I have often heard to avoid fragrances without necessarily knowing why, but when I had my first child who ended up breaking out on nearly any fragrance that touched her skin, it made me wonder what really are those “fragrance” ingredients that it could cause such rashes.  I have since found out they may contain a wide range of allergens.

Turns out the “fragrance” ingredient(s) could be any host of ingredients, largely unregulated, and many toxic.  As EWG put it, “A rose may be a rose, but that rose-like fragrance in your perfume may be something else entirely, concocted from any number of the fragrance industry’s 3,100 stock chemical ingredients, the blend of which is almost always kept hidden from the consumer.”

In a separate article, EWG also stated, “The mystery mixtures that provide a wipe’s burst of fragrance can contain hundreds of untested chemicals, including toxic ingredients like phthalates and synthetic musks – both suspected hormone disruptors. Fragrances are also among the top five allergens worldwide.”

While today’s change topic could get into a much longer discussion on more specifics and health concerns linked to certain chemicals, the long and short is that fragrances are not something we actually need, so why not just skip them, at least for today.

If you just can’t give something up, but want to know if there is anything in your product that may be of concern, you can look it up on EWG’s Cosmetic database that I have mentioned previously… http://www.ewg.org/skindeep.

… and if you miss having a lovely scent near you, considering buying yourself a bundle of nature-grown flowers.