The Health Report

An advertisement in the 1970’s for Jovan Musk Oil included the catch-phrase: “Sex appeal. Now you don’t have to be born with it.” The sales of that fragrance increased so much that the poor old musk deer, from which the musk essence was extracted, soon faced extinction – just so people could smell like them! Today, advertising campaigns for perfumes and cosmetics is still big business with innuendos that more romance, sex appeal and, basically, sex, can be sold with every little evocatively-named bottle of amber liquid.

The word perfume comes from the Latin per meaning “through” and fumus meaning “smoke”, which points to the origin of perfume as a form of incense. However, the perfume business all started with the great-unwashed of past centuries when bathing wasn’t a daily ritual. To mask their odours, Aristocrats routinely doused themselves with scent, but lucky for them, they only had access to naturally occurring substances. It took the chemical revolution that happened after WWll to bring us synthetic scents as we know them today. Their great benefit was bringing scent to the masses, as perfumes and fragrances could be mass produced very cheaply with a new level of consistency.

“The main justification for using a man-made material … is that you can get it cheaper than by extracting it from the real thing,” writes Luca Turin in his book The Secret of Scent. But, there’s more to the story than just price and convenience.

“Cosmetic companies have created ‘consumer confusion’ regarding the difference between fragrance oils, perfumes and essential oils,” explains Trina Lewis, Director of Hip Lilly Aroma Couture. “Many cosmetic companies are happy to create an atmosphere in which consumers believe that all fragrances are good, however, the truth is that no fragrance oils have anything to do with nature, other than attempting to mimic nature. Often the names of the fragrance oils imply that they are natural, and they are not. For instance the label may read; Rose Fragrance, Vanilla Fragrance and even such absurd claims as Strawberry Essential Oil. Strawberries do not produce an essential oil, but how would the average consumer know that? The synthetic fragrances that are used in cosmetics and household cleaning supplies can consist of many undisclosed ingredients and none of them are natural.”

Sydney Essential Oil Company Marketing Manager Eliza McGivern says that you can tell if a product has synthetic fragrance in it by reading the label. “If the word fragrance, fragrances, parfum or parfums appear then it has synthetic scent in it,” she says. “Alternatively, the ingredients in the fragrance could be listed so you may have a chemical name that is quite indistinguishable on the label.”

McGivern says that synthetic is not always bad, just as natural is not always good, but the way the ingredients are utilised is very important.

“With synthetic perfumes the focus is primarily aesthetic,” says Lewis. “With natural perfumes the focus is aesthetic, but with therapeutic benefits. In terms of fragrance, synthetic perfumes are a mixture of single-aroma chemicals that linger in a persistent fashion with little character. Natural perfumes, in contrast, are a complex orchestration of elements, usually lasting for around 4-5 hours. In terms of cost, most synthetic perfumes which we can pay a fortune for are made of inexpensive perfume chemicals. In contrast the botanical oils used in natural perfumes can be extraordinarily expensive. Much cheaper synthetics can only approximate the dominant qualities of the natural essences, and cannot capture their true complexity and subtlety. Natural essences possess a vitality that eludes synthetic fragrances. They can have a powerful effect on the spirit and our emotions.”

Another reason to choose natural over synthetic is in the effect the latter have on the central nervous system. Synthetic fragrances derived from petrochemicals can have damaging effects on the brain and central nervous system in a condition that is called Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. People with MCS, and chemically-triggered asthma, can often tolerate natural perfumes but cannot tolerate exposure to synthetic fragrances.

Fragrance ingredients are also the most frequent cause of cosmetic allergy, accounting for up to 30–45% of allergic reactions to cosmetics in eczema patients. It is also difficult to manage patients with proven fragrance allergy because just using products labelled ‘fragrance free’ is not a protection due to a discrepancy in the accepted definition of the term. Fragrance is defined as any substance, natural or synthetic, used solely to impart an odour to a cosmetic product. However, if a fragrance material has more than one function, such as preservative or emollient, then it can legally be included in a fragrance-free product. The main offenders here are benzyl alcohol, benzaldehyde and cyclopentadecanolamide.

An article by US Academic Lori Stryker, titled “Making Sense of the Natural vs Synthetic Debate: The Acceptability of Synthetic Ingredients in Cosmetics”, puts forward the notion that our personal health and well-being, as well as our environment locally and globally, are in question by the widespread use of synthetic substances.

“We cannot avoid all synthetic substances, and not all synthetics are bad for us. Many of these materials have improved the quality of our lives, but many have also deteriorated it. We do not know what will result from our use of certain synthetics in the long run,” Stryker says. “Cosmetics are products which we have a direct physical and emotional relationship with, as we wear them daily on our skin and bodies. The environment can be sustained or systematically destroyed by our choices.”

According to McGivern, the natural and organic cosmetic industry is the fastest growing segment in the cosmetic industry at the moment. “The less processed a product is the more beneficial it is to the body,” she says.

“Natural perfumes interact with the chemistry of the wearer,“ says Lewis. “They evaporate into the air and modulate over time. With all the chemical analysis in the world, natural substances cannot truly be pinned down to a formula and replicated in a laboratory. “

To find out if a product uses synthetic or natural scents, look up http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/index.htm. Type ‘fragrance’ into the search option, and a long list of perfumes and aftershaves will come up giving information about the brand, manufacturer, health effects, handling and disposal of the product and ingredients in each product from the label and the material safety data sheet (MSDS).

The Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep Cosmetics Safety Database (http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/) is also excellent. It also lists thousands of products, gives them a hazard rating, and outlines ethical practices of the companies.

Thank you for reading The Health Report.

Tags: Chemicals, Perfume, Synthetic Scents

This entry was posted on Monday, August 16th, 2010 at 11:48 am and is filed under Chemicals, Oils. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.