Perfumes and hormones

Did you wear perfume today?

Millions of women around the world use perfume everyday, the once occasional luxury is now a daily thing but is this wise?

What is in your perfume?

There is a growing body of evidence that perfumes actually have more than the label indicates and it’s not good. So this is where reading between the lines comes in.

Do you know that in a number of perfumes there can be synthetic chemicals which some believe are endocrine (hormone) disruptors, these are called phthalates. [1]

Perfume or fragrance on a label can hide many other ingredients which are rarely listed! What you are using on your skin or spraying on your body is somewhat of a mystery.

CTV in Canada covered the perfume issue, with an interesting film piece on many well known perfumes. Learn what is in perfume in this CTV news video.

Hormone disruption is a serious issue.

You need hormones to regulate many processes in your body and as many menopausal women will say, having the hormones messed with is not a joyful experience. Yet you might be (unknowingly) using perfumed personal care products that contain ingredients which can upset your body’s delicate functioning.

I stopped wearing perfume some ten years ago after I found out that phthalates were very often found in perfumes. [2] Phthalates are widely thought to be endocrine disruptors and contribute to reproductive issues. [3]

The tip is to avoid products that say ‘parfum’ or ‘fragrance’.

TOP TIP: Read your labels!

Rick Smith, co-author of Slow Death By Rubber Duck says fragrance can be a hide-all word.

If your perfume has ‘fragrance‘ or ‘parfum‘ listed on the label that can indicate that phthalates are present, but seeing as phthalates are not listed on labels your guess is as good as mine as to whether there are phthalates present or not.

Read Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie’s excellent book “Slow Death By Rubber Duck” there is lots about phthalates in the book!

That means that a vast majority of perfumes are out unless they just use essential oils.

There are a some perfumes on the market that come without the added synthetic phthalates! These companies simply use organic essential oils and they smell beautiful.