- What it can be used for
- Adds scent, conditions hair, dissolves other ingredients, forms a film on skin or hair, keeps films flexible, and makes alcohol undrinkable (the functions the EU ingredient database, CosIng, lists for it; a product may use it for any of them)
- CAS number
- 84-66-2
Why it’s flagged
Listed as a chemical of concern by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.
- “Phthalates”. Source: Campaign for Safe Cosmetics
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is an advocacy group. Its profiles explain why it considers these ingredients a concern.
What the research says
- Ingredient labels cannot show what is inside 'parfum': a 2010 Canadian cosmetics survey had to leave out diethyl phthalate, a common fragrance solvent, because 'short of a laboratory analysis, there's no way to know'. Strong evidence. David Suzuki Foundation 2010
- US law does not require the individual chemicals in a fragrance to be listed, so a shopper cannot tell from the label whether a scented product contains diethyl phthalate. Strong evidence. Parlett 2013
- In the same EPA review, diethyl phthalate (DEP), the phthalate used in fragrance, had only 'slight' evidence of male reproductive effects, the weakest of six phthalates, even though people are exposed to it the most. Strong evidence. Radke 2018 (US EPA)
- Pregnant women who had used perfume or cologne in the past day had 167% higher urine levels of MEP, the breakdown product of the fragrance solvent diethyl phthalate (DEP), than women who hadn't (177 women, Boston). Strong evidence. Braun 2014
- FDA's 2010 follow-up testing of 84 consumer cosmetic products found the fragrance solvent diethyl phthalate (DEP) in all 11 fragrance products tested (up to 36,006 ug/g, about 3.6% by weight) and in 20 of 60 adult-use products overall, while dibutyl phthalate (DBP) was found only in nail products (11 of 24, up to 62,607 ug/g), even though phthalates carried in as part of 'fragrance' are not required to be named on the label. Moderate evidence. Hubinger 2010
- A violet-water cologne that doctors reported as a lavender-oil exposure in a boy with breast growth declared no essential oil on its ingredient list, and an essential-oil industry group's lab analysis found none; it reported a synthetic fragrance allergen (alpha-isomethyl ionone), azo dyes, and diethyl phthalate instead. Go by the ingredient list of the actual product, not its scent name. Moderate evidence. Braunstein & Braunstein 2023 Industry-funded
- Because diethyl phthalate (DEP) was found in essentially all fragranced cosmetic products FDA tested (5 of 5 in 2006, 11 of 11 in 2010) but is never named on the label when added via 'fragrance,' choosing unscented or fragrance-free products is a more reliable way to avoid it than reading a fragranced product's ingredient list. Moderate evidence. Hubinger 2010
- In the 2007 NRDC air-freshener test, diethyl phthalate (DEP) was the phthalate found at the highest concentrations: three samples at 360, 1,100 and 7,300 ppm, and six more samples at 6.3 ppm or less; di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP), the only one of the five on California's Proposition 65 reproductive-toxicity list, was found at much lower levels (four samples under 1 ppm, one at 4.5 ppm). Moderate evidence. EPA 2007, citing NRDC 2007
Each finding shows its evidence grade. See every graded fact or how we grade.
What this page can’t tell you
These lists describe what a substance can do, its hazard. The risk from one product depends on how much is in it and how you use it, and the label doesn’t say how much.
Not being on a list doesn’t make an ingredient safe. It may never have been assessed.
Check your products
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Flagged the same way
Official lists checked September 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.