Fair substitute for alcohol based perfume: Concentrated Perfume Oil

Category: Natural Commercial Products
Hi beautiful and peaceful soul,

I am kinda person, who always want to use earth friendly things in every part of my life. I feel, when respect is given to nature by us, then we get prosperity. So, whenever possible I always try to use things which do not harm environment and human health. Here, I will talk about the part of my life, which every woman loves i.e., to enhance beauty, personality and confidence. To feel good, every woman uses perfume and never go out without wearing it and some women love to wear it at home too.

       

      Do you know that these perfumes are great danger to our environment and health? These have skin disrupting, neurological, respiratory, hormonal imbalance, systematic and environmental effects (1,2,3). Perfumes contain high amounts of ethanol and isopropyl alcohol basically to preserve the desired fragrance of perfume. Ethanol is considered as volatile organic compound by EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and are generally toxic (4). Moreover, alcohol has a very high evaporation rate, thus requires strong fixatives to slow down this rate of evaporation. This in turn helps a perfume to give fragrance for a longer  period. Again, these fixatives have disrupting effect on hormones and are carcinogenic. Along with fixatives in perfumes, synthetic fragrance, which is made from petrochemicals, has been added in perfumes. They contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs), considered as the most harmful pollutants (5). These VOCs can be evaporated and transported to atmosphere to form undesired photochemical ozone smog. This a form of air-pollution that is particularly hazardous in hot days, especially in summers. In summers, this smog is created when VOCs react with nitrogen oxides in the presence of sunlight to form pollutants called ozone. Elevated ozone levels create many lungs related problems by forming smog near ground level (6). VOCs also affects the environment by reacting with stratospheric ozone layer in upper atmosphere causing its destruction and increasing the hole in ozone layer. The ozone layer protects us from ultra violet rays and exposure to dangerous ultra violet rays due to ozone destruction can cause eyes and skin cancer (7). Moreover, these perfumes are resistant to waste water treatment which leads to their accumulation in environment by enter into drinking water streams and lakes. This badly affects the health of people, animals and plants. Now, you understand how unconscious activities done by us affect living and non-living beings on this earth. 

    Generally, I do not wear much perfume but of course, it becomes mandatory for me in summers or on special occasions. After realizing all the above discussed problems with perfume, I decided to switch on natural alternative of perfumes. There are multiple alternates available. It may be essential oil, hydrosol and attars/ittars. Attars are natural fragrances made by hydro-distillation of spices, herbs, and flowers on base materials like sandalwood oil. These are technically "concentrated perfume oils", with oil as base instead of alcohol or chemical base. These can be directly applied on skin and are bio-degradable. India has a long history of attars and importance of attar can be found in various ancient texts. I have seen using attar for worship and heard a lot about it from elders in my family but never experienced using it. 

Essential oils are volatile oils extracted from plant using steam and water distillation method. Hydrosol is water left behind after extracting an essential oil from plant through water/steam distillation. One limitation with essential oils is that we need to have good knowledge and expertise for working with essential oil. As these cannot be applied directly on skin thus need to be diluted in a proper concentration. Considering this, I shifted my focus to hydrosol and attar as, these can be applied directly on skin without any complications of dilution. 

With high curiosity, I went to the market to get one of them. I was happy to find concentrated perfume oil, free from alcohol in a shop which was quite a distance away from my home. Feeling excited, I took longer than usual steps to quickly return home. After returning to home, I took out perfume bottle from my purse in no time and with much eagerness. But wait! What I found? It was a concentrated perfume oil, though yes, free form alcohol, but it does contain something called 20% of Di-propylene glycol. This means it was not natural or Divine perfume (attar). This made me realize that, this is perhaps the reason, it was comparatively cheaper in price, 6ml in just 70/- rupees. However, I should admit that fragrance was really charming and soft. According to my experience, it does not wipe off and remains their for whole day. It is not greasy and you just need to roll on a little bit on each wrist, behind each earlobe and right and left side of neck. I was still curious to know why Di propylene glycol has been added in concentrated perfume oil?

Later, with some research, I learned that concentrated perfume oils are highly concentrated as alcohol has not been used to dilute them. They are available in tiny glass bottles with roll-on applicator. Still, they are not 100% natural and can be a blend of natural essential oil or synthetic aroma compound diluted with propylene glycol, vegetable oil or mineral oil.

My perfume is a mixture of 80% concentrated perfumed oil and 20% dipropylene glycol. Highly concentrated perfumed oil has been diluted with dipropylene glycol instead of alcohol. This makes it oil based perfume. It disperse in air with the help of body heat. Still I can say that it is definitely better than alcohol based perfume because unlike ethanol whether Dipropylene glycol is volatile organic compound or not depends on the definition of VOCs (8). Also, it is used in very less amount in oil-based perfumes. It has high boiling point than ethanol, so can be used as solvent and fixative both. Due to this reason, the fragrance lasts longer than alcohol based perfumes. Moreover, alcohol is  skin and eye irritants. It drys the skin and strip offs the skin barrier while evaporating, while dipropylene glycol is found to have low toxicity and is bio-degradable (9). As per my personal experience, it retain moisture and does not cause any skin or eye irritation. 

Because of all these features, I am convinced to use it. The only concern is, it is not mentioned on this travel-friendly perfume bottle that whether aroma chemicals used in it are natural or synthetic. On the basis of it's economical price and a mention of allergens on perfume box, I concluded that aroma chemicals can be a mixture of natural and synthetic constituents. Since aroma chemicals are potent allergens, so, I have decided to use it temporarily until I find affordable genuine attar or hydrosol. Do not worry guys, I will definitely share my review after finding and using that.

Hope, this article helps you to decide your perfume.

Smell good but without any cost to health😇

Take care all of you!!!

Yours well wisher
Purnima Ghai

References:

1. https://enveurope.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12302-020-00311-y
2. https://www.healthline.com/health/perfume-poisoning
3. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ffj.1106
4. https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/technical-overview-volatile-organic-compounds
5. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211335516301449
6. https://www.healthline.com/health/dangers-smog-what-you-need-know-about-air-pollution
7.https://www.imedpub.com/articles/environmental-effects-of-volatile-organic-compounds-on-     ozone-layer.pdf
8.https://dowservice.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/16333/related/1/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xNTg5MTE0NzczL2dlbi8xNTg5MTE0NzczL3NpZC9mVUhJREU5MEN4R3V4cTRFUkt2akFNdEZFeGdxdEhkUXFoWVFsWDNWSDZZNVBxcVlJWmRMeFpaOXolN0VKMldnRUF2d3laaF9jX2kzeEMzZm80Zml6NWJjTHdkU2hkVVF4OVptUENYVWc1aCU3RSU3RVRjVzZMT2JyWHhKMFElMjElMjE=
9.http://msdssearch.dow.com/PublishedLiteratureDOWCOM/dh_006e/0901b8038006e13c.pdf?filepath=propyleneglycol/pdfs/noreg/117-01785.pdf%26fromPage=GetDoc