Non-Toxic Perfume: What UK Labelling Actually Tells You
"Non-toxic" is a marketing word rather than a regulatory category. We are not a health authority and we make no safety claims in either direction. What we can do is show you what the label is required to tell you.
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
What the label is required to tell you
Perfume sold in the UK falls under cosmetics regulation, which requires a full ingredient list plus the separate declaration of 26 named fragrance allergens once they pass a concentration threshold. That is a labelling rule and nothing more. It does not rank anything, and a name appearing on it tells you nothing about whether you in particular will react.
We work out the likely declarable allergens for a fragrance from the materials behind its notes, and show them on that perfume's own page. What you are reading there is a likelihood, not the bottle in your hand, and we say as much on the page.
We are not a health authority and we give no medical guidance in either direction. Where a fragrance has caused you a reaction, that is a conversation for a GP or a dermatologist, who can patch-test properly and tell you something we never could.
How to read a perfume label
Three things are worth knowing once you turn the box over.
- "Parfum" or "fragrance" is one word for many substances. A fragrance compound can contain dozens of materials, and they are permitted to sit behind that single term to protect the formula.
- The named allergens come after it. Where one of the 26 named fragrance allergens passes its concentration threshold, it must be listed separately - which is why you see "limonene", "linalool" or "coumarin" spelled out at the end of an ingredient list.
- A name on that list is not a warning. It is a labelling requirement, so that somebody who already knows they react to a specific substance can find it. It says nothing about anyone else.
On each perfume page we show the allergens that the materials behind its notes commonly carry. We derive that rather than reading it off the bottle, we say so on the page, and the list it produces is partial by nature.
Common questions
Is there such a thing as a non-toxic perfume?
Not as a regulated category. Every perfume sold legally in the UK has to meet the same cosmetics safety regulation, so there is no rule under which "non-toxic" separates one bottle from the next.
What are the 26 allergens on the label?
A list of fragrance substances that must be named individually on the ingredient list once they exceed a set concentration. Many of them are natural: oakmoss, citral, geraniol, eugenol, limonene. The rule exists so that somebody with a known sensitivity can find their substance. It does not rank anything by risk.
I get headaches from perfume. What should I look for?
That one is for a GP or a dermatologist rather than for us. They can patch-test and name the substance responsible. We can tell you which allergens a fragrance's materials commonly carry, which becomes useful once you know what you are avoiding, but we cannot tell you what is causing a symptom.
Does alcohol-free mean fewer irritants?
It means no alcohol carrier, which is a formulation fact we can verify from the format alone. Whether that matters for you is a separate question and not one we are qualified to answer. The oil and solid perfumes are listed above if the format is what you are after.