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What's In Your Perfume, Soap or Lotion?

Fragrance Oil Vs. Essential Oil

By Lishone P.Published 2 years ago 4 min read
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The holiday season is approaching and with that comes the onslaught of purchasing perfumes, body washes and good smelling lotions. So what's in those ingredients that give it the smell that you love so much. Is it a fragrance? An essential oil? What? Does it matter? Is it all the same? Does it matter when it comes to your skin?

Well, it is not the same and whether or not it matters is up to you, but there is a difference and that difference determines the scent as well as the effect it has on your skin. For instance, in most perfumes, soaps and lotions, the ingredient that makes it smell good is a fragrance oil. What is a fragrance oil? Fragrance oils are lab grown oils put in everything over the counter from perfumes to soaps. Fragrance oils are artificially composed of harmful chemicals such as carcinogens. While they make that perfume, soap or lotion smell good, they actually can have horrible effects on the skin.

Quick thing to note: The FDA does not require the ingredients used to create a company's trademark 'fragrance', to be listed on the label.

If you look at the ingredients in some products, you'll see that some companies might still market their product as having a "natural fragrance oil" when it is in fact anything but natural. There is nothing natural about fragrance oils. The reasons why companies use fragrance oils as opposed to natural essential oils is because the fragrance oil smells last much longer than natural essential oils, and knowing that people like things to smell good and last a long time smelling good, they create chemical based smells to "ensure" that their products last long, all to the detriment of the customer. So while you love the fact that two years later your perfume or six months later, your soap still smells good, know that it is because of the chemically created fragrance oil that is doing it.

So if your favorite skin care products have mostly fragrance oils, what about the products stating they have essential oils in them? Well, there are some and there are two different types of essential oils. It is vital that if you don't want to have any allergic reactions that you look for the words, 'skin safe essential oils.' There is a very big difference between skin safe and the essential oil used for a diffuser.

So many consumers think that it is all the same and so if they are not paying attention they end up with a product that has diffuser type essential oil in it, because there are some skin care creators who either don't pay attention to what they are buying or don't care because diffuser essential oil is cheaper than skin safe essential oil.

Skin safe essential oils such as the essential oil Tea Tree has been known to be a powerful healing oil. You can apply it to any insect bite, rash, fungus, etc. and in 24 hours it will be almost if not completely gone. Lavender essential oil is known to have relaxing properties, which help you sleep if you struggle with getting to sleep. These essential oils are safe for your skin and safe enough to use in products such as soaps, body butters, body oils. Non-safe essential oils go into products such as diffusers. Make sure that you look for the verbiage that states it is safe enough for the skin. That is going to be key to whether or not you have an allergic reaction to the product.

Some folks are allergic to essential oils and that is usually because that essential oil is not skin safe and is for diffusers. Skin safe essential oils such as the ones from Revive have been tested on all skin types. One thing about essential oils is that they are going to be more expensive than fragrance oils, so that means products using essential oils will be more expensive too.

The reason why so many products with scents are so cheap is because they either have lab based fragrance oils or diffuser essential oils in them. Products with real, skin-safe essential oils are going to be significantly more expensive, so know that you get what you pay for in skin products. Now expensive perfumes will be costly but not necessarily because of the ingredients in them but because of the name brand. It is so important to know what is in anything that is going to touch your skin. Just like you read food ingredients, read skin care ingredients as well. Your skin will depend upon it.

skincare
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About the Creator

Lishone P.

I own a luxury-skincare company called Bruja Luxury. When I'm not creating luxurious body butters, body oils and soaps, I'm traveling.On here, I'll be writing about skincare and my travels.

www.brujaluxury.com

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