05/07/2020
WHAT EXACTLY IS "NATURAL FRAGRANCE"?
If you, like many others, are trying to make the switch from synthetic fragrance to natural fragrance in your life and home, it's helpful to understand what falls into the natural fragrance category: essential oils, absolutes, concretes, and CO2 extracts. While synthetic fragrances are derived from laboratory chemicals, these natural ingredients are made from raw plant materials. Synthetic fragrance often has hundreds of undisclosed ingredients, including petrochemicals, mystery allergens, and phthalates. With natural fragrance ingredients, what you see is what you get, like "lavender essential oil". Synthetic fragrance tends to smell the same on everyone, for hours and hours on end. (Have you ever tried to wash the smell of Tide out of clothing? Impossible. What about when your friend hugs you with her favorite perfume on, and you smell it on yourself for the rest of the day? No fun.) Natural fragrance smells different on everyone, and it changes and fades over time, just like the plants themselves. Best of all, the more you know about the beautiful processes that go into making these natural fragrance ingredients, the more you'll find them to be irresistibly romantic and alluring. Who wants to spray on a mass-manufactured chemical when you could dab on an oil made from the petals of thousands of roses collected by careful indian hands in the pre-dawn light?
