Hey there! 👋
Thousands of years ago, our ancestors used botanicals not just to smell good, but to live well. Think incense in temples, lavender sprigs under pillows, sandalwood smoke drifting through royal courts. Scents bring about sacredness, healing and luxury too. 🪻
Fast forward to today and… well, things have changed. A quick trip to the grocery’s laundry/cleaning aisle or light up a “vanilla bean” candle, and what fills your nose isn’t really vanilla, jasmine, or rose. It’s a lab created chemical mix designed to smell like it at a fraction of the cost. 🧪
What happened along the way? Let’s find out together. 📖
What Are Synthetic Fragrances?
Those “fragrance oils” in perfumes, lotions, shampoos, even baby wipes? They’re usually made from petroleum by-products or a mix of over 3,000 chemicals the fragrance industry keeps on the down low. 🤐 Labels will call them:
• Fragrance / parfum
• Perfume
• Aroma
• “Essential oil blend” (yep, even that can hide synthetics!)
Because fragrance formulas are considered “trade secrets,” companies don’t have to list the actual ingredients. Meaning, when you see “fragrance” on a bottle, you might really be getting acetaldehyde (linked to cancer), synthetic musks (found in breast milk 🤯), or phthalates (endocrine disruptors that mess with hormones).
What’s the History Behind This Shift?
Our sense of smell helped early humans detect danger, spoiled food, even find a mate. Cultures across history elevated scent into something almost divine — incense, floral oils, and aromatic herbs were used in ritual, medicine, and daily life. 🍃
The big shift came in the mid-1800s, when chemists began isolating aromatic molecules like vanillin and cinnamaldehyde. 🧪 By the 1900s, synthetic fragrances had taken over the perfume, beauty, and household industries. Why? Cost and convenience. Why pay thousands for rare sandalwood oil when you can cook up a copycat in a lab for cents?
Today, synthetic fragrances make up a multi-billion industry — only 25% smaller than the essential oil market. Over 85% of perfumes are mostly synthetic. And the average person is exposed to fragrance chemicals every single day — through lotion, deodorant, laundry soap, even toilet paper. 🫣
Why Does this Matter for Our Health?
Synthetic fragrance ingredients can cause headaches (think when you sprayed a perfume then got a migraine after. 👀), asthma, hormone disruption (thanks, phthalates), skin irritation, and even long-term organ stress. The most vexing part of it? You’ll never know exactly which chemicals are in your products — “fragrance” legally hides it all.
What to Look Out for and What to Use Instead?
Pure essential oils are plant-based, transparent, and complex. Lavender calms the nervous system, citrus lifts mood, and tea tree fights microbes. That’s why Oleia chooses oils like lavender, rose, jasmine, and tangerine. Clean and simple.
· Read labels: avoid “fragrance,” “parfum,” or “aroma”
· Look for Latin plant names
· Support transparent brands (💜Oleia Oils💜)
· Choose ethically sourced, carefully crafted oils.
Because smelling good shouldn’t come at the cost of your health.
Show me your bottle and I’ll show you mine? ’Til next time! ✌️
xo, L
References:
https://www.safecosmetics.org/chemicals/fragrance/#end1.
https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2023/07/what-fragrance
https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/cosmetic-ingredients/phthalates-cosmetics