"Natural" is fairly meaningless in the context of perfume. These "natural" perfumes are typically made with essential oils, which are distilled aromachemicals. It's still made of chemicals.

(Also, many "natural" brands use synthetic aromachemicals anyway, so.)

You're more likely to have an adverse reaction to naturals than to synthetics, by virtue of the fact that naturals contain many more different molecules.

In this context, "additive" has no meaning. Everything is "added" to a perfume—it's not like food where you can bake a loaf of bread with or without preservatives, dough conditioners, etc.

The Perfect Scent by Chandler Burr discusses this and is worth a read for anyone into perfume. I won’t duplicate points already made but will add that synthetics can sometimes be more sustainable than “natural” sources.

It's just a marketing gimmick called "greenwashing", and you're much safer with perfumes that have passed the VERY strict regulations of the IFRA.

I'm generally skeptical of fragrances that completely swear off any synthetics or isolated aromachemicals. Both synthetics and natural ingredients have their pros and cons and from an aesthetics perspective it usually feels like the perfumer is limited from using the full range of techniques for pretty dubious reasons. All natural fragrances on a whole tend to be short lasting (less of an issue for me), and have a tendency to smell heavy and "muddy" to me. That being said, I have some fragrances I like from Hiram Green, For Strange Women, and Wild Coast Perfumery and I think those houses are all natural.

In general though, I prefer houses that use the optimal ingredient for the effect they are going for, regardless of its origins, as long as it is safe and ethically produced.

Acqua di Parma is known for using natural ingredients. A lot of their fragrances also don’t have the best performance, but they smell wonderful.

If you are sensitive or you're concerned about allergies, you should know that natural components are far more likely to give you issues than synthetics.

Also important to note that the fragrances that have a high degree of naturals are not necessarily more pleasant to smell. They're heavier, denser, a lot less legible.

Exactly, in some cases, synthetics are more “caring” (using synthetic vs real civet or animal musks, not using endangered trees or unsafe materials), in others, naturals are (supporting small growers by using natural rose vs synthetic). Some “natural” “clean” brands are cash grabs, whereas others are focused on artistry.

Safety is also a major issue with many naturals. Plants will ABSOLUTELY poison you, irritate you, give you cancer or chemical burns. Essential oils are the result of an inter-species evolutionary arms race going back millions of years.

People like to see "contains natural lemon oil" but are terrified of big words like "1-methyl-4-(1-methylethenyl)-cyclohexene" which is just the IUPAC name for limonene, which is just one of DOZENS of constituents of cold pressed lemon oil. And lemon is not even one of the more complicated botanical extracts.

Greenwashing is rooted in dishonesty, intellectual laziness, superstition and ignorance.

I will only address the natural ingredient part of the question; https://hiramgreen.com/

If they only used natural ingredients it wouldn’t last very long

Scarcity is one of the problems, and its intertwined with ethics. Many of the highly-prized natural perfume ingredients have been used by non-European/American and indigenous people for centuries, then perfumery raided the natural habitats and exploited the people. Scarcity goes beyond "hard to get" when you're talking about things like Mysore sandalwood and oud that have cultural and religious significance.

Other big problems with naturals:

1. It takes enormous amounts of pesticides to produce plant-based materials. This leads to enormous amounts of pollution, usually not in the same privileged areas where people are buying the products.
2. Growing and harvesting natural materials requires a lot of physical labor, the kind that often involves poor physical working conditions (including pesticide exposure) and exploitative labor practices including use of child labor, wage theft, human trafficking, indentured servitude, sexual harassment, and assault.

So, looking at a brand that uses all natural ingredients and assuming that they "care" is a funny way to look at it. For many of them it's purely a marketing angle based on misinformation and fear-mongering, they don't "care" about chemistry best practices, environmentalism, sustainability, or preventing harm to the people who produce the raw materials.

Guerlain Aqua line. Pamplelune is juicy fresh grapefruit.

Magic Hour by Vivamor Parfums

Top: Piña Colada, Exotic Fruits, Ginger

Mid: Rum, Cinnamon and Guatemalan Cardamom

Base: Moss and Amber

Erba pura?

ELDO - I Am Trash is pure overripe fruit to me.

Pulp by Byredo smells like mashed up, ripe fruit and berries. Debaser by D.S. & Durga smells like fresh figs.

You can try thins one as well - new company, and 100% natural: Splash of Scent, on Etsy or at https://splashofscent.com

Cheers!

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We strive for this to be an engaging forum. Asking for perfumes without giving others any background will not be a productive conversation.

Please follow this template as you ask for recommendations :

Budget:

Age:

Gender:

Preferred Notes:

Occasion:

Weather:

Not counting Guerlain, Tom ford, or any of the prive designer lines:

Chloe Nomade

Givenchy Extravagance d’Amarige (long discontinued)

Givenchy L’Interdit rouge ultime

D&G Devotion Intense

Valentino DBIR Extradose

Alien (original formulation)

Bvlgari The Au Blanc

This is fun! Love seeing everyone’s picks. Mine are:

1. Tom Ford - Soleil Neige
2. Chanel - No 5 L’Eau
3. Chloe - Nomade
4. Valentino - Donna Born in Roma
5. Dior - Miss Dior Blooming Bouquet
6. Narciso Rodriquez - Musc Noir Rose
7. Hermes - Eau des Merveilles

Edit: Focused on designer frags accessible at Sephora/Ulta (except for Narciso Rodriquez 🥲) & didn’t include any private / higher end lines!

• YSL Babycat
• Marc Jacobs Perfect
• Flowerbomb
• Flowerbomb
• Prada Paradoxe Intense
• Valentino Donna Born in Roma Intense
• Tom Ford Noir Extreme

• Dior Hypnotic Poison

• Versace Crystal Noir

• Burberry Goddess

• JPG Scandal Le Parfum

• YSL Libre Intense

• CH Good Girl Supreme

• YSL Black Opium Le Parfum

burberry her

burberry her

burberry her

burberry her

burberry her

burberry her

burberry her

(no particular order)

Hiram Green does all natural perfumery. Not cheap but excellent.

If you can figure out which notes bother you, that would help. I also get headaches from certain smells. The “fresh” smells in the detergent aisle of the grocery store can give me a migraine, and I cant go anywhere near a bath & body works!

Try Jo Malone

Do you have any examples of offending fragrances for reference?

Perhaps it isn’t so much synthetic notes that you hate and more so a specific ingredient (tuberose, ambroxan, patchouli, etc.). You should check out the notes from the fragrances you can’t stand to find out common themes. Nowadays most fragrances are made with either a blend of synthetic and natural ingredients or only synthetics. They are often such high quality that you wouldn’t be able to recognize that chemists reproduced the chemical synthetically.

Well in general you are going to get more naturals the more expensive you go, they are more expensive raw materials so you aren't typically going to find a high amount in typical designer type fragrances. Also some skilled perfumers can make very natural smelling accords using aromachemicals.

Mandarino by Laboratorio Olfactivo - Orange
Summer of 84 by Kerosene - Grapefruit

Amethyst by Lalique smells like cold, tart purple berries, not at all sweet!

Clean Sparkling Sugar is peachy and natural to me

White Peaches by Shay and Blue

Nature Insolente - Maison Matine

Pretty citrus melon that is light and sits close to the skin. Lacks staying power but also doesn’t cost a fortune.

Philosykos smells like a fig tree. 🌳

Terre de Hermes smells like I rolled around in a desert eating citrus fruits and a some point light a fire

Diptyque Eau Rose EDT. Smells like rose, a light and kind of watery scent.

I have a perfume made entirely from a 60yr old Mysore Sandalwood oil. It’s something you use very sparingly and it smells like heaven. Hits every note a natural Sandalwood should.

It’s called Santa Maria from Startup Aromas. And it’s sold out.

I don’t know own any bottle of Diptyque but I find most or at least half of their offerings are natural smelling in the sense that they smell very earthy, leafy, alive and green