All Natural Colognes

[HORNS]

I was wondering if some of you scent masters could enlighten me on what brand of colognes were composed of 100% all-natural scents. I was talking to a sales associate for Annick Goutal, who said that this brand, along with just a few others, contain no artificial scents. This led me to wonder what was actually out there that was of the same quality.

There are, of course, colognes manufactured for brands and designers, and these colognes may be all natural as well. But I assume that, as an unsubstantiated example, Tom Ford may have one manufacturer/designer make one of his colognes which may be all natural, while another cologne under his brand may be made by someone else and thus might contain synthetics.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Thomas]

Anya McCoy seems to be pretty well-regarded, though I've not tried anything from her.
Ayala Moriel also seems to have a few gems out there.
AbdesSalaam Attar (profumo.it) gets a little love for his materials, but is expensive as hell.

those are all 'natural' perfumers who avoid synthetics.

Dawn Spencer Hurwitz has a natural line along with her normal offerings.
Aveda has something that Dane reviewed a while back (but didn't like)
L'Artisan also has the occasional natural (Jatamansi)

That's just off the top of my head, though.

Bear in mind, however, that the limited/banned substances in perfumery...are pretty well all natural substances, like oakmoss.

 

[HORNS]

Originally Posted by Thomas

Anya McCoy seems to be pretty well-regarded, though I've not tried anything from her.
Ayala Moriel also seems to have a few gems out there.
AbdesSalaam Attar (profumo.it) gets a little love for his materials, but is expensive as hell.

those are all 'natural' perfumers who avoid synthetics.

Dawn Spencer Hurwitz has a natural line along with her normal offerings.
Aveda has something that Dane reviewed a while back (but didn't like)
L'Artisan also has the occasional natural (Jatamansi)

That's just off the top of my head, though.

Bear in mind, however, that the limited/banned substances in perfumery...are pretty well all natural substances, like oakmoss.

Thanks, Tom-Tom, for the response - and for this I say

opcorn:

 

[MyOtherLife]

Sweat.

 

[Thomas]

HORNS, you might check into the natural perfumer's guild.

 

[rach2jlc]

Pretty much everybody uses synthetics to some degree, for as T said... many things are banned now that once were available. As well, AFAIK, very few parfumers are ripping musk glands out of deer and civet cats. Further, sheer economics and the need to stay in business prevent it, and chemistry/synthetics get better by the day.

BUT, "synthetic" doesn't necessarily mean crappy, and there is a lot that goes into making a good scent. Retail price doesn't matter, and neither does advertising. Creed is a good example of this... you tell me all that Ambergris in the Creed house notes is due to some guy scowering the beach scooping it up? Riiiiight.

Trying to go "all natural" isn't necessarily the same as trying to go handmade for shoes or fully canvassed for suits. As for TF, I believe his stuff is still all made through a collabo with Estee Lauder, like his RTW is made with Zegna.

 

[HORNS]

Originally Posted by rach2jlc

Pretty much everybody uses synthetics to some degree, for as T said... many things are banned now that once were available. As well, AFAIK, very few parfumers are ripping musk glands out of deer and civet cats. Further, sheer economics and the need to stay in business prevent it, and chemistry/synthetics get better by the day.

BUT, "synthetic" doesn't necessarily mean crappy, and there is a lot that goes into making a good scent. Retail price doesn't matter, and neither does advertising. Creed is a good example of this... you tell me all that Ambergris in the Creed house notes is due to some guy scowering the beach scooping it up? Riiiiight.

Trying to go "all natural" isn't necessarily the same as trying to go handmade for shoes or fully canvassed for suits. As for TF, I believe his stuff is still all made through a collabo with Estee Lauder, like his RTW is made with Zegna.

Thanks, rach, I was hoping you would chime in on this.

First, I used Tom Ford as merely an example - I could have used Hermes instead. But anyway, I agree with you on the irrelevance of some of the components being synthetic versus natural, and am personally happy that animals are not losing their lives for a gland they have on their ass.

That being said, I do like the idea of a cologne being composed of as many natural components as possible. It's like so many other things that we have hang-ups on - it would be a very personal knowledge that would give you some type of warm sense of satisfaction knowing that the scent you are wearing is composed of natural ingredients.

 

[rach2jlc]

Originally Posted by HORNS

Thanks, rach, I was hoping you would chime in on this. First, I used Tom Ford as merely an example - I could have used Hermes instead. But anyway, I agree with you on the irrelevance of some of the components being synthetic versus natural, and am personally happy that animals are not losing their lives for a gland they have on their ass. That being said, I do like the idea of a cologne being composed of as many natural components as possible. It's like so many other things that we have hang-ups on - it would be a very personal knowledge that would give you some type of warm sense of satisfaction knowing that the scent you are wearing is composed of natural ingredients.
Agreed completely, and was just giving the TF stuff for info's sake. Where I get hung up is when the synthetic is chosen simply to lower the cost of manufacture to get more $$$. It's like when a designer switches production from Italy to China, but raises the retail price (cough, Prada, cough.) If it is done because of legal or production problems, or because the synthetic is all there is (Helmut Lang had a $300 scent called "Velviona" once, which was a completely synthetic 'invented' musk), then obviously I have no issue. Guerlain's Jicky is another scent created with invented "synthetic" notes, and is often called the first truly "modern" scent. And, AFAIK, there is nothing "natural" about many aldehydes, but imagine the scent world without them (no Chanel no. 5) Some notes, like Oud wood (agarwood), rose absolute, real Sandalwood (santal de mysore), etc. are absolutely heavenly and you can tell the difference in synthetics vs. real. For example, try YSL M7 vs. one of the Montale Ouds. Speaking of, I've found Montale to be wonderful, and very natural. $$$, but lovely. Annick Goutal, which you mentioned above, is also good, though again some of her/their scents are just icky. The biggest "names" though, regardless of price, are notorious stretching the truth. Creed is probably the worst, but I'm rather anti-Creed for the most part. I'd say TF asks Estee to put in good stuff, but I don't think he's requiring the absolute best, otherwise that $190 EdP would be $400. It's like his suits and bags... they're nice, but at the end of the day, that's a $4500 Zegna jacket.

 

[HORNS]

Well-said, and this is exactly the type of insight I was hoping for.

rach, do you know much about Diptyque's component quality? I wear a lot of the Tam Dao from them, and find the sandlewood in this scent to be . . . different . . . from other sandlewoods I've smelled in the past. Diptyque used to be an esoteric boutique brand, but I would assume that their quality has dropped off, compared to the past, since their production has increased with a larger market.

 

[godofcoffee]

I can't imagine non-synthetic colognes having very good sillage, but then maybe it depends on what you mean by "synthetic". Would sandalwood, ambergris or whatever stick around for more than a few hours without supplementation by a synthetic?

That said, somebody once told me that Santal Noble (my fave) is all-natural, but I like it too much to believe him.

 

[rach2jlc]

Originally Posted by HORNS

Well-said, and this is exactly the type of insight I was hoping for. rach, do you know much about Diptyque's component quality? I wear a lot of the Tam Dao from them, and find the sandlewood in this scent to be . . . different . . . from other sandlewoods I've smelled in the past. Diptyque used to be an esoteric boutique brand, but I would assume that their quality has dropped off, compared to the past, since their production has increased with a larger market.
I've had several Diptyque, but not in the past 4-5 years. SO, as you said, I don't know if they'd changed their quality or manufacture since they've gotten much more popular. What I know of them, though, has been fairly positive, though given their wide distribution and relatively low price, I don't think they're quite as "rarified" as they probably want us to believe. Sandalwood, like civet, is (IMHO) a chameleon note depending where it is and who is smelling it. It is rarely there on its own, even when it is called "Sandalwood" in the name of the fragrance. It blends and changes character a LOT, to the extent that you have "Cannabis santal," "Santal Imperial," and "Etro Sandalo" and you'd be hard pressed to see what really they have in common, when then smelling a Santal de Mysore Essential Oil.

 

[Jay]

Burt's Bees Cologne. I've never used it myself, but it has good reviews and only costs $16.

 

[blklblk]

I use quite a few Burt's Bees products and really enjoy them. I have yet to try their 'natural cologne' tho.. I didn't even know they had a scent until now.. cool.

Originally Posted by Jay

Burt's Bees Cologne. I've never used it myself, but it has good reviews and only costs $16.

 

[Dane]

Originally Posted by HORNS

Well-said, and this is exactly the type of insight I was hoping for.

rach, do you know much about Diptyque's component quality? I wear a lot of the Tam Dao from them, and find the sandlewood in this scent to be . . . different . . . from other sandlewoods I've smelled in the past. Diptyque used to be an esoteric boutique brand, but I would assume that their quality has dropped off, compared to the past, since their production has increased with a larger market.

Sandalwood is too expensive to use these days...so most companies have altered their formulae to include Australian Sandalwood in place of Indian (different plant). Tam Dao was once wonderful...and now smells like Home Depot.

Re: Annick Goutal being all natural. BS. In fact, now that many natural citrus components have been restricted, they offer some of the most synthetic scents on the market.

All natural recommendations - as Thomas mentioned, L'Artisan makes two - Jatamansi (citrus) and Cote d'Amour (strange, coconut-y thing...really impressive).

Honore des Pres is an all natural line - not easy to find, but have great scents. The I-heart-NY series is particularly impressive.

Aveda offers a few, but they all smell like Aveda - ie: tea trea oil and lavender. *gag*

If you want an impressive use of quality ingredients for a fair price, Etat Libre d'Orange comes to mind. Pricier would be Chanel's "exclusif" collection.

 

[Dane]

Originally Posted by godofcoffee

That said, somebody once told me that Santal Noble (my fave) is all-natural, but I like it too much to believe him.

They're wrong.