Fragrance is a combination of more than 3,500 chemicals that gives perfumes and colognes their unique smell. It’s also in many other products you use daily like soaps, shampoos and cleaning sprays.
The scent molecules in fragrances are volatile organic compounds. They evaporate into the air and can be inhaled or absorbed through your skin. They can be good or bad for you, depending on what they are and how much you’re exposed to them. Fragrance ingredients aren’t regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and manufacturers don’t have to list them on product labels. They don’t even have to submit them for review, which has led to widespread ignorance about the chemicals in these mixtures. Several of the chemicals in fragrance have been linked to health problems including cancer, reproductive toxicity and allergies.
Most of us are familiar with the concept of a perfume, a blend of chemicals that is sprayed or dabbed on the wrists, neck or behind the ears to produce a long-lasting, uplifting aroma. Perfumes are usually made of top notes, middle notes and base notes. Top notes are the light, initial fragrances that disappear within 30 minutes after application and can be anything from citrus to fruit to herbs to florals. Middle notes are the heart of a perfume and can be a single flower or a combination of several flowers. They may be based on natural extracts or synthetically derived molecules such as linalool or coumarin, or from pure raw materials such as iris, ylang-ylang or jasmine.