Organic Glam: Jasmine

  After learning about all the nasty things in my skincare, I speedily started changing everything in my bathroom and my make-up bag. One thing that remained unchanged was… my perfume. To be honest, an idea of clean perfume never even entered my mind. Perfume is perfume! However, it turns out that fragrance (the thing that make your perfume smell as lovely as it does) may contain some pretty toxic chemicals. The biggest problem is that manufacturers are not required to disclose their fragrance ingredients, in order to protect their secret combinations. However, we get a problem where we do not know what is in our favourite perfume. Legally, manufacturers are allowed to cover over 200 different chemicals by the term ‘parfum’ or ‘fragrance’.

 And so, I set out to find a perfect natural perfume. I always loved jasmine, so I wanted to try out essential jasmine oil. However, I found that it did not really smell much of jasmine to me. Not the same intoxicating, deep smell of a Jasmine flower you pass on a June evening in the country... 

  Then, one day I was in London, passing by the windows of the Organic Pharmacy shop. Just as I was walking past the door a lovely display of large shiny perfume bottles caught my eye. I went back, and there in front of me stood a line-up of huge glass bottles labelled 'Organic Glam'- a new line of 100% natural based perfumes from Organic Pharmacy. And there, among the 5 lovely bottles, I saw one labelled 'Jasmine'. 

 'Well’-, I thought as I picked up the bottle from the stand-,’it will probably smell too sweet or of something else completely unrelated to jasm....' And my thought stopped right there as I inhaled the content of the bottle. There it was: the white jasmine bush on a light summer evening, packed up nicely in a bottle. The full scent consists of Egyptial Jasmine and Ylang Ylang, with a delicate hint of Sicilian Bergamot and sensual Sandalwood. I sprayed my fist a couple of times, and left the shop to see how the smell sets. It smelt beautifully on my skin, just like in the bottle, the smell becoming gentler soon after, but nevertheless lasting a long time. 

 Well, I thought, this fragrance is too good to be true, what's in it?? I emailed the Organic Pharmacy team, who promptly emailed the full ingredients list, specifying that ALL the ingredients are of natural essential oil origin, and the perfumes are 85% organic.

 ALCOHOL (ORGANIC RYE), AQUA (WATER), PARFUM (NATURAL FRAGRANCE), LINALOOL, HEXYL CINNAMAL, GERANIOL, BENZYL BENZOATE, LIMONENE, EUGENOL, BENZYL SALICILATE, FARNESOL, BENZYL ALCOHOL (COMPONENTS OF NATURAL ESSENTIAL OILS)

   My only downside was the price for this perfume (£112.50 for a 100 ml bottle) but if you are planning to splash out then I'm sure it will be worth the money and will last a long time! Maybe Organic Pharmacy will someday make these fragrances in smaller bottles and then they will seem more affordable? 

 Organic Glam line also holds 4 other scents: Citron, Oriental Blossom, Oud and Orange Blossom. I have not tried these yet, but if you have, please share!

 The Jasmine perfume to me stands out among all other natural fragrances I have tried as it managed to capture the natural intoxicating smell of jasmine and keep it in the beautiful glass bottle. I now know what I want for my birthday present!..