Intoxicating Scents: Organic Perfume and Cologne

Perfume, fundamentally, is the sexual attractant of flowers… squeezed from the reproductive glands of plants, perfume is the smell of creation, a sign dramatically delivered to our senses of the Earth’s regenerative powers — a message of hope and a message of pleasure. ~ Tom Robbins

The histories of incense, aromatherapy, and perfume date back to some of human beings’ earliest history. Incense in its first form was discovered around 4,000 B.C. by the Mesopotamians who would burn different resins and woods at their religious ceremonies. Eventually, they began soaking these woods and resins in water that they then rubbed on their bodies. A thousand years later, this made its way to Egypt, and perfumes have been discovered in the tombs of queens and pharaohs.

Perfume In The Modern World

Unfortunately, somewhere along the way we stopped simply using oils or soaking woods and resins and started utilizing a whole host of synthetic processes to create our scents. Some of the chemicals and ingredients with the biggest health risks that you’ll encounter in personal care products hide under the word “fragrance”. It’s a blanket term that the cosmetics industry uses to mask a product’s actual chemical contents. Most companies claim that the main reason for this is so that competitors can’t steal their product’s unique scent, which is reasonable, but the net result is that hundreds of chemicals are added to products without consumers’ knowledge. Since “fragrance” is considered a trade secret, there’s nothing that says those companies have to state what they’re using.

Sensitizers are one type of hidden chemical found in fragrances. They can cause immune system damage and create a permanent allergic reaction in the person who has come into contact with them. Some of these sensitizers affect as many as one in fifty people.

Phthalates are a very broad class of chemicals also found in fragrance. Many of them have been linked to hormone disruption. In particular, diethyl phthalate (DEP) is commonly utilized in fragrance products and has been shown to cause a wide variety of health problems, including sperm damage in men.

You’ll also find synthetic musks in many fragrances, such as musk ketone, galaxolide, and tonalide. These chemicals accumulate in the human body (and in breast milk) and have been shown to disrupt hormones.

Many fragrance chemicals have also been labeled as neurotoxins.

A Healthy Alternative

Fortunately, this doesn’t mean that we can’t smell wonderful and enjoy lovely aromas. We can do this without using synthetic chemicals or risking our health and wellbeing. Whether used alone or blended to create unique scents, essential oils, absolutes, and pure extracts of plants and flowers not only give us the best perfume in the world, they also offer powerful health benefits. Essential oils are extracted directly from plants, yet “perfume” or “fragrance” oils are synthetic and artificially created and thus can also be quite toxic. Even so-called “natural” perfumes and oils can be made with “fragrance” oils. So, be sure to look for scents made with pure plant and flowers essences – essential oils, absolutes, and extracts only.

In nature, a plant’s oils help provide nutrients, protect it from disease, and keep harmful insects at bay. This is what gives essential oils their healing, medicinal, antioxidant, and antibiotic properties. When applied to the skin, essential oils usually reach every cell in the body in the next twenty-one minutes, regenerating DNA, removing toxins, and providing powerful antioxidants.

So, if you’d like to smell amazing and get skin and health benefits at the same time, look for perfumes and colognes made with essential oils. Here are the most divine and unique organic perfumes and colognes I’ve ever come across. These are most natural perfumes available and are made only from pure essential oils. There are various blends to suit everyone with floral, exotic, earthy, woodsy, sultry, sweet, and etherial scents to choose from. Enjoy the sensual wonders.