Why I Don’t Use Fragrance Oils in My Skincare and Hair Care Products
Pumpkin, whipped cream, and pie crust
Every October the pumpkin spice ads arrive, and lately they’ve reached beard care. The one that caught my eye described a beard oil as smelling like pumpkin, whipped cream, and pie crust.
It’s a good description. I can nearly smell it. That’s what a good scent description does: it gets you imagining the smell before you’ve smelled anything. But a description of how something smells doesn’t tell you what’s in the bottle. Two oils can suggest the same thing while starting with very different materials.
I make a pumpkin spice scent too: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice, with birch and sandalwood to give it a hint of fallen leaves and smoke. I’ve spent years asking what I want something to smell like, followed by the question that determines how I make it: what will I use to get there?
What “whipped cream” is made of
Consider the palette of aroma materials that can be used to construct just the “whipped cream” part:
Delta-decalactone. Delta-dodecalactone. Delta-octalactone. Gamma-undecalactone. Vanillin. Ethyl vanillin. Ethyl maltol. Maltol. Heliotropin (piperonal). Coumarin. Acetoin. Diacetyl. Methyl cyclopentenolone. Benzaldehyde.
Those are examples of possible building blocks, rather than a verified ingredient list for the advertised product. An individual accord might use a selection of them or different materials altogether. Some of these compounds also occur in nature; their names alone don’t establish their source or safety.
A beard oil maker can buy a fragrance already blended and add it to a carrier base. But buying a premixed fragrance doesn’t transfer responsibility for the finished product to the supplier.
As a manufacturer, my responsibility to you includes understanding the materials behind that scent: what they contain, their hazards and limitations, and whether they’re suitable for the intended use. Smelling good is only one requirement.
There are meaningful hazards to understand. Diacetyl, for example, has a documented history of serious lung injury from occupational inhalation exposure. That doesn’t establish its presence in the advertised oil, but it illustrates why recognizing a pleasant aroma is no substitute for understanding a material. NIOSH: flavorings and lung disease
I don’t want to immerse myself in that list of chemicals, and I wouldn’t feel good about handing it to you to put on your body. That’s a boundary I’ve chosen for what I make.
What I start with instead
Earl Grey gives me a chance to show more of the work, because I can tell you the story of every aromatic material in it.
Compare that list above with the starting materials for my Earl Grey Beard Oil:
Steeped black tea. Distilled bergamot peel. Steam-distilled whole lavender plant.
The whole lavender plant matters. I use its stems and leaves along with the flowers to bring woody, herbal aromas into the scent.
There’s a personal reason I wanted that scent in a bottle. I wrote about Aunt Hazel’s kitchen and the memory behind Earl Grey in Why Smells Bring Back the Days We Miss. The same scent is also available in Earl Grey Beard Balm.
When a purchased essential oil won’t give me the character I’m looking for, I make an extract myself. That can mean cold-steeping coffee, steaming West Indies bay leaves, or heating spices in oil. The method depends on the material and what I’m trying to capture.
Knowing the plant is only the beginning. Certain bergamot oils contain furocoumarins that can cause phototoxic reactions when treated skin is exposed to sunlight. I use furocoumarin-free bergamot, designated FCF. IFRA: furocoumarins and phototoxicity
Familiar names don’t make these materials automatically safe. I’ve studied this craft, and I account for their limitations when I formulate.
Scent load, safety margins, and staying power
The amount of aromatic material in a finished product is its scent load. I control that concentration and leave a safety margin below the applicable maximums. Wanting a stronger scent isn’t a reason to use up that margin.
IFRA identifies Category 5B as suitable for leave-on beard oils and balms. A fragrance’s allowance for candles or rinse-off soap doesn’t establish its suitability at the same concentration in beard oil. The intended application matters, and other skincare and hair care products require assessment under their appropriate categories. IFRA: understanding the Standards
Essential oils have restrictions too. Different oils can contribute the same restricted constituent, so their combined contribution matters when assessing the finished blend. IFRA: using the Standards
Those limits help determine how strong I make a scent when you first apply it. Concentration also influences its sillage, the scent trail it leaves around you. The materials themselves affect how the scent develops and how long it remains noticeable.
Some of my scents are inherently stronger or longer-lasting than others. I won’t push them beyond my working safety margin to make them perform alike.
In my experience, the scents I extract in-house often remain noticeable for hours beyond those I make with purchased, distilled essential oils. I can describe that difference from working with them; I haven’t established exactly why it happens.
Scent strength also doesn’t tell you whether a product will suit your skin. Can Beard Oil Cause Breakouts? covers the distinction between pore-clogging potential and irritation, including reactions to fragrance.
Why my label says Parfum
Parfum means perfume or fragrance. As a cosmetic ingredient term, it identifies the materials used to scent a product; it does not specify their origin. At Beardsman, I use Fragrance (Parfum) as a collective declaration for my blended essential oils and aromatic plant derivatives, including botanical extracts I make myself. Partly, it saves space on a small label. Partly, it protects the exact proportions of the scent blends I’ve developed.
I list the named essential oils and extracts for Earl Grey, Lavender, and Seasonal Fall in the Ingredients Glossary’s product-by-product scent breakdowns. That section identifies the products it currently covers; it is not yet a complete directory for the range. I share the materials without publishing my exact proportions. If your product is not listed, ask me about its blend.
The declaration itself doesn’t distinguish a botanical blend from a synthetic one. Fragrance ingredients can be natural, synthetic, or a combination. A customer needs more information to understand the maker’s approach. FDA: fragrances in cosmetics
These are fair questions to ask anyone making your skincare or hair care products, including me:
- What is the scent made from, and what can you tell me about it?
- Is it suitable for this application, including whether the product is rinsed off or left on?
- Do you understand the applicable limits for the finished blend?
- How do you handle material-specific concerns, such as phototoxicity?
- Will you tell me what you don’t know?
Those are questions a manufacturer should be prepared to answer. An attractive bottle doesn’t answer them.
My ingredient list is curated
I look for purity, virgin oils, organic growing practices, and fair trade sourcing wherever I can. I choose suppliers who are rigorous about bringing in documented materials with relevant industry credentials.
Depending on the ingredient, those can include organic certification, Fair Trade USA, Fair for Life, Kosher certification, Non-GMO Project verification, COSMOS certification, or RSPO certification for palm-derived materials.
Different credentials apply to different materials. An oil might be certified organic and fair trade, while another ingredient has a different set of supporting documents. No single ingredient is expected to carry every credential on that list, and an ingredient’s certification doesn’t automatically certify my finished product.
My suppliers also provide Certificates of Analysis for the specific batches I receive. These report specifications and batch results, giving me another way to assess what I’m buying beyond the product description.
This is an opportunity to spend more on better materials and support the people producing them. Giving you a product made with the best ingredients I can source is rewarding to me. It makes your trust feel earned. When you buy something I’ve made, I want to be confident I’ve given you the best I can.
That same attention applies to the carrier blend beneath the scent. You Don’t Need Beard Oil explains how I approached the blend’s feel, lubrication, and behavior on hair.
Where I draw the line: skin vs. space
This isn’t me climbing onto a high horse because I choose plant ingredients. I’m explaining the decisions behind my formulas. The application matters, too.
For candles, I will use fragrance oils developed for that purpose. Heat can change the character of botanical aromatic materials, and some perform poorly in wax. Candle formulation requires its own material selection and testing.
The candle scents will have their own lineup. A premixed fragrance oil won’t reproduce my hand-blended essential oils and botanical extracts exactly, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise.
That gives both of us room to explore something different: warm tobacco, vanilla and spice; worn leather; dark woods and oud; and brighter, sweeter scents with a sophisticated cologne character. Different possibilities for what you’d like your space to smell like, beyond what you’d choose to wear.
For my skincare and hair care products, I choose essential oils and botanical extracts for scent. That remains my preference for the aromatic materials in those formulas.
Water, preservation, and the shower climate
A large portion of my hair care and skincare range is anhydrous, meaning the products contain no water. My beard oils and balms are examples. Their low available moisture makes microbial growth less likely, so their preservation needs differ from those of a water-based product. Clean manufacturing, suitable packaging, and keeping water out during use still matter. FDA: microbiological safety and cosmetics
My Peppermint Tea Tree Beard Conditioner is different. It’s a water-based emulsion used in a warm, damp shower, where water can also enter the package during use. It needs an effective preservation system suited to its formula, packaging, and the conditions it will encounter. European Commission: preservatives in cosmetics (PDF)
Read its label and you’ll find long, chemical-sounding names. Those ingredients have specific jobs. Some condition the hair, some help maintain the emulsion, and others protect against microbial growth. I chose them deliberately.
An inadequately protected water-based cosmetic can support bacteria, mold, and yeast. Leaving out necessary preservation removes protection the customer needs. European Commission: the role of preservatives
The same judgment that leads me to select botanical materials for a scent leads me to select an appropriate preservative for a conditioner. Everything I make involves chemistry. My responsibility is to understand the ingredients and use them properly.
For more on reading a cleanser’s ingredients, see Beard Wash vs. Shampoo. For where each product fits in a routine, Beard Oil, Balm, Wash & Conditioner: Which Do You Actually Need? explains their different jobs.
I work with these materials before you wear them
I’m particular about the quality of both my aromatic ingredients and my carrier oils. That’s partly selfish. I spend hours handling these materials and breathing their aromas while I work. My exposure starts long before you open a bottle.
I feel more comfortable working with materials that began as plants, growing in soil with nutrients, water, and sunlight. I choose those over petroleum-derived aromatic ingredients and scents constructed through complex, multistep chemical engineering.
Plant origin doesn’t excuse me from understanding the chemistry or respecting its limits. It matters to me personally, and it shapes what I’m willing to make and sell.
Knowing where the materials came from is part of the job. Understanding their limitations, controlling concentrations, and leaving a safety margin is the rest.
That’s the work behind the word Parfum on my label.
You can explore those scent blends in the Beard Oil collection, starting with Earl Grey, Bay Rum, or Seasonal Fall.