Is fragrance-free skincare really better for your skin?

You open a new cream and the first thing you do is smell it. Before you've even tried it on your skin. If it smells nice, it feels like half the job is already done.

Then you read somewhere that fragrance is the worst thing you can put on your face, that “natural” means nothing and that the only safe cream is one that smells of nothing at all.

The truth, as usual, lies somewhere in between. Fragrance in cosmetics isn't poison. But it isn't an innocent decoration either.

Fragrance-free and unscented aren't the same thing

The American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) distinguishes between two terms that many people treat as the same:

• fragrance-free – no fragrance ingredient at all has been added to the product
• unscented – the product doesn't smell, but the scent may simply be masked, so you don't notice it

In other words, a cream that smells of nothing can still contain fragrance ingredients.

That's why the ingredient list on the back is more reliable than the label on the front. If the ingredient list says Parfum or Aroma, fragrance has been added to the product.

Added fragrance, natural scent and essential oil are not the same

When a product smells, there can be three different things behind it.

Added fragrance. A blend of fragrance substances, synthetic or natural, that appears on the ingredient list under a single word: Parfum. That word won't tell you what exactly is inside.

The scent of the raw material itself. A plant butter, an oil or a floral water has its own mild scent even when nothing has been added to it. That isn't added fragrance, it's the raw material as it is.

Essential oils. The concentrated aromatic part of a plant: lavender, orange, tea tree, bergamot. On the ingredient list they appear under the plant's Latin name, for example Lavandula Angustifolia Oil.

And this brings us to the most common misconception.

Natural doesn't automatically mean non-irritating

Lavender essential oil isn't a single substance. It's a mixture of dozens of compounds, and the main ones include linalool and linalyl acetate. How much of each it contains depends greatly on the variety: an analysis of 13 lavender varieties (Pokajewicz et al., 2021) found between 11 and 47% linalool.

Linalool and limonene, which is found in citrus peel, are the same compounds that are used in perfumes. Your skin doesn't care whether the molecule came from a lavender field or a laboratory.

Something else that rarely gets mentioned: essential oils oxidise in air. A Swedish study (Hagvall et al., 2008) showed that lavender oil has no natural protection against this. In oil left exposed to air, hydroperoxides form, compounds that cause allergies more easily than fresh oil does.

In Sweden (Bruze et al.), more than 4,000 patients with dermatitis were patch tested with oxidised linalool, and 4.7% of them reacted. These aren't average people off the street, but people who already had a skin problem. Still, the figure shows that “natural” and “harmless” are not synonyms.

Irritation and allergy are not the same thing

When our skin turns red from a cream, we usually say we're “allergic”. Dermatologists distinguish between two things here.

Irritation can happen to anyone. It depends on how much of an ingredient there is and what state your skin is in: damaged skin and skin prone to eczema react more easily.

Allergy is different. The immune system first has to “learn” that a substance bothers it. This is called sensitisation. Only on the next contact does a reaction appear, usually 24 to 72 hours later. Once acquired, this kind of allergy stays for life, and from then on even a much smaller amount of that substance can trigger symptoms.

That's why a cream you've been using for months can suddenly start to bother you. And that's why redness is hard to link to a product: it appears a day or two after you've applied it.

How many people are actually allergic to fragrance

Fewer than the internet would have you believe. In 2012, the European Commission's Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) estimated that 1 to 3% of the European population is allergic to fragrance substances.

Even so, according to the expert website DermNet, fragrances are the most common cause of allergic contact dermatitis after nickel. The same source warns that anyone who uses fragranced products can become sensitised to them over time.

That's why the European Union requires fragrance allergens to be listed individually on the ingredient list when a product contains more than 0.001% of them (leave-on products) or 0.01% (rinse-off products). On the label you'll recognise them by names such as Linalool, Limonene, Geraniol, Citral or Coumarin. A 2023 regulation extended the list by 56 allergens, and lavender oil is among them. Products placed on the market after 31 July 2026 must follow the new rules, while those placed on the market earlier may stay on sale until 31 July 2028.

Who is really better off with fragrance-free cosmetics

For most people, fragrance in a cream isn't a problem. Still, there are situations in which a product without added fragrance is the smarter choice:

• eczema – the AAD advises parents of children with eczema to choose fragrance-free products, not ones that are merely unscented
• rosacea – in surveys by the US National Rosacea Society, 30% of respondents named fragrance as a trigger for irritation
• damaged skin barrier – when your skin stings, feels tight and goes red at the slightest thing, fewer ingredients also means fewer possible triggers; I wrote about how to recognise it in my post on the damaged skin barrier
• confirmed fragrance allergy – then avoidance is the only real measure, and be careful even with products full of plant extracts

Skin like this does well with a short ingredient list. Our shea butter has a single ingredient, and the aloe vera gel has no added fragrance. As a preservative, the gel contains benzyl alcohol, a substance that is itself on the EU list of fragrance allergens, so skip it if you have a confirmed allergy to that particular substance.

How to check whether a product suits you

The AAD suggests a simple test at home:

1. Apply a small amount of the product, about the size of a coin, to the inside of your arm or the crook of your elbow.
2. Repeat twice a day for 7 to 10 days, in the amount you would normally use.
3. If redness, itching or swelling appears, gently wash it off and stop using it.
4. If there's no reaction, you can use the product.

If a reaction keeps coming back and you don't know what's causing it, see a dermatologist. A patch test (epicutaneous test) can show exactly which substance you're reacting to.

Fragrance isn't the enemy, but it pays to understand it

At Mala od Lavande we work with scents every day. Lavender, orange and bergamot are part of our work, and I wrote about how much a scent can mean in my post on why a scent takes us back to childhood. That's exactly why I don't want to tell you something is harmless just because it comes from a plant.

If your skin tolerates fragrance well, there's no reason to give it up. And if it reacts, a product without added fragrance isn't a compromise. It's the care your skin needs at that moment.