The changing role of fragrances

They have been vital to the brand identity of countless products and particularly in skin care and hair care contributed to the perception of efficacy. Smell is one of the most powerful and evocative senses while also being extremely enigmatic and subjective; one scent can instantly transport a person back to a particular afternoon 25 years ago, while having no effect on someone else. Yet there are also common associations with fragrances, whereby particular scents evoke emotions of, for example, sensuality, cleanliness, and relaxation among the majority of people. It is these notes that remain the target of perfumers in the personal care industry by providing a powerful emotional support and context to products on the marketplace. Mirroring the trend across all sectors of personal care, natural fragrance notes have featured in many new formulations. The push towards natural, green, and sustainable ingredients has resulted in an overall increased consumer awareness of the ingredients contained in cosmetics and other products. And as consumers have become more conscious of the ingredients in their products, it is inevitable that some groups of chemicals will go in and out of favour. At the same time, more people now claim to have ‘sensitive skin’ and therefore try to avoid ingredients that are believed to be sensitising agents. These factors have led to a growth in the so-called ‘free from’ trend in which products are marketed for the products they do not contain (such as alcohol, preservatives, and fragrances), rather than ones they do. People will often believe a reaction or sensitivity to a product is an allergic response. However, the actual percentage of people who have a fragrance allergy is relatively small (2% of the general population) although considerably more people will claim to have a sensitivity to fragrances.1 Clearly, any reaction no matter how severe is unpleasant and unwanted but it is worth remembering that sensitivity (irritation) is not the same, or as severe, as an allergy. There are over 5,000 fragrances currently used in products, and a single product may contain any number of these as part of its formulation, although only a small quantity are known to be common sensitisers (such as citronella, oak moss, balsam of Peru, and lyral). When a reaction does occur, the symptoms can include headaches and respiratory problems, but more commonly, contact dermatitis.

Essential oils as fragrances

The ‘fragrance free’ concept itself has introduced one or two grey areas, most notably with the use of small amounts of essential oils that still give a hint of fragrance. Essential oils are perceived by consumers to be less sensitising than formulated synthetic perfumes, although in reality there are many that are known to cause irritation. Essential oils are highly concentrated due to the distillation process. Essential oils are used in fragrances and typically more expensive fragrance blends tend to contain higher levels of essential oils. The question of cost is one of the main reasons synthetic fragrance compositions are used in place of essential oils. As well as potentially taking advantage of the ‘fragrance free’ approach by using essential oils, another benefit in using them over synthetic chemical compositions is retaining their therapeutic attributes. Synthetic fragrance are often designed to reproduce the chemical compositions of essential oils following analysis of plants, and while the fragrant notes in labproduced synthetics are often very closely matched to the target plant, the true structure and aromatic fingerprints are never the same and it can be argued the therapeutic attributes cannot mimic nature. There is of course a plethora of anecdotal and scientific evidence on the many benefits of essential oils.