Perfumery can also seem benign, however ingredients derived from plants and animals can have a critical environmental and ethical impact.
The perfumery might seem like a reasonably benign undertaking. It is about the own smell more than the rest. But as one of the world’s largest luxury industries, perfume manufacturing can have a major impact on certain plants and animals prized for their unusual scent profiles. Most body spray formulations are hidden behind one word on fragrance labels, always ‘Parfum’ or ‘Aroma’, making it difficult for a customer to tell if a product is made from ethically sourced parts. . The sustainability of the raw materials used in perfumery has not always been a top issue for buyers, however environmental awareness regarding the considerations seems to be growing.
photography via FotoMediamatic The ultimate raw materials used in perfumery are extracted from animals and rare flora.
Most perfumes are designed with the use of artificial elements these days, however, there has been a resurgence when it comes to depleting higher natural and bio-based materials, and some perfumes are known as “mixed media” blends that They consume both synthetic and natural. Although artificial elements are often cheaper, natural perfumes have definite advantages that are attracting the attention of producers and buyers alike, including the indisputable fact that they are much less likely to trigger allergies, asthma or headaches. however, the use of herbal elements can also be challenging. Some raw plant substances have been so overexploited by fragrance manufacturers and revered by perfume lovers that they are now threatened with extinction, and the depletion of animal-derived materials raises critical ethical concerns.
The perfume industry is among the largest consumers of valuable oils extracted from vegetation. Although many plants are specially grown to meet customer demands, there are some wildflowers that are concentrated in the industry. almost all of these are highly prized by perfumers due to their rarity, difficulty in harvesting, and because they have a special scent profile and add gorgeous nuances to body spray formulations.
Sandalwood, which is used in both perfumery and conventional medicine, is one example. it is mainly harvested in India, where it is now basically extinct in the wild. The Indian government enacted strict rules on sandalwood harvest in the 1960s, and as a result, production in the country has been greatly reduced. however, sandalwood is still listed as leaning on the IUCN Red List. With sandalwood threatened in the wild, Australia has entered the sandalwood market and is sustainably producing wood. Environmentally responsible body spray brands continually point to the sandalwood base, whether it is used in their formulations.
while cultivation can offer an alternative option to unsustainable wild collection, it also poses challenges. Trees like sandalwood and aquilaria, another tree commonly intended for the construction of body sprays, are sluggish. It takes a long time for them to mature, and maturity is standard for oil extraction. but this capacity that for farmers takes several years, sometimes up to 10 years, to recover their investment. And when supply can’t meet demand, poachers turn their attention to frankincense wood, particularly aquilaria. Aquilaria wood is a favorite for agar resin, which forms when trees are infected with mold. In some circumstances, these poachers are destroying the wild population of centuries-old shrubs. In Hong Kong, which translates to fragrant or frankincense port in Cantonese, agarwood is on the brink of extinction in the wild and almost all of the oldest and largest wood has been logged illegally.
“Poachers look for old trees that are naturally contaminated as they have additional value, so these shrubs will be increasingly threatened,” said Gerard McGuirk, director of sales at Asia Plantation Capital in Hong Kong, which is trying to store the wood with help to run aquilaria plantations, the BBC reported. “Now, in Hong Kong, you’d be lucky to find a tree that’s 30 years old.”
In addition to the threats posed to certain flora, there are animal welfare considerations related to fragrance making. Animal items have been slowly disappearing from perfumes in recent years, however some manufacturers nonetheless sadly use them, and the style is actually being revived by some fragrance manufacturers of interest. Animal products, including castoreum from beavers, glandular secretions from civet cats, perineal secretions from endangered musk deer, and ambergris, a substance produced by the digestive system of sperm whales, were historically used as fixatives in ancient perfume formulas. Fixatives are used to stabilize perfumes and to slow down the rate of evaporation. Scents such as these derived from musk and civet can now be produced synthetically, however, due to excessive demand for herbal perfumes, some manufacturers have not prioritized the use of synthetic components.
These animal derived materials are produced in most situations cruelly. Ambergris is the only possible exception: it is generally considered cruelty-free, as it is a type of whale waste and can be found on shorelines and oceans after being expelled by whales. Their spending in the US is still illegal because sperm whales are listed as endangered and the Endangered Species Act prohibits the use of any product of an endangered species, but it is still caught in Europe and continues to be one of the main ones. rare constituents within today’s business.
however, even with ambergris, there is a challenge about whale poaching. Eleonora Scalseggi, co-owner of standard oil company Hermitage Oils, says that in several events, her business has been approached by Americans trying to sell large quantities of bass ambergris. “Now, in my opinion, these are clear signs of ambergris coming from poaching,” she says. “Floating ambergris is discovered washed up in extremely small quantities. It’s rare to find massive pieces, and even if that’s the case, it’s never many kilos. For me, having many kilos of fresh ambergris in one piece at hand is a capacity that a whale has been killed recently. Actually, it could come from a dead whale washed up on the shore, too, but the suspicion is simply too high.”
Civet cat secretions are a tricky ingredient. In Ethiopia, for example, civets are caught from the wild and kept on family farms, a practice that dates back centuries. The animals are usually kept in small cages through which they are rarely able to move. Cages can be found in dark rooms with no daylight hours or ventilation with a constant source of fire to create a smoky environment; higher temperatures are believed to facilitate musk production. As a result of extreme temperature fluctuations between day and night, stress, and painful extraction methods, there is a high cost of mortality among captured animals.
Castoreum derived from beaver bags has always been a popular perfume ingredient, especially in high end perfumes. However, many fashion designer perfumes have replaced it with synthetic components, the herbal type can also be found in perfumes of interest. It was so common in early perfume creations and for medicinal applications that by the 16th century, beavers had been hunted to extinction in Scotland. In 2016, the rodent was reintroduced to its natural habitat. it is expensive and basically impossible to obtain secretions from live beavers, so it is necessary to hunt and kill them, and remove the sacs and dye them, to obtain this fragrance ingredient.
Perhaps, probably the most infamous nonmoral animal product is deer musk. however, the use of musk has declined, today six subspecies of musk are listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List, and the seventh is listed as prone to the IUCN registry crimson. However, deer populations are declining and the main threat is the illegal extraction of musk for the fragrance industry and for medicinal use in Russia, Mongolia and China. Deer musk can also be extracted from live animals, however they are usually killed to dispose of their acorns. Musk is extracted from the male deer, and to locate a deer that produces enough musk to be economical, around 25g, consultants estimate three to five deer are killed. Non-target animals are most often killed by hunters looking for deer.
Body spray manufacturers may steal a few routes against sustainability. Uncooked rare substances can be sustainably sourced, replaced with different herbal oils with identical perfume profiles, swapped out with artificial alternatives, or prevented altogether when no sustainable alternatives exist. however, even some of these alternatives can be difficult. For example, some artificial alternative options are not considered eco-friendly, and some vegetable oils are offered under common names, but are extracted from a few different plants, making export certification very complicated to handle.
From the point of view of an environmentally conscious consumer, there is only one technique to make sure perfumes are sustainable and cruelty-free: assess how clear-cut a fragrance company is. While it’s still a bit of a new fad, a few small independent brands have begun to pave the way toward a more responsible approach to perfume construction and ingredient sourcing, and improving transparency along the way, and a number of perfume businesses. Heavily reliant body sprays have started making sustainability commitments as well.
You don’t have to stop using perfumes if you are an environmentally conscious consumer. You should reasonably be more cautious when shopping for the next bottle and look for manufacturers who appreciate nature and whose ethos is not more effective in using ethically sourced raw materials, but also heralds sustainability throughout the trade.
Kamila Abdurashitova Kamila Abdurashitova, also known as Kamila Aubre, is an independent creator and unbiased perfumer. She has a master’s degree in Political Science and Camaraderie from Lancaster University. Meanwhile, she lives in Belgium and designs natural perfumes and promotes an ecological approach to beauty items and fragrances.
