Can I wear perfume while pregnant?

The verdict

Yes, you can wear perfume while pregnant. There is no restriction anywhere, and it is worth being straightforward that this is a case where the evidence is absent rather than reassuring.

Nobody has run a study on perfume use in pregnancy. No health service publishes advice on it. No cosmetics regulator has issued a pregnancy warning about fragrance. What exists is general cosmetics law, which applies to everyone, and which has already dealt with the specific ingredients that generate most of the anxiety.

That is a different situation from a substance that has been examined and cleared. It is also a different situation from one that has been examined and flagged. Knowing which of the three you are in is the useful part.

What "fragrance" on a label actually means

The single word fragrance or parfum on an ingredient list can stand for a blend of dozens of individual substances. The FDA explains the position in US law: fragrance and flavour formulas are complex mixtures of many different natural and synthetic chemical ingredients, and they are the kinds of cosmetic components protected as trade secrets, so they may be listed simply as fragrance or flavour.

The UK and EU work differently in one important respect. A defined list of fragrance allergens must be named individually on the ingredient list when present above set concentrations, which is why you see substances such as limonene, linalool, citronellol and geraniol on the end of a perfume ingredient list. That list exists because of contact allergy, not because of pregnancy.

The FDA also notes that a product labelled unscented may still contain fragrance ingredients used to mask the smell of other ingredients, and that fragrance-free is the term that means no fragrance materials have been added. This is worth knowing if you are trying to avoid the smell rather than the chemistry.

The phthalate question

Almost all pregnancy-related worry about perfume traces to phthalates, and specifically to diethyl phthalate, used as a solvent and fixative in fragrance.

The FDA's position, published on its phthalates in cosmetics page, is that it is not aware of scientific data demonstrating a safety problem with the use of phthalates in cosmetics as they are currently used, while noting that it continues to monitor the research. It also explains that under US law, a cosmetic ingredient does not need FDA approval before it goes on sale, and that responsibility for safety sits with the manufacturer.

The UK and EU took a different route. Several phthalates, including DEHP, DBP and BBP, are prohibited in cosmetic products, and diethyl phthalate is the one that remains in use in fragrance. That means the phthalates with the strongest reproductive toxicity data are already out of the products you can buy on a UK high street, by law, and not as a pregnancy measure.

Neither regulator has issued pregnancy-specific advice about phthalates in cosmetics. If you want to reduce your exposure anyway, that is a legitimate personal choice, and the label term to look for is phthalate-free, though it is a marketing claim rather than a regulated one.

The reason most people actually stop

Not chemistry. Smell.

Heightened sense of smell is one of the earliest and most consistent changes in pregnancy, and it interacts badly with nausea. Perfume, which is designed to project, is one of the most common triggers people report, along with other people's aftershave, coffee, cooking oil and cleaning products.

If you have gone off your usual scent in the first trimester, that is an entirely ordinary thing and it usually settles as the nausea does, often by the second trimester. Nobody needs to give you permission to stop wearing something that makes you feel sick.

A few practical points that come up:

• Spraying onto clothing rather than skin keeps the scent further from your face and reduces skin contact at the same time.
• Lighter concentrations, eau de toilette rather than parfum, project less.
• If you are avoiding a scent because of nausea rather than principle, you do not need to throw it away. Aversions usually fade.

Skin reactions, which are more likely than anything else

Skin becomes more reactive in pregnancy for a lot of people, and fragrance is the leading cause of cosmetic contact allergy generally.

The FDA's guidance on allergens in cosmetics identifies fragrance ingredients among the most common causes of allergic reactions to cosmetics, and notes that reactions can develop to a product you have used for years. Pregnancy does not cause that, but it can be when you notice it, because skin is drier, more stretched and more easily irritated.

If a perfume that used to be fine now makes your skin itch or redden, stop using it and switch to spraying clothes. That is a straightforward irritation problem with a straightforward answer, and it is not a signal about your baby.

Essential oils are a separate question

Perfume and aromatherapy get conflated, and they should not be. Aromatherapy involves applying concentrated plant extracts to skin at percentages far above what a finished fragrance delivers, and there is separate guidance about dilution and about which oils to avoid. A perfume containing a rose note is not the same exposure as neat rose oil.

Scented candles, diffusers and plug-ins are also a different question from perfume, because the exposure is airborne and continuous rather than applied and personal. Ventilation is the sensible answer there, and no authority restricts them either.

Where guidance differs

Nobody publishes pregnancy advice on perfume. Not the NHS, not ACOG, not the FDA, not the UK or EU cosmetics regulators. This is an absence, and it should be read as an absence rather than as clearance.

The UK and EU restrict more phthalates than the US does. DEHP, DBP and BBP are banned in cosmetics in the UK and EU; the FDA has not restricted phthalates in cosmetics and says it is not aware of data showing a safety problem at current use levels.

Labelling rules differ. The UK and EU require named fragrance allergens above set concentrations; the US permits the single word fragrance as a trade secret.

Nobody claims a safe number of sprays. There is no exposure threshold published for fragrance in pregnancy by any body, and this page will not invent one.