While many perfumes might smell good and carry a name of your favorite celebrity you may not realize just how harmful they are for your body, the environment and others around you. If you think that you know the ingredients of your favorite perfume, and you believe that the perfume is not bad for you, think again!

First, let’s try to pronounce the ingredients that have already been listed on that beautiful, very well designed bottle. Let’s see… BENZOPHENONE 3, BUTYLPHENYL METHLYPROPRIONAL, BENZYL SALICYLATE, HYDROXYCITRONELLAL, ETHYLHEXYL METHOXYCINNAMATE, ALPHA-ISOMETHYL IONONE, ETHYLHEXYL SALICYLATE, BUTYL METHOXYDIBENZOYLMETHANE. How are you doing so far? By the way, almost all of these ingredients have been linked to allergies and irritations (skin, eyes or lungs), biochemical or cellular level changes, endocrine disruption, organ system toxicity and cancer. In case you are still hesitating, yes – perfume is bad for you!

However, here is where it becomes even more interesting. Apparently, due to legal loopholes resulted from trade secret laws, perfume and cosmetic manufacturers are not obligated to disclose every single ingredient of their product on the packaging. Instead, they use the blanket terms such as “fragrance” or “parfum” on the label, which may hide thousands of different chemicals behind it. The bottom line is that you, and even Food and Drug Administration itself doesn’t know exactly which ingredients are used in each perfume. In case you are still hesitating, yes – not knowing what is in your perfume is bad for you.

So what can you do about this situation? After all it is a bit hard to stop using all perfumes, deodorants and cosmetics altogether. Here are a few ideas for you.

First, try to eliminate all products that list the harmful chemicals mentioned above and also the terms “fragrance” and “parfum”, which as I explained earlier could include a few thousand different things.

To find a truly natural list of fragrances and other skin care products you can use the Skin Deep Cosmetics Database, which is provided by a non-profit organization, the Environmental Working Group. Their database consists of over 60,000 products, which are rated on a scale from 1 to 10 (1 being the lowest hazard and 10 being the highest hazard).

There is actually one great 100% natural product that could substitute at least 5 different toxic cosmetic products that you are currently using. It can be used as a face moisturizer that contains a natural SPF, as a makeup remover, hand, foot and body lotion, eye cream, a hair mask or as excellent massage oil. It is an organic cold pressed extra virgin coconut oil. Did I mention that you can cook with it as well?

Since I haven’t succeeded in creating my own homemade deodorant that proved to be effective, my personal favorite all natural deodorant is Primal deodorant. It is available in Fragrance free, Lavender, Thyme & Lemongrass, Royal & Rogue, and Jacked Up Jasmine scents.

Another great way to enjoy a fragrance without toxins is to use diffuser jewelry. For instance, a new Essentials (Diffuser jewelry collection) from Brelox is made with natural lava rock, which is very porous and, therefore, can easily absorb and diffuse essential oils. All you have to do is to apply a drop of your favorite essential oil onto the lava rock, let it absorb, then wear your jewelry and enjoy the fragrance. Make sure to use high quality 100% therapeutic grade essential oils. If you are unsure of which oil to choose, I recommend trying the Essential Oil Variety Set from Plant Guru, which contains 14 different essential oils. You can use each oil individually or mix them together to create a unique scent and thus make your own non-toxic perfume.

Remember that not every perfume is bad for you. You just need to have enough information to recognize which one is in order to make an educated decision on which one is safe to use. Please remember that wearing harmful perfumes will not only affect your own health, but also the health of others around you. So, do your research before buying that next bottle of expensive perfume and try a more natural approach to enjoying the fragrance.