CLEARING UP SOME NONSENSE ABOUT NATURAL VERSUS SYNTHETIC PERFUMES
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The clean beauty movement has created some pretty murky waters to wade through, with widespread greenwashing and fear-based marketing perpetuating what has been dubbed “chemophobia”, an irrational fear of synthetic chemicals. This has led to a tendency to equate natural with good and synthetic with bad, but it’s much more complex than that, especially when it comes to fragrance. This post will endeavor to clear up some nonsense about natural vs. synthetic perfumes.
The fact is that most perfumes today contain synthetic materials — sometimes upwards of 70% of the juice. While perfume will, in most cases, include some natural materials in the form of distilled or expressed essential oils, the lion’s share will be chemicals isolated either from a natural source or produced in a lab.
Regardless of whether or not consumers fully understand what’s safe and what’s harmful, demand for natural ingredients continues to strong arm the beauty industry, with perfume being yet another target of consumer scrutiny thanks largely to ill-informed influencers and celebrities, and brand marketers feeding into the frenzy. Much like they want their skin care to be all-natural, consumers are now expecting the same of fragrances, calling on perfumers to create scents that are free of synthetics. But is the growing demand for natural fragrances a valid request in terms of safety? Or is it an extension of the established “clean” beauty marketing ploy, stoking fears and misunderstanding behind the product’s formulation?
“Natural” Does Not Always Equal Safer
There is a tendency to believe that natural is safer than synthetic, and this is simply NOT true. Case in point: ingredients in perfume are governed by the fragrance industry’s steely watchdog, the International Fragrance Association (IFRA) to examine their safety, and its standards are notoriously stringent.
Some of the strictest regulations in perfume are for natural materials, and many of them have been eliminated from the perfumer’s palette, or their usage limited in a perfume formula because of their potential allergenic risks. Some examples include oakmoss, jasmine, and ylang ylang, as well as rose essence, which has a molecule present (methyl eugenol) that has mandated perfumers to limit the proportion they can use. Most safety regulations in perfume restrict naturals, but perfumers can, for instance, use a whole lot more habanolide (a synthetic musk) than they can rose, vetiver, or jasmine.
When Michelle Pfeiffer first set out to create her fragrance collection Henry Rose, she hoped it would be organic and plant-based, but quickly learned in discussions with the Environmental Working Group that synthetics can in some cases be less allergenic than certain natural ingredients. The safety profile is hard to regulate since the chemical nature of ingredients found in nature can vary from tree to tree and farm to farm. By using safe synthetics, perfumers are able to eliminate most common allergens that would have naturally been present in aromatic oils extracted from botanical/plant sources.
The Dynamic Between Natural & Synthetic Materials
It’s worth noting that perfumers have been formulating with both synthetic and natural ingredients since the 19th century, so synthetics are nothing new. Without them, many scents that consumers have come to expect from their perfumes wouldn’t exist — think musky, clean, and fruity, which are very difficult to obtain with a 100% natural fragrance. Synthetics recreate the smell of natural ingredients when the natural raw materials are not available or cannot be extracted into an essential oil, such as florals like lilac and freesia. We would not have the smell of almost any fruit notes without synthetic molecules, as it is not always possible to extract any smell in large quantities or economically from fruits (with the exception of citrus fruits).
To better understand how these different ingredient types interact, lets equate perfumery to music. Naturals are wonderful. They act as the main players in most fragrances, but without synthetics they lose clarity and direction. The blend of naturals and synthetics is what brings harmony to a perfume. Artistically speaking, most perfumers believe purely natural perfumes can lack clarity and structure, but an all-synthetic perfume can be jarring, lacking intrigue and complexity. In other words, most perfumers find the challenge with naturals is that they are so complex, fragrances can end up muddy and heavy, with no lift, sparkle or radiance. It is synthetics that bring these qualities to a perfume.
What’s especially interesting is that synthetic materials can often smell more authentic and "natural" than the naturals themselves. Raw materials are beautiful and complex, they can in fact smell completely different from what the consumer expects, because once they are in a form that can be used in perfumery, they don’t smell like ‘nature'.
There’s also the issue of cost. Perfume products would be exponentially more expensive without synthetic ingredients. It is much cheaper to synthesize an ingredient in the lab than it is to grow, harvest, and distill its natural counterpart. A typical synthetic may cost $50 per kilogram, while a typical natural may cost 10-100 times more.
It’s worth noting that perfumers have been formulating with both synthetic and natural ingredients since the 19th century, so synthetics are nothing new. Without them, many scents that consumers have come to expect from their perfumes wouldn’t exist — think musky, clean, and fruity, which are very difficult to obtain with a 100% natural fragrance. Synthetics recreate the smell of natural ingredients when the natural raw materials are not available or cannot be extracted into an essential oil, such as florals like lilac and freesia. We would not have the smell of almost any fruit notes without synthetic molecules, as it is not always possible to extract any smell in large quantities or economically from fruits (with the exception of citrus fruits).
To better understand how these different ingredient types interact, lets equate perfumery to music. Naturals are wonderful. They act as the main players in most fragrances, but without synthetics they lose clarity and direction. The blend of naturals and synthetics is what brings harmony to a perfume. Artistically speaking, most perfumers believe purely natural perfumes can lack clarity and structure, but an all-synthetic perfume can be jarring, lacking intrigue and complexity. In other words, most perfumers find the challenge with naturals is that they are so complex, fragrances can end up muddy and heavy, with no lift, sparkle or radiance. It is synthetics that bring these qualities to a perfume.
What’s especially interesting is that synthetic materials can often smell more authentic and "natural" than the naturals themselves. Raw materials are beautiful and complex, they can in fact smell completely different from what the consumer expects, because once they are in a form that can be used in perfumery, they don’t smell like ‘nature'.
There’s also the issue of cost. Perfume products would be exponentially more expensive without synthetic ingredients. It is much cheaper to synthesize an ingredient in the lab than it is to grow, harvest, and distill its natural counterpart. A typical synthetic may cost $50 per kilogram, while a typical natural may cost 10-100 times more.
What About The Environmental Impact?
There’s much to be said about the beauty industry’s environmental impact, and the fragrance sector is not exempt from that discussion. For a start, lets first state that "natural" does NOT mean more sustainable. In fact, on the contrary. It is generally much better for the environment if we are not harvesting whole populations of plants, flowers and trees to be turned into ingredients for the cosmetics industry. Many plants in the fragrance industry, including rosewood, Indian sandalwood, and frankincense, are suffering as a result of over-harvesting.
The perfume industry needs to do a better job of educating consumers and brand developers to help remove the stigma around synthetics and to raise awareness of their advantages, particularly as a more environmentally friendly alternative to many natural ingredients. The use of safe synthetic ingredients helps to prevent the over-farming of natural ingredients at risk of extinction due to their demand for use in fragrance. Synthesizing molecules certainly can help lessen the burden on farmers and the environment, as can the responsible extraction of naturals, and most of the major perfume companies have these practices in place.
If all synthetic fragrances were switched to naturally derived ingredients, supply wouldn’t be able to keep pace with demand, making the entire industry wholly unsustainable. We need to stop feeding into fearmongering and educate consumers so that they learn to accept that often lab-made is more environmentally-friendly than naturally-derived without compromising on quality.
Concluding Remarks
As much as it might appeal to the clean beauty industry’s push to demonize certain ingredients, the reality is that naturally-derived options in fragrance are not always safer. The fantasy of clean is troublesome. Here are some unclean things that are toxic/carcinogenic: burnt food, potato chips, alcohol, red meat. If you eat burgers or fries, and drink alcohol, which is the worst the thing for your body, then you have no right to worry about wearing a perfume made with synthetics.
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