Worth a closer look
Evidence key Strong Moderate Weak How we grade
Labeled fragrance allergen (EU) Scent ingredient Oxidizes into stronger allergens
- 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
- 115-95-7
Why it’s flagged
A fragrance allergen the EU requires companies to name on the label.
- Annex III entry 337; on labels from 2026 to 2028 (Regulation 2023/1545). Source: EU Cosmetics Regulation, Annex III (restricted)
Must be named on EU labels above 0.001% in leave-on and 0.01% in rinse-off products. Elsewhere, including the US, it can hide inside “fragrance”.
Used to add scent: its official function is perfuming or fragrance.
- Listed functions: fragrance. Source: EU CosIng ingredient database
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.”
Reacts with air to form stronger skin allergens.
- Formed allergenic hydroperoxides in air-exposed lavender oil in lab tests. Source: ihateperfume.com graded evidence
These scent chemicals react with air once a product is opened and form hydroperoxides, which are much stronger skin allergens. See the graded evidence below.
What the research says
- The two molecules that give lavender oil its scent, linalool and linalyl acetate, were put through the full regulatory endocrine test battery (OECD guideline cell assays plus rat uterotrophic, Hershberger and one-generation reproductive studies) and came back negative on estrogen and androgen endpoints — in a study written, run and entirely funded by BASF, the company that manufactures both chemicals, with all five authors BASF employees. Strong evidence. Hareng 2024 Industry-funded
- Linalool and linalyl acetate are registered in the EU at over 1,000 tonnes a year each for fragrance use in home-care and air-care products; the study states its purpose as adding to the dataset for future hazard-classification decisions as the EU adds endocrine disruption to its classification rules. Strong evidence. Hareng 2024 Industry-funded
- After 10 weeks of air exposure, lavender oil contained about 3.3% linalyl acetate hydroperoxides and 0.5% linalool hydroperoxides, the kind of oxidation products behind the commonest fragrance allergies in European clinics. Moderate evidence. Hagvall 2008 Industry-funded
- Independent laboratory testing not funded by the essential-oil or fragrance industry chemically confirmed that one of these colognes genuinely contained lavender oil (linalool and linalyl acetate), the only time this has been done for an actual implicated product in this literature rather than a reference oil bought for a lab study. Moderate evidence. Diaz 2016
- The vapor from a single cologne contained at least twenty identifiable chemicals – limonene, linalool, linalyl acetate, alpha- and beta-pinene, terpinolene, citronellol, anethole, coumarin, diethyl phthalate among them – none of which appear on the label. Moderate evidence. Anderson & Anderson 1998
About ingredients flagged like this one:
- Many fragrance chemicals become stronger skin allergens after the bottle is opened: limonene, linalool and geraniol react with air at room temperature to form hydroperoxides that, in mouse tests, sensitize at 5-10 times lower concentrations than the fresh chemical. Strong evidence. Pastor-Nieto 2021 (Karlberg 2013)
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.