Perfumes & body mists – INCI ingredients and fragrance allergens

Perfumes and body mists are leave-on products sprayed onto skin, clothing or hair to give a scent. Most are solutions of fragrance in denatured alcohol with some water; body mists usually contain a lower share of fragrance and more water. Names such as eau de parfum or eau de toilette are trade conventions rather than legal categories, and the label does not state the fragrance concentration.

A typical label is short: ALCOHOL DENAT. (ethanol made undrinkable with a denaturant), AQUA, PARFUM, then a series of fragrance allergens such as LINALOOL, LIMONENE, CITRONELLOL, GERANIOL or COUMARIN. Some formulas add a UV absorber like BENZOPHENONE-3 or ETHYLHEXYL METHOXYCINNAMATE to protect the liquid from light, an antioxidant such as BHT, and colourants shown as CI numbers.

PARFUM covers the whole fragrance composition, which may consist of dozens of raw materials that are not itemised. Under EU rules, however, regulated fragrance allergens must be named individually when they exceed 0.001% in leave-on products, which is why perfumes often list many of them. Regulation (EU) 2023/1545 extended this list, so newer labels may show names not seen on older packaging.