If you've ever reached for a fragrance-free product because you're pregnant, have sensitive skin, or simply want to know exactly what's going on your body, this one's for you.
Because fragrance-free doesn't always mean what you think it means.
The label problem
There are two terms that often get used interchangeably: fragrance-free and unscented. They are not the same thing, and the difference matters more than most brands will tell you.
Fragrance-free means the product was made without adding fragrance as a functional ingredient, to make it smell a certain way.
Unscented means the product has no detectable smell. But here's where it gets complicated: to achieve that neutral smell, some brands add what's called a masking fragrance, a chemical that neutralises the natural odour of other ingredients in the formula. The product smells like nothing. But fragrance is still present, still listed somewhere in the ingredients, still on your skin.
Why masking fragrance exists
Raw ingredients have their own smell. Preservatives, emulsifiers, certain plant extracts, they don't always smell pleasant on their own. Rather than reformulate to avoid ingredients with strong odours, some brands add a masking agent to neutralise the smell instead.
The result is a product that smells neutral, which reads to most people as fragrance-free, even when it isn't.
What to look for
If you're trying to avoid fragrance entirely, reading the front of the packaging isn't enough. Turn it over and look at the ingredient list.
The terms to watch for: parfum, fragrance, aroma. These are umbrella terms that can contain hundreds of individual chemicals, none of which need to be individually disclosed because fragrance formulas are protected as trade secrets.
If any of these appear in an ingredient list on a product labelled fragrance-free or unscented, the product contains fragrance, regardless of what the front of the packaging says.
Why Eartha's 0. range is different
Our 0. Body Oil and 0. Hair Oil contain no fragrance of any kind, including no masking agents.
The reason we don't need to mask anything is simple: there's nothing to hide. Our formulas use only plant-based oils, none of which have a chemical smell that needs neutralising. When the formula is clean enough, the ingredient list is straightforward, and there's no need for anything that shouldn't be there.
You'll find no parfum, no fragrance, no aroma in either product. What you'll find is a short list of plant oils, each one chosen for what it does on skin, nothing else.
A note on who this matters most for
This isn't about fear. Most people use scented products their whole lives without issue.
But if you're pregnant, nursing, managing a fragrance allergy, or dealing with sensitive or reactive skin, you're likely reading labels carefully for a reason. And knowing that fragrance-free on the front doesn't always mean fragrance-free in the formula is information worth having.
