant levels of high quality fragrance or essential oils.

The main ones to look out for are limonene, geraniol and linalool.

I know this sounds a bit odd. I am suggesting that products labelled with allergens are better. But the highlighted materials are nearly all natural and very very few people are actually allergic to them.

This advice isn't foolproof but it is a reasonable guide. Personally, after decades of smelling synthetic fragrances, I much prefer the smell of essential oils. The cost of essential oils makes them prohibitive as the sole perfuming ingredient in all but the most upmarket of skin care products. But I have found that the very best fine fragrances are the ones with the most natural ingredients.

More details including the complete list of allergens on the main Colin's Beauty Pages blog.