Regulation & challenges facing fragrance: are consumers shying away from traditional products?

We caught up with Creezy Courtoy, Founder and Chairman of The Perfume Foundation​, a non-profit that describes itself as committed to increasing the positive awareness of issues related to the industry of perfume.

In this three-part guest article series, Courtoy takes us through the latest trends, challenges and opportunities for beauty and personal care fragrance.

This is the third part of the series. Read part one​ and part two​.

Fear of fragrance?

Signs of the times:  Doctor and dentists waiting rooms, schools, offices in the US and Canada have signs forbidding fragrances.

In term of regulations, the EU regulation does not allow the use of naturals, and the cosmetic directive was made in benefit of the chemical industry. Therefore the US is 10 years ahead.

We hope that the EU perfume industry will succeed to have perfume removed from the Cosmetic Directive and have like in the US the freedom to make natural or synthetic perfumes and let consumers choose by themselves what to buy.

There are still plenty of difference between countries as the regulation is not followed the same way everywhere. It is only in France that the statute of artisan perfumer does not exist.

In the other states it is allowed, what gives an open door to natural perfumery.

Top tips for fragrance brands looking to make an impact in the coming period

Focus on transparency, authenticity and integrity: as with increasing consumer awareness and the power of social media, brands are going to be more and more challenged- they will have to answer many questions about their product’s content.

Talking about packaging, in the past precious perfumes were sold in voluptuous beautiful presentations.

The reason was to protect the fragrance from the damaging effects of light, and when you would purchase a perfume, the presentation was so beautiful, you would keep it.

Today, most of the famous brand’s packages are made to ship long distances, and are thrown away by consumers immediately after the purchase.  

The need of a cleaner environment , less packaging, less plastic… is  a must for our society.

With natural perfumes and a more proximity perfumery we will come back to the beauty of packaging that could be made from different materials and this will give work to many artisans as packaging will be back in honour again.