I used to be a big time perfume lover. All throughout my teens and early adult years I wore Elizabeth Arden’s Red Door perfume. Just ask my husband, he is still sulking that I no longer wear what he considers my signature scent. Eventually I stopped wearing it because who has time for perfume when you have to change messy diapers and supply breast milk on tap 24/7? Then after a few years I decided I didn’t WANT to wear it because conventional perfume is some seriously toxic and nasty stuff and I wanted to abstain from toxic beauty.
Sadly, this is a largely unregulated industry and perfume companies can put nearly any chemical they want in their formulas and get away with it. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and the Environmental Working Group created a report that shows how hormone-disrupting chemicals and chemicals that could cause allergic reactions (asthma, wheezing, headaches, and dermatitis) are often found in perfumes. Most of the “scents” in these perfume are not sourced from anything natural either. They are lab created with chemicals.
The good news is that we don’t need their stinking products (no pun intended)! There are many wonderful all-natural perfumes that are just as exquisite and lovely as the department store brands, but these botanical wonders contain no phthalates or preservatives. They just make better sense for ladies concerned about their health who still want to smell all pretty.
Here are a few options:
Pacifica Perfume – This brand has many, many lovely and safer scents. Indian Coconut Nectar or Mediterranean Fig? Yes please! These contain natural denatured alcohol (corn source) and Pacifica’s own fragrance blend with natural and essential oils. No parabens, animal testing, animal ingredients, or artificial colors. 100% VEGAN and Gluten-free. Price: $20
Lavanila Roll-on Perfumes – These clean vanilla scents start with a base of organic sugar cane alcohol which is the infused with pure essential oils. Price: $34-$56.
Red Flower Guaiac – Organic perfume with a woodsy blend of leaves/bark, pink grapefruit, and rose with organic oil as the base. It is also packaged in 80% post consumer recycled paper and made with wind power in the US! Price: $48
Golden Earth Perfume – These perfumes are made of 100% pure therapeutic grade essential oils and are infused with crystals. The Euphoria blend, which is what we have tried, is rose, jasmine, and agate crystal. No synthetic fragrances. Price: $20
What a great list! I also stopped wearing traditional fragrance, which is tough to give up! The women in my family have all worn Shalimar for decades – beginning with my mom. That was a very sad tradition to break. However, an important one! Glad I am not alone in giving a signature scent up. Now I like to wear essential oils and make up my own combos just by dabbing different ones on.
I still love my Este Lauder a cologne my mom wear’s. I have used essential oils as well and just inherited about 3 dozen fragrances and some are perfect to wear as perfume.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this post! I get tired of using plain old essential oils i have to mix myself. I’m pregnant again and I need a new fragrance every few days so I don’t grow to hate any one in particular. Morning sickness is severe. I haven’t worn anything since my first pregnancy. So glad to find this.
I’ve made my own perfume with essential oils as well. Some of them, like Jasmine, have such a strong scent that you can just put a drop on your hairbrush and comb through. Good article :)
What great ideas! I wore Spellbound for years but now can’t use any perfumes for anything (none in clothes detergent, stain sticks, etc.) because I sneeze my head off and get sinus infections. I can’t even walk down the cleaning aisle in the grocery store because of the nasty scents. I asked an employee of the store the other day to walk down that nasty aisle to pick up some composting bags for me because I can’t stand it. Or I try to hold my breath for the whole length of the aisle, which is hard. :) I wonder how my body would handle these natural scents…
Pacifica is local to me so its the one I buy. Amazing scents!
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