Are Essential Oils any better than fragrance?

It is not uncommon amongst natural companies to see the absence of fragrance used as a marketing tool to persuade you that their product is safer. Whilst there are concerns with synthetic fragrance, essential oils may not prove to be better after all.

What is the problem with Fragrance?

The problem with fragrance is that perfumery houses do not need to disclose what is in there due to trade secrets. What this means is that you could be exposing yourself to thousands of different chemicals. This presents a problem for allergy sufferers, which is why any fragrance is best avoided. Fragrance is also known to be one of the major causes of skin allergies in those who are sensitive.

Unfortunately for you what natural companies have done is simply replace synthetic fragrance with essential oils, which are also mainly allergens. Those compounds on the table marked in bold are found in natural essential oils and they are all allergens.

Ingredients

1 Amyl Cinnamyl Alcohol (Amyl Cinnamic Alcohol)

2 Amyl Cinnamal

3 Anisyl Alcohol (Anise Alcohol)

4 Benzyl Alcohol

5 Benzyl Benzoate

6 Benzyl Cinnamate

7 Benzyl Salicylate

8 Cinnamyl Alcohol

9 Cinnamal

10 Citral

11 Citronellol

12 Coumarin

13 Eugenol

14 Farnesol

15 Geraniol

16 Hexyl Cinnamaldehyde (Hexyl Cinnamal) CTFA

17 Hydroxycitronellal

18 Isoeugenol

19 2-(4-tert-Butylbenzyl) Propionaldehyde (Lilial) Butylphenyl methylpropional (CTFA)

20 Limonene

21 Linalool

22 Hydroxymethylpentylcyclohexene-carboxaldehyde (Lyral) Hydroxyisohexyl-3-cyxlohexene carboxaldehyde (CTFA)

23 Methyl Heptin Carbonate

24 3-Methyl-4(2,6,6-trimethyl-2-cyclohexen-1-yl)-3-buten-2-one (Methyl Ionone) Alpha-isomethyl ionone (CTFA)

25 Oakmoss Extract

26 Treemoss Extract

As an example Lavender contains linalool at about 45%, Lemon contains around 73% limonene, Lemongrass about 93% of citral and Clove has 92% eugenol. Clearly those that advocate the safety of natural fragrances over synthetic are neither chemists nor perfumers.

I am a qualified Aromatherapist with Internationally recognised qualifications.  I believe that aromatherapy has a place in treatments but not in skin care. If you have sensitive skin avoid essential oils and fragrance, that way you are minimising your chance of success for rash free skin.