❤ Fragrance ❤

Okay I am putting a disclaimer on this one, since I had my best friend (who is a serious perfume lover and collector) preview it and she actually got mad at me!  If you are reading my blog, I am assuming that like me, you are pretty serious about making healthy choices when it comes to your everyday routine.  In the course of that, we often have to give up things that we love.  For me, perfume was one of the harder products, since I really truly love to smell pretty things.  If you would prefer to stay in the dark, telling yourself: "what I don't know can't hurt me,"  I understand and truly have no judgement.  If you do want to know the truth of the matter without having to research it yourself, then read on my lovelies............. It's not a review, but hopefully you will get something out of it and be a little entertained.
❤ Eco Belle Elle

Why Fragrance is THE Dirtiest Word in the Dictionary

I vividly remember my first perfume. I found it while shopping with my two best friends at the Body Shop one Saturday.  It was called Fuzzy Peach and it became my first signature scent, punctuating every truly great seventh and eighth grade memory.  The most special of these include my first school dance, wearing makeup for the first time and the biggie……. my first real kiss with the boy of my 13-year-old dreams (in my neighbor’s walk-in pantry, oh the romance).  Yes, even today when I smell any kind of peachy deliciousness I feel about 13 years old, holding hands with “that” boy that made your little-girl heart pitter-patter (you know the one I’m talking about, you probably had one too).  Imagine my surprise when I learned that they can’t produce a natural peach perfume, since peaches don’t contain essential oils.

So what in the heck makes “Fuzzy Peach” smell like….well…. I guess a fuzzy peach? Most likely, It was persol, a cheap petroleum distillate used in everything from industrial solvents to toilet cleaners.  Sorry, but this soooo takes the romance out of these sweet memories!  Really? My first kiss was scented with toilet-bowl cleaner ingredients?  

When I began researching information on products I would often come across the word “fragrance.”  Fragrance as an ingredient is like violence on television, it is so prevalent in our every day lives that we barely notice it these days.  I casually dismissed its presence in my product ingredient list.  Thinking to myself it’s only fragrance, that’s not bad.  Why would it have an 8 rating on the EWG naughty scale?  I naively continued to buy natural or organic makeup with fragrance as an ingredient, spending my effort, time and money the wrong way.  Here’s the thing: while you are busy picking apart the ingredient list and obsessing over whether or not that shea butter is certified organic.  That nasty little tag-along, “fragrance” is doing a happy dance ‘cause you overlooked it. 

Like you, I always thought perfume was from “real” things (obviously since I was duped by fake peaches).  Well it’s not. Much of it is synthetic and some not really even developed for its smell. Often times, the smell is a happy accident or by-product from some other desired chemical. Kind of similar to the way antifreeze tastes sweet but it sure as heck isn’t made of sugar.  Modern perfume formulations pretty much started with Chanel No.5.  This was one of the world’s first synthetic fragrances and it left traditional French perfume techniques in the dust production-cost and wearability wise. Aldehydes were cheaper and easier to produce then distilling the real thing, and a new generation of perfumes makers took note.

So what is fragrance or perfume actually made of? No one really knows, except the fragrance houses themselves and they aren’t telling. It is considered proprietary or a trade secret, and can be composed of a combination 3,000 possible ingredients.  It gets its innocuous sounding label “fragrance” or “parfum”, it’s filthy French cousin on your label.  Many or all of the ingredients in modern-day fragrances are synthetic and can do a serious number on your endocrine system.  Remember when people threw away their BPA (bisphenol-A) plastic bottles en masse in a fit of terror over its potential for hormonal disruption?  Media hysteria caused millions of baby and water bottles to end up in landfills and recycling centers across the globe.  Don’t be embarrassed to admit it, I did it too, and then continued to spritz myself with Angel.  All the while, thinking to myself, “whew, dodged that bullet.”  

What if I told you the stuff we use every single day in about 98% of our skin care and beauty products does pretty much the same thing as BPA? There’s no newsflash about that one.  Due to their similar chemical makeup, many synthetic perfume ingredients appear like estrogen and other hormones to our bodies and wreak havoc on our hormonal systems.  The resulting hormonal and chemical imbalance can cause everything from infertility to cancer. 

Fragrance ingredients often contain phthalates, a plasticizer that makes plastic flexible and is in everything from kid’s toys to hairspray. In 1998, the EWG tested people for the chemical, dibutyl phthalate, which is commonly found in nail polish. Among adults tested, 100% had this compound present in their bodies.  The FDA has since banned the use of 6 pthalates from consumer use, but there are many, many more out there.  Scary? The worst offense as far as I’m concerned is that fragrance (and therefore the ubiquitous phthalates) is in MANY baby products, even those claiming to be natural (hello Burt's Bees and Aveeno- though both do offer a non-scented wash). Manufacturers, you should be ashamed.  However you need to ask yourself, what on god’s green earth smells like baby powder?

My intent is not to scare you, nor do I want you to totally give up fragranced products.  They are just too important to the human experience.  So what is a girl (or guy) to do? Whatever you do, DO NOT give up on finding healthier alternatives because it seems too overwhelming.  Additionally I have to ask that you do not stand in line at the grocery store and tell people what is in their baby’s bubble bath.  They will just look at you like you are insane, trust me on this.  I literally have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep my mouth shut sometimes.  I just want you to seek out naturally-fragranced products, made with only essential oils (preferably organic and NOT patchouli scented ☺).  Become a label-reader and chemical sleuth.  Don’t stop at just your perfume, body wash or body spray.  Consider everything that you are exposed to: hairspray, lotion, deodorant, candles, room fresheners, plug-ins, oil diffusers, laundry detergent, fabric softener and cleaning supplies (sorry, even Method and Mrs. Meyers use synthetics).  All of these everyday things have fragrance, and 99.9% of them are going to be from a synthetic source because it is cheap and easy.  For safer alternatives, try some of the ones listed below…….

At least this way when you have a beautiful memory tied to a particular scent, you know it’s not gonna be toilet bowl cleaner.

Sniff-sniff hooray!

Eco Belle Elle

P.S. I am devoting August to reviews of purely natural and organic personal fragrance.  I know it seems like a while away, but this is going to be quite time-consuming.  I will be enlisting extra noses to gain some consensus.  Hey! Interested in joining the team girls? (or boys? :o) Email me your thoughts on some organic or synthetic-free perfumes you’ve tried at ecobelleelle@hotmail.com or post a comment below. In the meantime I will continue to post my regular reviews.

For now here are some truly safe and trusted brands to tide you over until I can submit more reviews (I have read up on their company information and questioned them endlessly via phone or email, so rest easy my pretty J)………  Visit my site in August for a list of great perfumes.

Face, Bath and Body Products

Bubble and Bee - you can custom blend your own body sprays there too!

Organic Excellence

Miessence

Dr. Bronner’s
Lotus Moon
Lauren Brooke Cosmetics

Baby Products
Earth Mama Angel Baby

Bubble and Bee

Miessence

Dr. Bronner’s

Cleaning Supplies

Seventh Generation
Ecos