Does fragrance-free mean unscented?

Not necessarily. A product can carry no added fragrance blend and still smell of the oils and extracts in it. Our cream foundation smells faintly of roses because it contains palmarosa oil, which is printed on the label.

How do I avoid undisclosed fragrance?

Look for a list where every scent-carrying ingredient is named individually. If the word fragrance or parfum appears, the components behind it are not disclosed.

What is the fragrance loophole?

Reading the Label · ingredientlogic Editorial · 2 min read

The short answer

The fragrance loophole is a US labeling rule that lets a manufacturer print the single word fragrance, or parfum, in place of every component of a scent blend, because the blend is treated as a trade secret. One line can therefore stand in for a long list of ingredients a reader can never look up.

US labeling rules treat a fragrance blend as a trade secret. That means a manufacturer can list the single word 'fragrance' — or 'parfum' — in place of every component of the scent, however long that list actually is.

The practical result is that the one line on a label most likely to trigger a reaction is also the one line you cannot look up. For someone tracking down what made their skin react, it is a dead end.

Our position is narrow and checkable: any scent in a ingredientlogic product comes from an ingredient we name in the list. The Cream Foundation smells faintly of roses because it contains palmarosa oil, and palmarosa oil is printed on the label.

In our formulas

Generated from our published formula lists. Palmarosa Oil / Vanilla, product by product.

Contains it