About Our Fragrances
How do you choose your fragrances?
We're picky. Our goal is to create a sensory experience that will allow you to pause, close your eyes, and imagine you're faraway, whether it be a wizard school, a rainforest, or a mountain hike. Scent is a powerful and deeply personal sense waiting to be tapped into. Life is busy, but it's easy to pause and take a minute to connect with scent.
Isn't Fragrance Toxic?
Simple answer: Fragrance is complicated.
Long answer: Fragrance is complicated. There are well over 3,000 compounds used in fragrances world-wide. Lots of influencers decry fragrances as toxic and while some compounds used in fragrances are not good for you, not all are harmful. Using a blanket statement to cover thousands of variables is like saying humans love cilantro. Some people hate cilantro and think it tastes like soap. Some other people think cilantro is the best thing since sliced bread. One statement does not cover all.
The largest problem, in our humble opinion, is that fragrance manufacturers are not required to disclose ingredients in their products as it falls privy to legally being a trade secret. When ingredients are not listed, it leads one to wonder what exactly is in this product.
Although manufacturers are not required to disclose ingredients, fragrance oil suppliers are required to provide IFRA certificates, which states the maximum use that the fragrance can be used in a specific application (think candles, eye application, lip application, hair treatments, room spray, etc). IFRA certificates are issued by the International Fragrance Association (or IFRA).
IFRA works with the findings of the Research Institute for Fragrance Materials (or RIFM), which researches the safety and environmental considerations of fragrance.
We shop scents that are IFRA certified and follow the usage recommendations.
Some helpful links:
| FDA Information page on fragrance in cosmetics | Fragrances in Cosmetics | FDA |
| IFRA Safe use library | IFRA Standards Library |
| Introduction to IFRA | Introduction - enjoying fragrance with confidence |
| What the RFIM studies | Safety Assessment | The Research Institute for Fragrance Materials |
| A list of links for more information on toxicology | Toxicology Information Links - The American Academy of Clinical Toxicology |
| The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics | Campaign for Safe Cosmetics - Making Cosmetics Safer for All |
Phthalate and Paraben-Free
Phthalates and parabens have long been a controversial ingredient leading many suppliers to eliminate phthalates. All of the fragrance oils that we source are phthalate and paraben-free. See below for our specific suppliers. We inhale our products too and simply put, if we wouldn't use it on ourselves and our loved ones, we're not going to sell it to you.
Where We Source Our Fragrances
Why are we sharing this? Simply put, we value honesty. Please do know that while we do source our fragrances in these places, over 60% of our fragrances are blends that we craft ourselves. The overwhelming majority of our scents come from CandleScience.