Perfume is one of the most ancient luxuries we know of.

Throughout the world people have used the natural scents of herbs, fruits, trees, and other plants to fragrance their bodies and support their health.

But somewhere along the line, the health benefits of perfume got lost in fake luxury. The commercial perfume industry is booming, and it’s getting its trajectory at the expense of our wellbeing.

The truth is, even the best researchers don’t know ALL the ingredients we’re being slowly poisoned with and we probably won’t know for a long time.

But don’t panic! Luckily, there are some smart cookies out there documenting the real health risks of perfumes (and other scented products with the insidious ‘fragrance’ listed in their ingredients), and they’re asking more questions and giving us more reasons every day to go back to nature and ditch the toxins in our synthetic perfumes. And there are some even smarter cookies (if we do say so ourselves) who are refining and wildcrafting health-giving blends of gorgeous natural ingredients into transcendently aromatic fragrances—so you can benefit your health while you smell like a million bucks.

Fragrances from natural sources can have a big, positive influence on our bodies.

Researchers have found evidence through medical scans and scientific studies that lavender and jasmine can act as sedatives, measurably inducing calm feelings and promoting sleep. Scents also anchor us into certain feelings and emotions. Smells we associate with home, childhood and holidays allow evocative, comforting memories to be accessed in an instant through a familiar scent. Our brains are so good at creating these links we can even use this to our advantage and encourage access to certain states of alertness, calm or success by practicing associating these feelings to a specific scent. Increasingly research proves ancient wisdom correct showing the natural world to be full of scents that also provide healing and stimulation for our body at the same time. Rosemary improves alertness, apples treat migraines, and lower blood pressure, lemons reduce stress, peppermint improve speed, strength and accuracy, oranges reduce anxiety and cucumber can reduce claustrophobia.

HOW DOES SYNTHETIC PERFUME AFFECT YOUR HEALTH?

In the ancient world, people treasured perfumes. They were even worth more than gold, because of their medicinal benefits. But what’s on our shelves today are imposter fragrances, the fake counterparts of natural aromas—and their association with morbid health conditions and even cancer is only strengthening over time. They don’t even really smell good—you only have to (literally) stop and smell the roses to know that floral scents don’t really smell like flowers.

What’s worse is that it isn’t just the person wearing it that’s being harmed.

"All the people breathing the toxic chemical-laden air are affected—which is why synthetic fragrances are becoming known as ‘the new second-hand smoke’!”

You only have to step into the fragrance section of any department store to feel the dizzying, sinus-burning, headache-inducing impact that commercial perfumes have on us. They actually cause pain, don’t they?

Most of these fragrances are riddled with petrochemicals and phthalates, which are known to disrupt our endocrine system and cause breast cancer, obesity and fertility problems among many others. They’re formulated with potentially hundreds of chemicals at a time that cause hormone imbalances, ADHD, diabetes, obesity, cancer, nervous system disorders, asthma, and allergies—and if you’re spritzing yourself every day with one of the big-name brand’s secret formulas, you could be heading towards a pretty bleak future of poor health.