Natural Perfumery and Health

I’ve been playing with some of my Natural Attars and Tiferet Aromatherapy Perfumes, looking for ways to make the fragrances last longer. Two things that really work are:

1. Putting the perfume oil on fabric close to the skin.
2. Putting the perfume oil on the back of my arm.

Applying perfume to the inside of the collar or button placket works well. Just do it where a stain won’t show.

Instead of putting the perfume on my pulse points, I put a little Motia Attar on the back of my arm between wrist and elbow, and two days later I could still smell it. Try this yourself!

I came across this article today about a possible new cure for cancer:
New Cancer Cure

Apparently it’s a genetically modified cold virus that can only attack cancer cells. It doesn’t harm normal cells. Injected into brain, liver, lung and uterine tumors in mice, it had killed over 90% of the cancer cells after 60 days.

I would think that a treatment like this that doesn’t harm the immune system could give people with aggressive cancers a fighting chance. They could then use non-toxic holistic therapies to help their immune systems do the mopping up.

Human trials are scheduled to begin early next year. Let’s hope it works, has no downsides, and is priced so that everybody can benefit from it. That last one is a fantasy, I know…

With the rise in popularity of natural perfumery, there’s a lot of confusion about the subject that I’d like to try to clarify. Are natural perfumes really better than synthetics? If so, why?

1. Fragrance quality: Compared to the superabundance of fragrance chemicals available to the traditional perfumer, natural perfumery relies on a limited palette of ingredients. Because the natural perfumer is using whole plant essences rather than isolated chemical components, the composition is harder to control.

Each plant essence has its own evolution which changes over time. Combined with other essences all evolving in their own individual ways, it can be a little like trying to conduct an orchestra where each musician is going off on his or her own tangent.

To manage this, most natural perfumes contain fewer ingredients than their synthetic counterparts. This gives them a simpler character, more like chamber music as opposed to symphonies. Whether you like that or not is a matter of personal taste.

The scent of a natural perfume will usually stay closer to the body of the wearer than will a synthetic. It will also have a shorter scent-life than a comparable synthetic. To remedy the problem of short scent-life, apply your natural perfume to some fabric in a place that will not show. This will allow it to last much longer than applying it only to your skin.

2. Health: It’s both true and false that natural perfumes are safer than synthetics. Some natural ingredients can cause allergic skin reactions for sensitive individuals. For example, oils from cinnamon and oakmoss are considered sensitizers and can cause rashes. Bergamot and citrus oils can be phototoxic, causing skin discoloration with sun exposure.

Where naturals have a distinct health advantage over synthetics is in their affect on the central nervous system. Synthetic fragrances derived from petrochemicals can have damaging effects on the brain and central nervous system. This is a completely different illness than skin allergies. This is called Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, and it affects millions of people.

People with MCS and chemically-triggered asthma can often tolerate natural perfumes, but cannot tolerate exposure to synthetic fragrances. This does not mean that the natural perfume is hypoallergenic! A natural perfume can be safe from a neurotoxic standpoint, while still being able to cause a skin rash to a sensitive individual.

There are some natural oils that are neurotoxic, such as camphor, white cedar and juniper, but it is not necessary to use them. Some natural essential oils contain cancer-causing components. In normal usage, these naturally-occurring chemicals are in such minute quantities that they are of no cause for concern. Roses contain chemicals that in isolation can be quite toxic, yet people have been wearing perfumes made of diluted rose oil for thousands of years, with no ill effect.

If someone has skin sensitivity to natural perfume ingredients, they can still enjoy their perfume by applying it to fabric rather than to their skin. From a health standpoint, I think that is a safer practice than substituting natural ingredients with potentially neurotoxic synthetics. From a fragrance standpoint, there are no good synthetic substitutes for ingredients such as oakmoss. Its loss to perfumery will be a tragedy.

To summarize, natural perfumes have simpler palettes and shorter scent-lives than synthetics. They are often well-tolerated by people with fragrance-sensitivity or MCS, but they are not necessarily hypoallergenic.

Few perfume oils have the mystique of Oud. Oud is made from the fragrant resin found in Aquilaria trees, commonly referred to as Agarwood, Aloeswood and Eaglewood. It has been loved and treasured for thousands of years, by mystics and romantics alike. Oud is proclaimed as a aid to spiritual meditation. Lovers use it as an aphrodisiac.

Indeed, the hunger for Oud is so great that in most parts of the world Agarwood trees are nearing extinction and the wood is obtained by poachers. Agarwood is believed to have originated in the Assam region of India, and from there spread throughout southeast Asia. Oud now comes from India, Vietnam, China, Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines… and while trees dwindle, the demand keeps growing. There is good news, though, for Oud lovers.

Several decades ago, enterprising farmers in Assam began a major replanting of Agarwood trees throughout the region. Agarwood nurseries have produced tens of thousands of healthy seedlings for Agarwood plantations, and everyone is being encouraged to once again plant Agarwood trees in their yards.

Practicing organic, sustainable harvesting methods, these Agarwood plantations and extraction centers are providing good livings for honest families, and insure that these amazing trees will survive for generations to come. The Agarwood Oil they produce is extremely high quality. All the work is done by hand, with sincere respect and dedication. This plantation in Assam, India is where my lovely Oud Attar comes from:

Another recent development to conserve the precious Aloeswood is the use of CO2 extraction instead of distillation. CO2 extraction does not use any solvent chemicals, making it environmentally-friendly. Instead, it uses the same carbon dioxide that is in soda pop. CO2 extraction is so powerful that it requires less wood than steam distillation to obtain the same amount of Oud. And because it doesn’t use any heat, Agarwood CO2 extract has a much more vibrant fragrance that is truer to life.

So as you shop for Oud, remember to find out how it was obtained, and how it was extracted. Support the people who truly love the Agarwood tree, not those who merely exploit it. Buy from a supplier with a good reputation, who makes samples available.

Alongside fragrance chemicals, volatile solvent chemicals are some of the worst triggers for people with MCS. WD-40 is a very useful product, but people with MCS can’t tolerate it. WD-40′s fumes are very pervasive and will travel through air duct systems, affecting people clear across a house or building.

So if your squeaky door and cabinet hinges need lubrication, try spritzing them with PAM cooking spray instead. PAM is basically canola oil, soy-lecithin, alcohol and a propellant (probably carbon dioxide.) Just don’t inhale it.

I don’t know if PAM works well under freezing conditions, such as outdoor locks in winter climates, but it works like a charm inside the house.

I would like to honor Breast Cancer Awareness Month a little differently than most others. I want to present a different perspective. You see, I had breast cancer nine years ago. I rejected conventional medicine and went with an alternative approach.

I’m quite cynical about Breast Cancer Awareness Month. All throughout October I see stories about brave cancer survivors- women who survived their toxic treatments and went on to run marathons. I see stories about new, expensive cancer breakthroughs… on broadcasts all lucratively sponsored by pharmaceutical companies. The same multinational corporations that also manufacture plastics, pesticides and fragrance chemicals that actually cause cancer!

News programs are little more than propaganda machines for the pharmaceutical industry. Watch carefully this month. How many breast cancer stories will show women being healed by natural, non-patented medicine? None.

Whether you count by dollars or numbers of people employed by it, Cancer is one of the largest industries in the country. How is it that the companies that cause cancer also manufacture the cancer drugs?

Why is it that the research we’re asked to fund looks for new treatments (as long as they can be patented), but never at the carcinogenic effects of plastics, pesticides and fragrance chemicals? Because it would rock the industrial boat that funds the research. Their definition of “prevention” is earlier detection. My definition of “prevention” is not getting it in the first place!

Why did I choose to risk my life with alternative medicine?

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I love to visit some of the various perfume forums on the Internet. I recently engaged in a debate in one about the health merits of natural vs synthetic perfumes, and about their effect on Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. Indeed, it became an issue of whether or not MCS even exists. Several people said that MCS has never been accepted by Medicine as an illness, and that it is a condition that affects only a few people with probable psychological disorders. Quackwatch was sited as a credible source for this position.

I was asked to provide proof of neurotoxins in synthetic fragrances, and to show evidence that natural fragrances are not neurotoxic. I was also asked to give a definition of “Natural Fragrances”.

Since these issues are central to what my life and Tigerflag Natural Perfumery are all about, I thought it would be appropriate to print my response in my Natural Perfumery and Health Blog. The following is a slightly edited version of what I posted in the forum:

OK, here goes. My definition of “Natural Perfumes” is: “Perfumes or fragrances made from natural sources, including plant essential oils, absolutes, enfleurages, spices, herbs, woods, shells, etc.” Ethical considerations aside, animal-derived substances such as musks, civet and ambergris would be included in this definition. Synthetic fragrance chemicals are derived from petrochemicals. While oil comes out of the ground and is therefor “natural” in a sense, I think we all understand the distinction being made.

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