Fragrance Companies lying about Phthalates?

Nailpolish and perfume are two of my favorite things, and I’ve heard a lot of discussion about phthalates. In Europe, the chemical Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is banned, and here in America, both DEHP and diethyl phthalate (DEP) have been voluntarily removed by cosmetics companies from many products.

Or so we thought.

I found this article by Consumer Reports, detailing a test they did of seven popular perfumes including : Celine Dion Parfums Eau de Toilette Spray by Coty, Clinique Happy Perfume Spray, Elizabeth Taylor White Diamonds Eau de Parfum, Estée Lauder Beautiful Eau de Parfum Spray, and Liz Claiborne Curve Eau de Toilette Spray. Each of these companies says that they reformulated their fragrances to eliminate phthalates. But Consumer Reports seems to have unearthed a strange and highly suspect contradiction.

· All the fragrances we tested contained at least these two phthalates: Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), which is banned in cosmetics in Europe, and diethyl phthalate (DEP), which is not banned and was present in much larger amounts. Our findings seem counter to a fragrance-industry survey that reported DEHP use is down to zero.

· Two products-Aubrey Organics Jade Spice Eau de Parfum and Aveda Love Pure-Fume Essence-went into the test group because the companies say they don’t contain any phthalates. But we found DEP, DEHP, and diisodecyl phthalate (DIDP) in the Aubrey Organics product. Aveda’s perfume contained DEP and DEHP.

· Estée Lauder says that DEP is the only phthalate used in any of its products, but we found DEHP along with DEP in Estée Lauder Beautiful and its Clinique Happy. (The company also owns Aveda.) A Liz Claiborne representative told us that none of its products contains DEHP, but we found that chemical-plus DEP-in Liz Claiborne Curve.

· We tested Christian Dior Poison Eau de Toilette Spray because in 2002, tests by the Environmental Working Group, Health Care Without Harm, and Women’s Voices for the Earth found that it had four types of phthalates, more than any of the other 16 fragrances tested. The 2002 study found DEP, DEHP, dibutyl phthalate (DBP), and benzyl butlyl phthalate (BBP) but our tests showed only DEP and DEHP.

· We bought Happy, Poison, and Beautiful in both the U.S. and Europe, and found the E.U.-banned phthalate DEHP in all the samples.

· No fragrances mentioned phthalates on their labels. But by law, they can list the word “fragrance” without citing any of its components, including phthalates.

So, why are companies being so dishonest? On the one hand, phthalates haven’t been directly shown to cause harm in the levels they are used at in cosmetics. On the other hand, if they’re so harmless, why did the industry agree to get rid of them? And after all that, why did they lie and just keep on using them anyway? Even companies like Aveda and Aubrey Organics. The phthalates are included in the formulas to make nailpolish more flexible and to help fragrances linger on the skin. The nail polish thing, I get – I’ve encountered a lot of crappy polish formulas, and if DBP helps them stay looking better, longer, it makes sense to include them. But you know what makes perfumes linger on the skin? A higher percentage of oil. I’m guessing that fragrance companies have figured out that phthalates are much cheaper than their oil compounds, and by using them, they can make weaker fragrances that have slightly better performance. But, as anyone who’s visited a department store fragrance counter in the past 30 years knows, many fragrances are pretty wimpy and don’t last on the skin anyway! I’m left wondering about all of the above questions, and whether or not I should be more angry about this than I already am. How do you feel?