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

What is perfume?
A perfume is a mixture of fragrances, which are composed so that they form an aesthetic whole. The individual fragrances in a perfume are volatile and are released into the air at different rates, so the scent changes over time. A perfume can consist of 10 to 300 individual fabrics and there are about 2,500 different fragrances to choose from in the composition of perfumes. Fragrances can be small chemical substances or natural extracts from e.g. plants. There is no difference in the ability of substances to give allergies, whether they are chemical substances or whether they are natural, in fact the most frequent cause of perfume allergy is natural extracts. Perfumes are added to all kinds of products in cosmetics and cleaning products and are used in toys, stationery, air fresheners, industrial products, paints, cutting oils and more.

What causes perfume allergy?

Perfume allergy occurs when there are allergenic fragrances in the products. Products that are in long-term contact with the skin, as clothing is, all other things being equal, offer a greater risk of allergies than products that are only briefly in contact with the skin.

If you wash your clothes in a detergent with added perfume, your skin will be exposed to the influence of the perfume 24 hours a day. TexCare is completely perfume-free.

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 exfual may disappear again by discontinuing the use of the specific deodorant which has caused the exfant. In other cases, the eczema continues or reappears at a later stage when other products containing the allergenic fragrance are used that cannot be tolerated. It can then give rise to hand eczema, widespread eczema on the face and on the body.

Diagnosis and treatment:

The diagnosis of perfume allergy is made by a patch test also called patch test. Dermatologists use a mixture of 8 perfumes, 7 chemical substances and natural extracts to diagnose perfume allergy, in addition, a wide range of individual perfumes and mixtures are used for diagnosis. The mixture of the 8 fragrances is called a perfume mix (fragrance mix) and has been in use since early 1980. All eczema patients are routinely tested by examination for allergies, usually together with their own cosmetic products, perfumes and more.

Legislation:

Ingredients in cosmetics, including perfumes, are regulated by an EU directive, which is implemented in the form of a Danish executive order, the so-called Cosmetics Order.
Amendments have been adopted to the EU directive and thus to the Cosmetics Executive Order, which means a general possibility of requiring perfumes to appear on the content declaration.

This new legislation entered into force on 11 March 2005. It currently means that 26 perfumes shown to cause allergies must be included in the list of ingredients if they appear in the product in a minimum quantity.

The rules are thus that the presence of one of the above substances must be indicated on the product's table of contents when the concentration of the substance exceeds 0.001% in products that are not cleaned of the skin e.g. lotion and deodorant and 0.01% in products purified by the skin e.g. shampoo.

From 8 October 2005, the obligation to declare the above allergenic perfumes shall also apply to detergents for private and commercial use.

This new legislation will give dermatologists a better opportunity to detect allergies to perfumes in the future and will allow people with perfume allergies who wish to use perfumed products to choose in advance products from which they will not tolerate.

However, it should be borne in mind that it is possible to make sure that you can tolerate a perfumed product, as there are thousands of perfumes and not all are mapped for allergenic properties. In addition, allergenic substances may occur legally in small quantities in the products without being declared.

What can you do yourself?

If you want to make sure completely against perfume allergies, you need unschedulated products.

In all cases, the use of perfumed products on eczema should be avoided, as eczema increases the risk of allergies occurring as the skin's protective barrier is broken down.

If you have perfume allergies or want to make sure completely, avoid using perfumed products.
The easiest way to determine if a product is perfumed is to smell it. TexCare products carry this logo to show that it is unscented.

Remember natural coding or other natural products can also contain perfumes that cause allergies.

Products such as perfume and eau de toilette may be used on the outside of the clothes. Do not wash the clothes in a perfumed product, and then put the scent on the outside of the clothes so that it does not reach your skin.
If you get a rash from a product, you should immediately stop using it. If the rash is widespread or lasts more than a few days, seek medical advice.

Read more

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 thesis from the University of Copenhagen. Contact Dermatitis 2002:46 (Supplement 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. PhD thesis from the University of Southern Denmark 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