Natural Perfume: What The Word Actually Means
"Natural" has no legal definition in perfumery, and it certainly does not mean gentle. Oakmoss, bergamot and ylang-ylang are all natural, and all three are declarable allergens under UK and EU law.
What you can actually check
None of these words is regulated, so nobody can verify them. Three things sitting right next to them can be verified, though, and between them they cover most of what people are after when they search for one of these terms.
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Certified vegan
No animal-derived ingredients, confirmed by a register such as The Vegan
Society rather than by the brand itself.
Browse 962 perfumes
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Certified cruelty-free
A no-animal-testing policy audited by Leaping Bunny, Cruelty Free
International or PETA.
Browse 3972 perfumes
- Alcohol-free by format Oil and solid perfumes carry no alcohol, because those formats have no alcohol carrier. Nothing to take on trust. Browse 644 perfumes
Natural is not the same as gentle
The IFRA Transparency List covers 3,691 fragrance ingredients, of which 1,021 are naturals. Plenty of those naturals turn up on the list of substances a perfume has to declare on its label under UK and EU rules: oakmoss, bergamot, citral, geraniol, eugenol. Which means a wholly natural perfume can easily end up declaring more allergens than a wholly synthetic one.
None of which is an argument against natural perfumery, which produces some of the most interesting work in the category. It is an argument against reading the word as a safety signal, which is the job it gets given in most marketing and the one job it cannot do.
Why we do not publish a list of natural perfumes
Because we cannot prove one. Naturalness lives in the formula, and brands do not publish formulas. What you get instead is a note list, which is written by a marketing department and reads nothing like a recipe.
We did try. We hold material data for 32,214 of our 32,238 perfumes, and we can resolve each one to the substances its notes are typically built from, which produces a perfectly workable-looking "share of natural materials" score. Then we read the results. A dupe-house clone listing bergamot, neroli and labdanum scored 100%. A Scottish craft indie listing ambergris, musk and orris scored zero. What the number measured was how natural a perfume's notes sound, which is not the same question, so we binned it rather than publish it.
So this page points you at the three things above instead, all of which can be checked. Where a brand's naturalness matters to you, its own ingredient disclosure is what to read. A house that works seriously with naturals will usually spell it out at length, because the materials are expensive and they would rather you knew.
Common questions
Is natural perfume better for sensitive skin?
Not inherently. Several of the most common fragrance allergens named in UK and EU labelling rules are themselves natural: oakmoss, bergamot, citral, geraniol, eugenol, limonene. A natural perfume can carry more of them than a synthetic one does. If fragrance sets your skin off, the step worth taking is a patch test with a dermatologist, who can name the substance causing it. A marketing category cannot.
Does natural mean the same as vegan?
No, and they often pull in opposite directions. Ambergris, beeswax, honey and civet are all natural, and none of them is vegan. Meanwhile most vegan perfume leans hard on synthetics, because synthetics are what replaced the animal materials. A perfume can be either, both or neither.
Are synthetic ingredients a bad sign?
No. Synthetics are the reason modern perfumery exists: they hand perfumers materials nature never made, they behave the same way batch after batch, and they took the place of harvesting animals. Several of the most admired fragrances ever composed are built on them. Treat "all natural" as a stylistic choice, because that is what it is.
What about essential oils?
Essential oils are natural complex substances and the backbone of natural perfumery. They are also, as the name suggests, complex: one oil can carry dozens of constituents, several of them declarable allergens. Natural and simple are not the same idea.