Most perfume fragrances are synthetic and often made from toxic substances derived from rough oil. There are more earth friendly alternatives and it’s simple to compose your own natural perfume too. Personally, we love the aroma of a good perfume but sometimes we get addicted to such compositions which trigger a very adverse physical reaction.

The first completely synthetic perfume was released on the market in the 1920’s – it was Chanel No.5. Its success heralded the dawn of a new era in the perfume industry and most major labels abandoned more traditional and natural fragrance ingredients for the synthetics.

Many perfumes are a mixture of poisons. While labeling regulations may require manufacturers to list ingredients, that requirement goes as far as the term “fragrance”. In many countries, manufacturers are permitted not to specify what the fragrance is made up of as it’s a business secret. And that’s where the really nasty stuff lurks.

A fragrance may be made up of dozens, sometimes over hundred different chemicals – and according to a National Academy of Sciences study from a couple of decades ago; up to 95% of these fragrance chemicals are petrochemicals derived from crude oil.

So there is crude oil factor which has major impact on the environment; but the petrochemicals the oil is transformed into used by the fragrance industry are even more frightening; particularly the phthalates. Many have been shown in studies to cause serious health problems, mutations and death in animals.

What we apply to our skins is our personal choice but the wider environmental issue comes into play when you consider what happens with these products. Most of them are discharged into aquatic environments which include our streams, rivers and other waterways.