41% of Americans use perfume regularly, and the industry is worth billions of dollars. Most perfumes today contain harmful chemicals that are unsafe for our skin and lungs. Fortunately, the 10 non-toxic perfume brands we have selected for this article are an exception! They are making sustainable scents that we can enjoy every day without hurting our health or the planet.
Fragrances have played a role in humans’ lives for millennia. Between 7000 and 4000 BCE, in Mesopotamia, people would burn fragrant resins to bring royals and priests closer to their gods.
During the same period, Egyptians found out how to store fragrances in fats. Thanks to this discovery, they started making fragrant oils and balms that people would use for personal care and in funeral and religious rituals.
The use of perfume was then incorporated into various cultures around the world, including in Ancient China, India and around the Mediterranean. The rise of Christianity brought about a decline in perfume usage in Europe, but the Muslim world kept the tradition alive and helped export it overseas.
In the 16th century, perfumes became extremely popular in France among the upper classes. Then, the industry continued to grow, especially thanks to the invention of the eau de Cologne two centuries later.
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How To Choose Non-Toxic Perfumes
The main issue with perfumes is that the perfume industry operates in an incredibly opaque manner, making it difficult for us to know what they actually formulate their products with.
FDA regulations do not apply to perfumes and fragrances, which means that companies are not required to disclose what their products contain. Perfume formulas are usually proprietary information, so instead of listing all their ingredients, many brands hide some of them behind the word “fragrance”.
Perfumes that contain “fragrance” often include hundreds of ingredients, and many of these ingredients can lead to health complications over time. They are often made with hormone disruptors, carcinogens and other toxic chemicals that are very harmful to human health.
Unfortunately, if a perfume brand decided not to disclose its entire ingredient list, we cannot know whether the product we buy is safe for us. So it is crucial to choose perfumes made by a transparent brand that always discloses all its ingredients.
What’s more, we should buy perfumes formulated with safe ingredients. To do so, always read the ingredient list and check what the ingredients are. If you can't find out what ingredients are used in the perfume, don't buy it.
In general, clean perfume brands make their perfumes with plant-based alcohol bases and essential oils. Avoid perfumes with an ethanol base because ethanol production causes many environmental issues.
Other harmful chemicals to avoid in perfumes are:
- Phthalates
- Synthetic musks, like musk ketone
- Styrene
- Benzaldehyde
- Methylene chloride
- Camphor
- Benzyl acetate
- Ethyl acetate
These are some of the most toxic ingredients you can find in perfumes, but many others are also problematic. So always research the ingredients before buying perfumes, and make sure they are safe.
What makes Perfumes Sustainable?
In addition to choosing non-toxic perfumes, you might want to buy more sustainable options.
Eco-friendly perfumes come from brands that actively work to reduce their environmental footprint throughout every stage of the production process.
These brands prefer to use responsibly-sourced ingredients over raw materials that are usually over-harvested, even if it means using (safe) synthetics. They try to minimize their waste as much as possible and make ethical manufacturing their priority.
If you are looking for sustainable options, also make sure to choose a perfume that comes in a recyclable glass bottle. Some brands even make their bottles from recycled glass, and others offer refillable bottles that you can return afterward. Try to avoid bottles with plastic pumps and cellophane wraps.
Our Top Picks For Non-Toxic, Sustainable Perfumes:
1. Henry Rose
Price: $35-120
Henry Rose has a large collection of eaux de parfum, with lovely fragrances ranging from earthy to spicy to floral scents, some of which won the Allure Best Of Beauty Awards.
It also sells scented candles, skincare, and travel-size perfumes so that you can take your favorite perfume wherever you go.
Henry Rose always discloses all the ingredients its products contain. Its perfumes are completely free of carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, parabens, phthalates, and formaldehyde.
The company is also Leaping Bunny certified, and its collection of fine fragrances is the first to be both EWG verified and Cradle to Cradle certified, which means that it meets the most stringent health and environmental standards.
Henry Rose produces perfume bottles that you can recycle, made from 90% recycled glass. They create caps from sustainably sourced, compostable soy. Not to mention the boxes made from recycled corrugated paper!
Plus, the brand has partnered with the Breast Cancer Prevention Partners to give back part of its proceeds to research and advocacy around harmful substances in personal care products.
2. Sana Jardin Paris
Price: $30-225
Sana Jardin is a socially conscious, luxury fragrance house crafting sustainable eaux de parfum and candles, all with delightful scents. Sana Jardin stands out as a true luxury brand. World-renowned Master Perfumer Carlos Benaim creates its fragrances using only the finest ingredients. T
he brand proudly uses Leaping Bunny approved, clean ingredients and includes at least 15% essential oils in every product. Sana Jardin sources its essential oils by distilling flowers discarded by the perfume industry, turning waste into exquisite fragrances.
We also love this company because it has an alternative business model based on the circular economy that allows women working in the supply chain to become micro-entrepreneurs.
Sana Jardin offers training to these women so that they can develop and sell their own products made by upcycling the waste by-products of perfume production. They keep all the proceeds, so this awesome initiative enables them to earn an income year-round while reusing resources that would have otherwise gone to waste!
Sana Jardin’s perfume bottles are recyclable, and they come with compostable caps and boxes made from upcycled coffee cups.
3. Vyrao
Price: $55-190
Vyrao is a well-being brand on a mission to fuse energetic healing with master perfumery. Its eau de parfum contains a supercharged, ethically sourced Herkimer diamond crystal, which is known for raising and purifying energy.Each of its six fragrances is made to trigger a positive emotion, like for instance, mindfulness, courage, or self-love.
The company’s perfumes are composed of 88% natural ingredients, 80% of which are certified organic.
They are formulated using a mix of essential oils as well as some synthetic chemicals that are completely safe for humans. The perfume base is 100% organic sugar cane alcohol.
Vyrao’s products are also free of harmful chemicals, like parabens and preservatives, and they are 100% vegan and not tested on animals.
Vyrao makes sure to package its fragrances in a sustainable way. Its perfumes come in recyclable glass bottles and FSC-certified recycled paper packaging, and their boxes are made by one of the only certified Carbon Balanced Printers in the United Kingdom.
4. Abbott
Price: $31-88
Abbott is a sustainable perfume brand offering 8 unisex scents, all inspired by an ecological destination. Its eaux de parfum are made to ground you, bring you closer to nature and help you live in the moment.
Depending on the scent you choose, Abbott’s perfumes will take you to wonderful places, like the forest, the beach, the mountains, or even the desert. They can be worn for any occasion, any time of the year.
The label has also worked closely with two of the world’s best noses, Antoine Lie and Steven Claisse, who led the design of Abbott’s signature fragrances.
Abbott formulates its perfumes with the cleanest, sustainably sourced ingredients, all of which are PETA-certified vegan, cruelty-free and disclosed on the website. They are hypoallergenic and completely free of carcinogens, sulfates, phthalates, and parabens.
The brand also packages its products in recyclable glass bottles and boxes. Plus, for every full-size perfume purchased, it donates a portion of all proceeds to a local organization that supports conservation efforts in the United States.
5. Dedcool
Price: $30-144
Dedcool is a vegan fragrance brand creating 100% genderless, non-toxic scents for everyday wear and for the home. It makes all its perfumes with an innovative process that uses no water.
In replacement of water, the company crafts its formulas using a signature blend of 23 certified organic plant extracts and clean, biodegradable ingredients. The plant extracts are added to nourish, soothe and help with their beneficial, anti-inflammatory properties.
Dedcool offers twelve long-lasting scents that you can buy either in a full-size perfume bottle or in a travel-size spray for when you are out and about. That way, you will smell fresh and amazing wherever you go! The fragrances can even be combined if you want a more unique scent.
All the brand’s products are handmade in Los Angeles and produced in small batches. Everything is free of harmful chemicals, like petroleum-based ingredients, toxic preservatives and fillers, and carcinogens.
Dedcool is also a member of 1% For The Planet, and its manufacturing facilities and warehouses are certified carbon neutral.
6. Skylar
Price: $30-90
Skylar is a sustainable perfume brand that produces hypoallergenic, vegan and cruelty-free perfumes, all made in the USA. Its nature-inspired scents smell fresh and dreamy, and you can even mix and match them to create a custom scent just for you!
The company uses an organic sugar cane alcohol base for its perfumes, and it lists all its ingredients on its website. Its fragrances are all free of skin sensitizers, endangered plant species, phthalates, parabens, and more than 1,300 other questionable toxic ingredients.
Safe for sensitive skin, Skylar’s fragrances are also almost entirely made with non-toxic synthetic ingredients as the brand strives to preserve the Earth's natural resources.
The perfume boxes are produced using FSC-certified paper, and both the perfume bottles and caps are 100% recyclable. Skylar even donates a portion of its proceeds to a different charity each month, and so far, it has supported social and environmental organizations like Feeding America and the Surfrider Foundation.
7. Rahua
Price: $28-32
Rahua creates sustainable hair care and body care products with the planet in mind. All its products are made with organic, plant-derived ingredients, including its oil perfume.
Suitable for all genders, the brand’s Palo Santo oil perfume features a sophisticated, sweet and woodsy scent with hints of citrus and gardenia flower. This fresh, uplifting fragrance is made to promote positive thinking & healing, & its aroma is very energizing and helps center the mind.
Rahua’s oil perfume comes in an elegant rollerball bottle and is completely non-toxic and vegan, formulated with the highest quality pure plant essential oils.
It also contains handmade “symbiotic®” ingredients, meaning that they are grown in undisturbed areas in the Amazon rainforest, harvested and prepared using indigenous knowledge by local people, and purchased at a price that helps to sustain these traditions, empower the indigenous people, and grow the local economy.
Rahua’s labs and manufacturing facilities are USDA-certified organic, and the company donates part of the proceeds from some of its collections to support conservation efforts. The brand even won the Cosmetic Executive Women Beauty Awards in 2020!
8. By Rosie Jane
Price: $29-80
By Rosie Jane is an Australian clean beauty brand with a great selection of perfumes that are all sustainably made.
From sweet scents to floral and fruity fragrances, the company’s perfumes are all formulated with 100% safe, non-toxic and responsibly sourced ingredients.
By Rosie Jane is extremely transparent about all the ingredients it uses for each of its perfumes.
Its eau de parfum is made with organic cane sugar alcohol, and its perfume oils contain organic fractionated coconut oil.
The brand is also one of the only perfume brands that are climate-neutral certified, and all its products are 100% vegan and certified by Leaping Bunny.
Everything By Rosie Jane sells is handmade in Los Angeles, and sent in 100% recyclable packaging made using wind power, FSC-certified paper and vegetable-based inks.
9. Moodeaux
Price: $32-98
MOODEAUX is a black-owned fragrance label that crafts perfume oils combining clean, luxury fragrances with skincare benefits. Its sophisticated signature scent, the SuperCharged SkinScent, comes in a travel spray pen, which you can take everywhere with you.This cruelty-free formula contains a concentration of over 30% fragrance oil. It leaves out the typical alcohol, water and dyes we can find in most perfumes, and instead, uses botanical ingredients that help lock in moisture, like grape seed, fractionated coconut, apricot, and meadowfoam seed oils.
MOODEAUX’s scent is unlike anything you have smelled before! This warm mix of floral-citrus-woodsy accords even won the 2022 Melanin Awards for being the best perfume oil. Of course, it is completely free of endocrine disruptors and other harmful chemicals.
The brand created Black In Fragrance, a movement building an ecosystem of support and help for Black perfumers and black-owned fragrance brands. MOODEAUX also donates 50% of the revenue from each sale of its limited edition merch directly to Black creatives.
Plus, the company sends its products in biodegradable mailers and allows you to send back your empty travel pens.
10. Leahlani
Price: $34-72
Leahlani is a Hawaii-based artisanal skincare brand selling several perfumes, all featuring tropical fragrances that evoke the lush nature of the islands. They are all composed by hand and made in small batches with organic, wildcrafted ingredients.
The company has two amazing perfume oils: one with notes of exotic vanilla and sweet coconut, and another featuring a feminine floral blend. Both are light and delicate, not overpowering, and they are perfect for everyday use!
Leahlani also makes two aromatherapy essences that, again, will transport you to a tropical island. With their fruity and floral scents, they can be used as a regular perfume or an aromatherapy treatment to promote grounding feelings of harmony and comfort.
The brand strives to minimize its environmental footprint, so it has a strict low-waste policy on the boxes and packing materials it receives, and it reuses most of them to ship out wholesale orders. Leahlani also makes sure to ship its products in recyclable packaging, and its headquarters in Kaua’i are 100% solar-powered.
About the Author:
Eva Astoul is a French freelance writer, specializing in content related to sustainability, simple living, and a growth-focused healthy lifestyle. She runs her own blog, Green With Less, to inspire people to live a more minimalist and sustainable life.
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