Scent is so powerful to the human mind. It can change our mood, spark memories and even improve our cognition. Take lavender or peppermint, two essential oils that can immediately change the state of our nervous system by either calming anxiety or boosting energy levels.
What many of us don’t know however, is that most essential oils also contain irritants like limonene and linalool (there are 82 listed by the International Fragrance Association, of which 26 must be declared on packaging), which are problematic for anyone with a fragrance sensitivity or perfume allergy. If your skincare smells great but you’re experiencing flare-ups without understanding why, it could be down to the natural fragrances used in the product.
Creating formulas that are 100% allergen free is extremely difficult, which is why most brands don’t take this into consideration. After all, a product feels even more luxurious when it smells beautiful and can magically transport you to a different moment in time or place.
At Oodee, we believe in having the best of both, which is why we’ve created the world’s first Allergen Neutral™ fragrances using flavour technology. Our aromas don’t contain any of the 82 fragrance allergens – that means zero essential oils or traces of essential oils – and are created with natural, plant-based fragrance compounds in the form of isolates.
So how does flavour technology work? We isolate single aroma compounds through natural methods including vacuum distillation, which uses heat reduction to separate ingredients and thereby remove unwanted allergens. For example, caraway seeds contain a single molecule that when extracted has the taste and smell of spearmint without the associated allergens of spearmint oil. Ideal then, if you want to create a minty fresh scent minus the risk of irritation.
Natural fermentation and bio-processes are also used to create ‘natural reactors’, which essentially means transforming a starting ingredient into an aroma chemical with a desired aroma. An example of this is rice extract, which can be converted naturally into a vanilla scent, while using minimum energy and carbon in the process. It’s a win-win situation.
Oodee works with a fragrance house with over 250 years of experience to identify, extract, and blend these single aroma chemicals into complex, allergen-free fragrances that don’t contain any of the 82 fragrance allergens. The combined result? A luxurious, sustainable and people-friendly product range that’s entirely fragrance free without compromising on the sensorial benefits of scent and the beautiful journey it can take us on.
Our 3-step Phenomenal Skin Edit has been expertly blended with notes of wild avocado, apricot nectar and soft mimosa petals – a sweet yet herby blend that evokes a feeling of warmth, energy and comfort. We like to think of it as gentle rays of sunshine caressing your skin – and mood. The happy place that it transports you to? That’s entirely up to you.