What is "natural fragrance"?

Short version

“Natural fragrance” describes where a scent ingredient comes from. It does not say the ingredient is absent, mild or safe for people who react to fragrance. We work from documents and have not tested any products. This page uses three sources: DermNet’s fragrance allergy page (retrieved 2026-11-14) and two FDA pages (retrieved 2026-11-11).

What the word describes

DermNet, a dermatology resource from New Zealand, says that “fragrances and perfumes can either be made from a natural extract or synthesised.” Both kinds produce a pleasant scent or disguise an unpleasant odour. So “natural” sorts fragrance by origin. A natural fragrance is still a fragrance.

The FDA’s Fragrances in Cosmetics page describes fragrance and flavor formulas as “complex mixtures of many different natural and synthetic chemical ingredients.” In other words, one scent can contain both kinds.

Is there a definition?

We found no definition of “natural” or “natural fragrance” for cosmetics in the pages we read. That is a limit of our reading, not a finding that none exists.

What we did find is narrower. The FDA says there is “no regulatory definition for ‘essential oils,’” though people commonly use the term for certain oils extracted from plants, and that the law “treats ingredients from plants the same as those from any other source.” On claims in general, the FDA’s Cosmetics Labeling Claims page says it has no list of approved or accepted claims for cosmetics, and that labeling claims must be truthful and not misleading.

Our guides on essential oils and lavender oil go further into plant-derived scent.

Natural extracts and allergy

DermNet reports that a 2011 review of fragrances by the European Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety listed 82 substances “established as contact allergens,” including 54 synthetic chemicals and 28 natural extracts. Twelve of the chemicals and 8 of the natural extracts were listed as being at high risk of causing sensitisation.

Two cautions on those numbers. They are DermNet’s report of a 2011 review, and we did not read the review. And they count substances on a list; they do not tell you how likely any particular product is to cause a reaction. What they show is that natural extracts appear on a list of established contact allergens. DermNet also notes that people who work with scented natural oils, such as aromatherapists and masseurs, are among those who see occupational dermatitis from fragrance allergy.

What a “natural” label can hide

DermNet advises choosing products labelled “fragrance-free,” but warns that so-called “unscented” products could still include masking fragrances. It adds that products “may contain an unidentified fragrance, for example, if they list ‘botanical’, ‘herbal’, or ‘natural’ ingredients.”

The FDA page explains part of why. It says that on an ingredient list, “fragrance and flavor ingredients can be listed simply as ‘Fragrance’ or ‘Flavor.’” It gives the reason: the ingredient labeling law cannot be used to force a company to disclose trade secrets, and fragrance formulas are among the components most likely to be treated as such. It also says that even some products labeled “unscented” may contain fragrance ingredients.

So a front-of-pack word such as “natural,” “botanical” or “unscented” and the ingredient list can tell different stories. Our test on this site is the list itself: whether it contains fragrance, parfum, aroma, perfume, essential oils or fragrance chemicals. See how to read an ingredient list for parfum and aroma, what parfum means, and fragrance-free vs unscented. For the neighboring label words, see unscented and sensitive don’t mean fragrance-free and what hypoallergenic means.

A plain line about fragrance

Fragrance, natural or synthetic, is not inherently harmful, and this site is not against it. The issue is narrower: for people who react to fragrance, a label should say whether it is there, and “natural fragrance” says only where it came from. For questions about your own reactions, a clinician or an allergy or dermatology society is the right place to ask.

What we don’t fully know

The limits are listed under “unknowns” on this page. In short: we found no definition of “natural” in three pages, the allergen figures are secondhand from a 2011 review, and we did not check how any maker uses the phrase.

On the label

The EU glossary of common ingredient names (Commission Decision (EU) 2019/701, retrieved 2026-11-14) contains these exact entries: PARFUM (entry number 16644), AROMA (entry number 2205) and FRAGRANCE (entry number 9295). It has no exact entry for PERFUME or for ESSENTIAL OIL. This is a lookup of exact names only; we read no statement in it about what the entries mean or contain.