Fragrance oils and perfumes are a blend of synthetically derived chemicals that impart aroma and odor to products. The synthetic fragrances that are used in cosmetics and household cleaning supplies can consist of many undisclosed ingredients. The chemicals used in fragrances do not have to be listed separately from the other ingredients. For instance, fragrance oils that contain a variety of synthetic chemicals does not have to list any of those on the ingredient list, the label simply reads “fragrance” or “perfume” or “parfum.” The consumer is being deceived into believing that one harmless ingredient is in their product and not made aware of the cocktail of dangerous artificial fragrance chemicals that they are putting onto their skin. Phlalates are just one of the many of the problematic ingredients in most fragrance oils that have been linked to many degenerative diseases. You may smell good but at what cost.
Synthetic fragrance oils are used because they are more affordable then pure unadulterated essential oils. The majority of adverse reactions to a cosmetics or toiletries are caused by fragrance chemicals. Most hypoallergenic forms of cosmetics are fragrance free because the chemical cocktails are known irritants and allergens. The consumer has such negative reactions to cosmetic fragrances because each artificial fragrance typically contains one hundred or more chemicals to produce just one fragrance. Over 5000 aroma chemical are available for creating synthetic fragrances.
Essential Oils
Essential Oils are highly concentrated and potent oils extracted from plants, leaves, flowers, roots, buds, twigs, rhizomes, heartwood, bark, resin, seeds and fruits. According to the International Organization for Standardization, essential oils are a natural “product made by distillation with either water or steam or by mechanical processing of citrus rinds or by dry distillation of natural materials. Following the distillation, the essential oil is physically separated from the water phase.” The water phase, which is the by product is then sold as hydrosols or distillate waters. Each essential oil comes from just one source, a living plant. There are no chemicals involved. For the safest essential oils it is best to buy organic or wild craft essential oils so that no chemicals or pesticides ever entered the life cycle of the plant source of the essential oil.
The best way to know the difference, is to educate your nose by smelling essential oils next to fragrance oils. Once you smell the difference you will never be mislead again. Nothing man made smells as perfect and just like the fresh cut plant as a true essential oil or distillate water.
