- Perfume from brands like Hermetica and Ellis Brooklyn contain naturally sourced ingredients and are free of all ‘nasties’
- Transparency is also key for these brands, as thanks to industry regulations around trade secrets, fragrance ingredients are rarely spelt out
"Clean beauty" is big business. More people than ever before are searching for sustainable goods when they shop, in everything from fashion to food.
We've seen, for example, the rise of Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle brand Goop , gua sha (or jade rollers) and cult beauty brands such as Drunk Elephant and Vintner's Daughter " all which promote a "cleaner" way of living.
This year, global market research firm Mintel found that 57 per cent of shoppers will buy or boycott a brand for its ethical values. This figure is up 20 per cent from the year before.
Now, the fragrance industry is going green too, thanks to brands such as Ellis Brooklyn, French luxury fragrance line Hermetica and actor Michelle Pfeiffer's new clean fragrance line, Henry Rose.
The term "clean beauty" can be tricky to explain. "Natural", for instance, doesn't necessarily mean "cruelty-free", and "vegan" doesn't always mean it is sustainably sourced. The general consensus, however, is that clean beauty products don't contain chemicals such as parabens and sulphates, and are ethically and sustainably produced in a transparent way.
The perfume industry, however, does not lend itself to transparency when it comes to the ingredients used.
Fragrance ingredients aren't often spelt out, thanks to industry regulations around keeping trade secrets. Nor, it's argued, is everything natural good for you (arsenic, anyone?) nor everything chemical or synthetic bad.
This is a particularly nuanced idea when it comes to fragrance, which relies on all sorts of chemical symbiosis, and the complexity is something Bee Shapiro, a New York Times beauty writer who founded clean fragrance brand Ellis Brooklyn in 2015 (named for her eldest daughter Ellis), knows well.
"We were so early to clean fragrance that it was so, so difficult in the beginning," she says of her brand, which is vegan, sustainably sourced and cruelty-free.
"Historically, fragrance was this very opaque thing. It was about the mystery, which I understand the appeal of. But I don't think people know that many (natural ingredients) are in fact highly regulated and should be very limited in use, like coumarin and oakmoss. And there are also synthetics that should be tested more thoroughly as they can be irritants and can also reside in our system for a long time.
"The lines are really not about natural (versus) non natural, but safe (versus) not safe. We are really about safety first because, when I started the line, I was pregnant and I couldn't product test certain formulas. That's really the DNA of how we approach 'clean'," she says.
While difficult to entirely pin down, clean fragrance is often touted as being free from "nasties" and formulated so as to not irritate the skin.
The big "no no" is a group of synthetic chemicals called phthalates which, as Dr Michele Squire " a PhD-qualified scientist and skincare science researcher " says have been found by some studies to mimic hormones. This is a cause for concern for women of childbearing age, pregnant women, infants and adolescents.
Some phthalates, however, have been banned out of caution rather than real risk. As Squire points out, plenty of other studies have "failed to establish a health risk to humans from the use of DEP (Diethyl Phthalate)-containing fragranced products, when applied at normal usage levels."
Transparency and sustainability is at the heart of luxury French clean, alcohol-free perfume brand Hermetica, which launched in 2018. Co-founder John Molloy says the brand wanted to "renew the idea of fragrance making".
"Giving birth and character to a perfume capable of bringing intensity during the day, without containing any kind of chemical substances used for conservation, stability or any additives known for having consequences on people's health, was definitely a breakthrough," he says.
Hermetica fragrances, housed in chic (and refillable) forest green tubes made from recycled glass and sand, contain up to 50 per cent of ingredients from a renewable origin. For example, its Jade888 scent " the brand's bestseller for the Asian market " was created from discarded orange peel. For Molloy, this an important facet to the brand's "clean fragrance" credentials.
"This is another meaning of being clean: giving a new life to what was considered a waste."
Four clean fragrance scents worth trying
Hermetica
Co-founder John Molloy defines clean beauty as "clear, safe, respectful, sustainable, yet desirable and sensory. A product you can trust. It's a movement, a global concern, not a trend." The brand is made up of four collections of floral, woody, green and oriental notes, plus Source1, a fresh fragrance found in all 12 scents.
Pick: Jade888 (US$195). It has notes of green musk, ginger, pear and lily of the valley, and is soft yet spicy.
From: hermetic.com and agencedeparfum.com
Ellis Brooklyn
Bee Shapiro considers every detail of her range of fine fragrances, body lotions and home fragrances. Where possible, she ships carbon-neutral and offsets her carbon footprint with annual donations to the Carbon Fund, a NGO to which companies can give money to invest in environmental projects.
For Shapiro, true luxury is something thoughtful.
"Luxury should make you feel something. It's not just a functional thing, but an experience that you go through with the product (and) the brand. It's adding beauty to the world. For me, beauty should be through and through " the product and the life cycle of all the beautiful natural ingredients we use as well," she says.
Pick: Myth (US$100). With top notes of bergamot and cassis, a heart of tiger orchid and jasmine petals and a dry-off of patchouli and white cedarwood, this scent is warm and sensual.
From: ellisbrooklyn.com
Henry Rose
It took Hollywood megastar Michelle Pfeiffer 10 years to launch Henry Rose, a range of fine, transparent fragrances. Her scents list all of the ingredients used, both synthetics and plant-based oils.
Pick: Fog (US$120). The inspiration for this fresh and uplifting scent (with notes of vetiver wood and musk), Pfeiffer told US Elle magazine, is San Francisco in the summer.
From: henryrose.com
Heartwood
Australian natural perfume company Heartwood allows customers to personalise their own scent. It was founded by Alex Wilson as a way to use the Indian sandalwood her family grows sustainably in the north of Australia.
"We wanted to build an experiential brand with sustainably sourced, authentic Indian sandalwood at the heart " bringing the ancient knowledge and rituals to a modern audience," she says.
Asian interest in luxury fragrances growing, niche perfumer says
She says customers are responding to the personalised perfume offering.
"Like many bespoke services, the 'Make Your Own Perfume' experience helps customers feel emotionally invested in the perfume, because they've been so heavily involved in creating it. And with so much awareness now around the toxins in beauty, customers love the transparency we provide."
Pick: DIY perfume (US$143).
From: heartwoodco.com.au
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