Natural and Synthetic Ingredients 

In my practice I use mixed media. This means both natural and synthetic ingredients. Hearing the word "synthetic" can raise eyebrows, but in the perfume industry they are very safe, having gone through strict toxicity and environmental tests. There are many benefits for perfumery in using synthetic materials.

The use of synthetics not only gives a much larger palette of scents to work with, but also helps limit the use of natural products that might contribute to the depletion of the original plant. One example is Bagdanol®, a sandalwood-smelling synthetic molecule I use, instead of natural sandalwood oil, which stems from the avidly exploited and almost extinct sandalwood trees of India.

The essential oil of a fruit resides mostly in its peel. That means that fruits with thin peels (like apples, strawberries, pineapples) have a very small concentration of essential oil and thus not enough to extract and use as a fragrance. These scents are recreated synthetically. Citrus fruits, on the other hand, are very widely used in perfumery since their peel is thick enough and can go through the adequate extraction methods.

Also, some plants, fruits, or flowers are too fragile to survive the extraction process of their essential oil, and so the only way to use their scent in a perfume is with a synthetic recomposition. You can see on the right side of this page a list of all the materials I have used in my fragrances, divided into naturals and synthetics.

Cruelty free, Vegan and Safety Compliant

No animal testing has been applied to the products or the ingredients. No animally-derived ingredients are used. Materials like musks and ambergris are no longer used in the industry in their natural form, which was obtained fromanimals, who had to be hunted and/or killed. Instead, their synthetic alternatives are being used today. All products are subject to European Regulations for Cosmetics and the International Fragrance Association (IFRA) guidelines.

Some examples of Natural Ingredients