In recent years, more and more consumers have been turning to natural cosmetic products, and brands have fully understood this.
Clean beauty is a movement in the cosmetic industry towards creating natural products that are healthier for the skin and less harmful to the environment. And obviously, perfumery is not left behind!
But should you opt for natural rather than synthetic perfumes? We explain the differences between them in this article.
What is a natural perfume?
Natural Perfume: Definition
As its name suggests, a "natural" perfume is mostly - if not entirely - composed of natural ingredients, whether of plant or animal origin. These are therefore ingredients derived directly from nature, such as flowers, honey, fruits, spices…
The base for these raw materials is generally alcohol. In the composition of a so-called natural perfume, the alcohol is also natural and derived from the fermentation of cereals, beetroot, or sugarcane.
Some committed brands choose to go even further by using certified organic raw materials and alcohol, as is the case with Nolença, for example.
Synthetic perfume: what are we talking about?
A synthetic perfume, on the contrary, is composed of synthetic molecules. The raw material comes from petroleum via a number of chemical reactions that allow for the creation of an odorant molecule that is infinitely reproducible.
The first synthetic perfume was created in 1921: Chanel's famous No. 5.
The synthesis of scents is widely used in perfumery, especially when it's impossible to extract the scent of flowers (such as for lily of the valley or lily, for example) or to create scents that don't exist in nature (the "clean" smell of some fabric softeners, for instance!).
To simplify: the rose scent of a perfume can be extracted directly from a rose or from a petroleum-derived molecule created in a laboratory to smell like a rose. In both cases, you can create a perfume with it; both perfumes will smell of rose, but the scent will not be exactly identical.
What are the differences between natural and synthetic perfumes?
Synthetic vs Natural: a question of budget?
Natural ingredients are often more expensive than petrochemically derived ingredients. Indeed, unlike synthetic ingredients, natural products need to be grown, the soil maintained, protected from bad weather and pests, people employed for harvesting, sorting, extraction, and transport of the product…
All of this can incur significant costs, especially since some ingredients cannot grow just anywhere.
When chemistry revolutionizes creativity...
With these ingredients, the perfumer's palette is more limited. To obtain them, one also depends on climatic hazards, which can affect the quality of the harvest, yields, and thus the cost. Extraction methods can also be more costly, depending on the fragility of the ingredients to be transformed.
Synthetic perfume also allows perfumers to create new scents or to reproduce fragrances present in nature but difficult to obtain naturally. This technique is often cheaper than extracting natural molecules.
The big advantage of synthetic molecules is the variety of scents: up to 4,000 fragrances are available, whereas a perfumer only has 400 to create a natural perfume.
The health risks of synthetic perfume
Compared to natural perfumes, synthetic perfumes are often considered "worse for the environment and health." This comes from the chemical particles used, which can affect the health of those who wear them. The chemical substances used increase the risk of skin reactions and may contain endocrine disruptors that are not recommended for health.
Natural perfume, derived from mostly organic ingredients, poses fewer risks. If stored correctly, they can last longer.
Also note: perfumes evolve over time in contact with your skin. This is even more true with natural perfumes, which are more "alive" than synthetic ones. Some natural perfumes last a little less long on the skin, but they are also less overpowering, more subtle.
One might have the impression that a natural perfume is "truer" and more authentic, because our brain is capable of understanding it if it has already encountered these scents in nature. This is not the case for a synthetic perfume, for which it is more difficult to decode ingredients that can be pure human inventions.
However, beware: our brain is now very accustomed to artificial scents that surround us everywhere we go! Think of the famous "clean" smell we mentioned earlier... You might enjoy it as much as a natural scent. And if we made you smell a natural rose and a synthetic rose, there's no guarantee you would choose the natural rose perfume for your everyday use.
Perfume remains, above all, a matter of personal taste and values: the technical differences between natural and synthetic perfumes will certainly not be your only selection criterion.
What are the advantages of natural perfumes?
What ingredients are found in a natural perfume?
To obtain a perfume based on natural ingredients, the perfumer draws from nature to find their raw materials: plants, flowers, animal parts (like musk). The different scents are obtained by several methods:
- Distillation: steam is used to transform plants into essential oil.
- Solvent extraction: components are steeped in a solvent that is heated to high temperatures to obtain a concrete, which is then mixed with alcohol to create an absolute.
- Expression: this method applies only to citrus fruits – it involves extracting their juice by pressing.
But why opt for ingredients of natural origin if they are more expensive?
One of the main arguments is to avoid endocrine disruptors, present in petrochemical products such as phthalates, UV filters, BHT, and other preservatives generally found in perfumes.
With a natural perfume, these harmful ingredients are avoided as much as possible.
Is natural perfume better for the environment?
At a glance at the composition, it is clear that this type of perfume has less impact on the environment than synthetic fragrances. Naturally, the more chemical and environmentally harmful substances are reduced, the greater the chance of having a healthy and ethical product.
The manufacturing processes are more responsible as they involve fewer - if any - substances derived from petrochemicals. This results in a less polluting process. Moreover, natural perfumes are generally manufactured in France or Europe to limit the impact of transport.
Some also work on responsible sourcing of raw materials: brands often choose fair trade to preserve plantations and ensure the sustainability of producers, as well as organic farming to avoid any chemical or harmful elements, both for health and the environment.
This new perfumery is often vegan and commits to not testing its products on animals, guaranteeing a "cruelty-free" product.
It finds ways to replace animal materials like musk with plant or mineral alternatives, such as amber here. The latter is an excellent alternative to musk and fulfills the same function, that of fixing the scent.
Many brands also choose organic when they commit to the natural approach and consider the overall impact of their products on nature.
For example, at Nolença, we use organic wheat alcohol for our spray perfumes, but we have also created alcohol-free solid perfumes. We have also considered the overall impact by creating refills, which help reduce the ecological impact of our products.
A natural perfume for scents closer to nature
The advantage of using products directly from nature is that their scent is considered more authentic.
Extraction methods preserve the olfactory richness of plants and offer a refined version of their perfume.
Softer, the perfume evolves differently on the skin and offers a more natural experience, closer to what you might find in nature.
Depending on the extraction method, the harvest location, and many other environmental factors, the perfume changes and diversifies. It is thus less standardized than a synthetic fragrance.
What are the limitations of natural perfumes?
Like all materials derived from our planet, the ingredients used in perfumery are not inexhaustible. It is important to be mindful of the use of different resources to avoid depleting and endangering them.
This is also one of the primary reasons that pushed perfumers to develop synthetic fragrances: to compensate for the lack of availability of certain scents – either due to their rarity or their difficulty in being extracted.
This therefore explains the often higher cost of natural perfumes. On the one hand, due to the resources themselves, which are not limitless, and on the other hand, to adequately compensate producers and farmers.
Finally, natural perfumes have a less powerful hold than their chemical counterparts. They are generally more fragile and fade more easily. Nevertheless, the sillage evolves more, allowing you to discover the full potential of your fragrance.
If you want to find a natural perfume that suits you, we advise you to pay attention to greenwashing and sometimes abusive "natural" labeling.
A formulation based on vegetable alcohol, the mention "Grasse perfume" or even "vegan formula" in no way guarantees the use of natural raw materials. It's up to you to decide where to draw the line!
How to choose a natural perfume?
To ensure the concentration of natural ingredients in your bottle, the first thing to do is to read the composition. In the French market, manufacturers are required to provide a transparent list of what constitutes their creations.
You can also refer to the labels and certifications the brand adheres to. For example, Nolença states that its perfumes are composed of certified organic wheat alcohol.
The FSC label also appears on our products to inform you that our packaging is made from recyclable cardboard, sourced from sustainably managed forests. And the same applies to our bottles, which can be recycled and reused.
We also display the Made in France label, which assures you that the product you hold is French, manufactured and packaged in France, in Grasse.
Clean beauty in the spotlight
Choosing a natural perfume means opting for more ethical consumption. It's not only a gesture for the planet but also supporting farmers who produce quality ingredients every day under the best possible conditions. But above all, it's a gesture for yourself. It's preserving your health while enjoying quality products to scent your daily life.
