Almost all cosmetics manufacturers have to resort to using artificial fragrances in their skin care products to cover the odor from their chemical ingredients, so fragrance skin care products dominate the market.  Fragrance skin care products, however, man actually harm the skin more than they help it because the artificial scents in fragrance skin care products can cause severe allergic reactions in some individuals.  The makers often use vague marketing language to hint hat their products have been tested and proven to be hypoallergenic while this is usually not the case.   You can use naturally scented skin care products instead.
Whether or Not to Use Fragrance Skin Care

These days, almost all brand-name skin care products have added fragrances and preservatives that make them more appealing to the consumer.  Products that don’t have the additives generally smell like the components that make them, which is usually not as pleasant as a sweet floral scent.  However, the additives in these fragrance skin care products are also widely considered to be the cause of many allergic reactions to various skin care products.  Here are a few pros and cons to using fragrance skin care products as part of your regular skin care regimen.

The Pros

Well, it smells good.  You can be sure that the active ingredients in most skin care products do not produce the greatest smells in the world.  Fragrance skin care products offer an alternative to walking around with some sort of medicinal stink on you.  Hopefully you’ll smell more like a rose garden than an old-folks home.  You won’t meet many new friends smelling like a visit to their grandmother.

There are also plenty of choices on the market, and chances are that not all products will cause the same reaction to an individual.  Different fragrance skin care products might contain exactly the same active ingredients but very different additive ingredients.  Pay attention to the ingredients listed on the packaging.  If you use a product that causes an allergic reaction, make sure you do your best not to purchase other products that might have the same allergy-causing ingredient.

The Cons

Well, the allergic reactions.  When you’re using skin care products your goal is probably to improve the condition of your skin.  Not only are allergic reactions uncomfortable, they also are the exact opposite of the intended effect.  If you’re using a fragrance skin care product that causes you allergic reactions, you might as well not be using any skin care product at all.

Furthermore, the competitive nature of the skin care market can make it difficult to discern which products might be safe to use and which ones might not.  In her 1999 article in a widely circulated journal on dermatology, Pamela Scheinnman states that “hypoallergenic, dermatologist tested, sensitive skin, or dermatologist recommended are nothing more than meaningless marketing slogans.”  Many companies also use clever wording to cover up certain ingredients in their product, calling them things like “lemon oils” or “plant oils” instead of what they really are, fragrances.

There may not seem to be many alternatives to fragrance skin care on the market these days, but you may want think twice before purchasing what is readily available to you.  It may be the difference between clear, healthy skin and blotchy skin.

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