Perfume is one of the most frequent causes of allergic contact eczema.
Most common in women, but also among men, younger adults and older children.

What is perfume?
A perfume is a mix of scents put together to create something that smells great. The different scents in a perfume evaporate at different rates, so the smell changes over time. A perfume can have anywhere from 10 to 300 different ingredients, and there are about 2,500 different scents to choose from when making perfumes. Scents can be small chemical substances or natural extracts from things like plants. Whether they're chemical or natural, they can both cause allergies, but actually, natural extracts are the most common cause of perfume allergies. Perfume is added to all sorts of products, like cosmetics and cleaning stuff, and it's also used in toys, paper products, air fresheners, industrial products, paint, cutting oils, and more.

What causes perfume allergy?

Perfume allergy occurs when there are allergenic fragrances in the products. Products that are in prolonged contact with the skin, as clothes are, generally pose a greater risk of allergy than products that are only briefly in contact with the skin.

If you wash your clothes with a detergent that contains perfume, your skin will be exposed to the perfume around the clock. TexCare is completely free of perfume.

Allergic reaction caused by perfume[/caption]

What are the symptoms?

The first symptom of perfume allergy is often eczema in the armpits after using deodorant. The eczema may disappear again if you stop using the specific deodorant that caused it. In other cases, the eczema continues or reappears later when you use other products that contain the allergenic fragrance you cannot tolerate. This can then lead to hand eczema, widespread eczema on the face and body.

Diagnosis and treatment:

A patch test is used to diagnose a perfume allergy, also known as a lappetest. Dermatologists use a mix of 8 perfume substances, 7 chemical substances, and natural extracts to diagnose perfume allergies. In addition, a wide range of individual perfume substances and mixtures are used for diagnosis. The mix of the 8 fragrances is called a fragrance mix and has been in use since the early 1980s. All example patients are routinely tested with this when being investigated for allergies, most often together with their own cosmetic products, perfumes, and more.

Legislation:

Cosmetic ingredients, including perfumes, are regulated by an EU directive that has been implemented in the form of a Danish regulation, the so-called Cosmetics Regulation.
Amendments have been adopted in the EU directive and thus in the Cosmetics Regulation, which means a general possibility to require that perfume substances must be listed on the ingredient declaration.

This new legislation came into effect on March 11, 2005. It currently requires that 26 fragrance substances, which have been shown to cause allergies, must be listed in the ingredient list if they occur in the product above a certain minimum amount.

The rules state that the presence of one of the aforementioned substances must be indicated on the product's ingredient list when the concentration of the substance exceeds 0.001% in products that are not rinsed off the skin, such as lotion and deodorant, and 0.01% in products that are rinsed off the skin, such as shampoo.

From 8 October 2005, the declaration requirement for the above-mentioned allergenic fragrances also applies to detergents and cleaning agents for private and commercial use.

This new legislation will give dermatologists a better opportunity to detect allergies to fragrance substances in the future and will allow people with perfume allergies, who wish to use perfumed products, to avoid products they cannot tolerate in advance.

Please be aware that it's impossible to guarantee that you won't react to a perfumed product. There are thousands of different perfume ingredients, and not all of them have been tested for allergenic properties. Additionally, allergenic substances can legally be present in small quantities in products without being declared.

What can you do yourself?

If you want to be completely sure against perfume allergy, you should use unperfumed products.

In any case, you should avoid using perfumed products on eczema skin, as eczema increases the risk of allergies because the skin's protective barrier is broken down.

If you have a perfume allergy or want to be completely sure, you should avoid using perfumed products.
The easiest way to determine if a product is perfumed is to smell it. TexCare products bear this logo to show that they are unperfumed.

Keep in mind that natural cosmetics or other natural products can also contain allergenic fragrances.

Products like perfume and eau de toilette can be used without spraying them on your clothes. Avoid washing clothes in a perfumed product, and instead apply the fragrance directly to your skin so it doesn't come into contact with your clothes.
If you develop a rash from a product, stop using it immediately. If the rash is widespread or lasts more than a few days, consult a doctor.

Read more

The Knowledge Center for Allergy informs: Natural perfumes can cause allergies.
Asthma Allergy magazine 2002: 6:32

Scientific articles:

Johansen JD. Contact Allergy to Fragrances: Clinical and experimental investigations of the fragrance mix and its ingredients. Doctoral dissertation from the University of Copenhagen. Contact Dermatitis 2002:46 (suppl. 3): 1-31

Mørtz CG. The prevalence of atopic dermatitis, hand eczema, allergic contact dermatitis, type IV and type I sensitization in 8th grade school children in Odense. Ph.d. afhandling fra Syddansk Universitet 1999.

Nielsen NH et al. Allergic contact sensitization in an adult Danish population: two cross sectional surveys eight years apart (The Copenhagen Allergy Study). Acta Derm Venereol 2001;81:31-34.

Rastogi SC et al. Natural ingredient-based cosmetics. Content of selected fragrance sensitizers. Contact Dermatitis 1996:34:423-26.

Rastogi SC et al. Deodorants on the European Market: quantitative chemical analysis of 21 fragrances. Contact Dermatitis 1998:38: 29-35

Rastogi SC et al. The composition of fine fragrances is changing. Contact Dermatitis 2003:48:130-2

Schnuch A et al. Epidemiology of contact allergy: an estimation of morbidity employing the clinical epidemiology and drug utilization research (CE-DUR) approach. Contact Dermatitis 2002:47:32-9.

Schnuch A et al. Contact allergy to fragrances: frequencies of sensitization from 1996 to 2002. Results of the IVDK. Contact Dermatitis 2004:50:65-76