Fragrance Allergens

“Parfum” or “fragrance” on an ingredient list can cover dozens of individual molecules, and a manufacturer is not required to disclose the blend. EU law carves out an exception: a defined list of scent compounds must be named separately once they exceed 0.001% in a leave-on product or 0.01% in a rinse-off one, because each has enough contact-allergy data behind it to warrant naming.

That is why you see entries like linalool, limonene, citronellol, geraniol, eugenol, coumarin and hydroxycitronellal listed after the fragrance. They are not additives sneaked in beside the perfume — they usually ARE the perfume, itemised.

Two of them deserve particular attention. Linalool and limonene are largely harmless in the bottle and become far more sensitising once oxidised by air, which means an old product is a different allergy risk from a fresh one. This is also why natural is not a useful safety signal here: these compounds are abundant in lavender, citrus and rose oils, and an essential-oil-scented product often carries more of them than a synthetically fragranced one.

Practically: if you react to products unpredictably, the named allergens are the most useful part of the label, and comparing them across the products that caused trouble narrows a patch test considerably.