Perfume is made from several natural ingredients, including essential oils, woods, citrus fruits, flowers, botanicals, dyes, herbs, and numerous synthetic chemicals. Perfume, in terms of chemical composition, is usually made from a combination of over twenty different chemical ingredients, although this number changes with the purpose of the fragrance. Organic perfumes are produced from natural materials such as plant extracts, flowers, fruits, bark, leaves, seeds, roots, seeds, peel, wood, and various minerals.
The perfume industry in Europe is witnessing the R&D of new technologies to produce beautiful, true-to-nature fragrances. In June 2021, U.K.-based CPL Aromas launched AromaSpace, a technology that combines headspace analysis with perfumers’ creativity and expertise.
The main concern of perfume manufacturers is that perfume and fragrances can cause allergic reactions. A major source of this occurs when fragrance causes irritation of the nasal passage and throat, leading to irritated or watery eyes and nose. This is particularly common in children, who may experience red eyes, sneezing, and coughing after wearing a strong fragrance. In adults, excessive exposure to perfume and fragrances can cause dermatitis, a rash, itching, or watering of the skin, which may produce a stinging sensation. Irritated skin can also produce a condition called stasis, in which the sweat ducts become very sensitive, causing perspiration to be turned into icterus.
Because of these serious health problems, many people are replacing traditional perfumes and fragrances with more natural alternatives, such as natural essential oils, essential plant extracts, and herbal scents. Natural alternatives to commercial perfumes and fragrances may be safer for people's overall health, especially if the fragrance is being used on someone who has a medical condition. For example, a person could choose to wear a fragrance-free Cologne instead of a musk scent for people who suffer from a lung condition, or a woman could wear a men's Cologne instead of a feminine fragrance for people who are on blood-thinning medications. Natural scents do not contain synthetic chemicals that may cause undesirable reactions.