Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Scents and nonsense

Why are traditional, natural perfume ingredients such as lemon and basil being restricted or even banned?

issue 11 December 2010

Christmas is coming, so that means presents. And for lots of us, that means scent. Some of the hopeful donors will be the sort to wander helplessly around a fragrance department, bewildered by choice until they seize, in desperation, on the stuff that looks nicely packaged. That was the route whereby my father once bought my mother some pleasing aftershave.

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