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Geranyl Acetone

Worth a closer look

Evidence key Strong Moderate Weak How we grade

Scent ingredient

What it can be used for
Adds scent (the functions the EU ingredient database, CosIng, lists for it; a product may use it for any of them)
CAS number
3796-70-1

Why it’s flagged

  • Used to add scent: its official function is perfuming or fragrance.

    The EU ingredient database (CosIng) lists this ingredient's function as perfuming or fragrance, so it may be there to add scent, even on a label that never says “fragrance.”

What the research says

  • Wearing shorts and t-shirts instead of long clothes raised the skin-ozone products 6-MHO, 4-oxopentanal, and geranyl acetone by 35–51%. Clothes that had been worn for a few hours took up ozone about as fast as bare skin, because skin oil moves into the fabric. Moderate evidence. Zannoni 2021

Each finding shows its evidence grade. See every graded fact or how we grade.

Don’t want it on you or in your air? Look for “fragrance-free,” not “unscented.” An unscented product can still contain a masking fragrance. Why the words matter.

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.

“Fragrance” or “parfum” on a label can hide this ingredient and many others. In the US, the individual chemicals in a fragrance are rarely named on the label.

Check your products

Check a whole labelProducts that list itEWG Skin DeepShop fragrance-free

“Products that list it” opens Open Beauty Facts, a free database anyone can edit.

Flagged the same way

Official lists checked September 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.