Continuing on with our deeper dive into clean beauty education, I wanted to tackle a really tricky one: fragrance.

Most of us have emotional connections to the way products smell and inherently make us feel. Scents are like music; they connect us to our past, remind us of those we love, make us feel a certain type of way and are notes to our lives.

The challenge: they can be extremely toxic.

Why? Fragrances are considered a trade secret so chemicals used to comprise a scent do not need to be disclosed, which makes fragrance an ambiguous word used to categorize dozens/hundreds of chemicals. Natural or synthetic.

On top of that, do you ever see “no phthalates” listed on packages? Well, phthalates are a group of chemicals used to help fragrance last longer. Where there is fragrance, there are often phthalates – on an ingredient list they’re abbreviated as DEP, BBzP, DBP, and DEHP.

The big picture? Both fragrance and phthalates have been linked to cancer, reproductive and hormone disruption, and not to mention, asthma and allergies. Which is why tons of companies have moved toward fragrance-free, or at the very least a fragrance-free option. So if you’re not ready to give up your favorite perfume (albeit suggestion: spray it on your clothes instead of directly onto your skin to limit absorption) try reaching for fragrance-free alternatives to save yourself from using potentially thousands of harmful additional chemicals.