Did you know that many great smelling skin products such as soaps, lotions and even candles, can be made with very unnatural and unhealthy fragrances. Fragrance companies have been found to hide 14 different chemicals that distributors don’t put on their labels. Many of those chemicals aren’t tested for human safety and many of those chemicals have been linked to allergies and hormone distribution.
Many companies that use fragrance in their personal care products don’t write all the ingredients, such as chemicals, on the ingredient list because of an act placed in 1966 allowing companies to not list every ingredient for fear of their product being exactly replicated. Even though that most commonly isn’t the reason they aren’t listing harmful chemicals, that is their reasoning behind why they aren’t listed.
We aren’t aware of the symptoms we are exposing ourselves too when using products that include fragrance. They not only have short term effects such as allergic reactions, migraines and coughs, but they also have long term effects on our bodies. One major health risk is chronic lung disease. 75% of products that list fragrances includes one chemical called, phthalates. It’s a hormone distributing chemical that has been linked to; reduced sperm count, liver and breast cancers, and diabetes. Even though it’s titled to preserve the smell and help fragrances last longer, there are many health risks that come from this preservative.
How can you avoid buying and using fragrances? Make sure you check the labels of the personal care products you buy and makes sure it doesn’t include fragrances, look for phthalate free fragrance or essential oils. You would be surprised how many products you have used include fragrances and the chemicals put in them. Essential oils and herbs are used as natural scents that many use to create scent in their natural products.
Even the term ‘natural fragrance’ can be deceiving. Natural fragrances are still made in a laboratory and processed unnaturally. Synthetic oils and fragrances can be used to imitate natural oils. Fragrance oils are not essential oils and don’t carry the same benefits as essential oils do. Fragrance oils are synthetic products. Any scent can be made into a fragrance oil but not all scents can be essential oils.