Have you ever noticed that for every pro there is a con?
For every voice affirming one thing, there is a voice dissenting?
One group who says dummies are great for babies and another that says they’re terrible for jaw development.
One school of thought that promotes meat-free diets and another that says meat is crucial for health.
One group that says it’s fine to spray pesticides on our food and another that lobbies against them.
One doctor who tells us that we need to have surgery to fix a particular problem and another who advises against it.
I’ve found it’s the same with everything in life; low-tox living being no exception.
And fragrance tends to bear the brunt of these conversations. For many, it’s presence in a product warrants a hard pass. Others will say that if it was dangerous, companies wouldn’t be allowed to use it. Or they say that the dose makes the poison.
Here’s the thing about fragrance.
It’s not actually a thing.
It’s not a specific product.
It’s a cover term for any number of hundreds (thousands even, and with side-affects that include headaches, dizziness, shortness of breath, nausea and more) of products and the fact of the matter is, we usually don’t know which ones.
Manufacturers don’t have to share the exact products used to scent their range and often this has to do with trade secrets.
I understand that. Really, I do.
But as a consumer, if I have a sensitivity to a certain ingredient, I’d really like to know whether or not it’s in the product I’m buying. Because maybe I’m fine with the “fragrance” ingredients of one company but not of another: the point is, how can we possibly know?
So maybe a company isn’t concerned about the trade secret side of things and they simply can’t fit the information on the packaging. Maybe their fragrance is actually a dozen different pure essential oils rolled into a unique scent but they just can’t fit it on the label.
No worries. Put it on the website then.
I believe that companies have a responsibility to let consumers know what ingredients are in their products but because they’re not required to do this, I choose to vote with my dollars and purchase from companies that do.
P.S. Want to ditch your commercial moisturiser and try one without artificial fragrance? Here’s a simple 2-ingredient DIY.
