Seda has a background in chemistry and worked as a skincare cosmetic chemist for a few years before going into corporate fragrance. She left after a couple of years because she wasn’t comfortable with the ingredients she was exposed to every day. Seda has always had a passion for fragrance, so when a friend recommended a job working in the lab for a fragrance company, she took it. She has been in the beauty industry for 15 years. 

Amanda was born with eczema and severe allergies ranging from food to seasonal allergies. She grew up reading ingredient lists and trying to find products that worked well for her skin. When Amanda entered college, she found a passion for organic chemistry and learned the science behind product development. At a career fair, she was introduced to a fragrance company and worked there for ten years in the labs. She was focused on how the products were made, then ended up managing a small team that helped with manufacturing.

They both had wonderful careers and were in the fragrance industry for a long time. So how did they switch gears and start a company focused on plant-based, ingredient-conscious products? We’re getting into the nitty gritty in this episode. I hope you enjoy it!

In This Episode:

• Getting out of big fragrance

• How scents are made

• The secrecy behind fragrance

• Safe synthetics

• The International Fragrance Association regulations

• Diethyl Phthalate and Lilial

• How ESAS Beauty does things differently with botanical fragrance

Getting Out of Big Fragrance

Seda’s breaking point was getting Lyme disease. It was hard for her to wake up or focus. She didn’t know what was happening, and it took years to overcome the bout of Lyme and also the insane amount of antibiotics she had to take to defeat the disease. There was a book called The Bulletproof Diet, and it talked about an anti-inflammatory lifestyle. Seda changed her lifestyle to go fully organic and anti-inflammatory, and it changed her life. As she says, “I became evangelical about this lifestyle, and it wasn’t any crazy lifestyle. It’s just organic food.”

This new lifestyle opened Seda’s eyes to the industry she was working in. It was no longer something she believed in, and she became uncomfortable with the fragrance ingredients she was working with every day. She started to question how she wanted to spend the next phase of her life. 

At the same time, Amanda’s eczema was getting a little bit worse, and she was encouraged to try Dupixent (an injection every two weeks to keep your eczema down). She was like, “I’m too young for this! I think there are different ways for me to take care of my health outside of having to take an injection every two weeks.” Seda and Amanda were talking about The Bulletproof Diet, and Amanda also decided to try it out. It changed her life in three days. She was more awake in the morning and had more energy. She started looking at the ingredients they were working with, and she saw how the ingredients she was creating were making products that weren’t aligned with the lifestyle she wanted.

Amanda and Seda decided to make products that align with the values they have at home. They thought of it as their moral responsibility.

How Scents Are Made

I preach all the time about what could be in fragrance. The last time I checked it was 3,816 ingredients that could be in fragrance. I believe people have this assumption that there are natural and safe ingredients in their products. But what is actually in fragrance? 

There are 3,816 ingredients the fragrance industry uses to formulate their fragrance oils. Those fragrance oils are a blend of synthetic molecules and naturals. They use some naturals, but when they tell their fragrance stories, they reference all these beautiful naturals, like gardenia, when there is really no gardenia in there. They’re telling these ingredient stories as they’re using whole naturals and they’re not; it’s a blend.

Based on Seda’s experience, fragrances are probably 99% synthetic and some natural. That puts these companies in the clear so they can claim there are some naturals in there. Not all synthetics are created equally either. You have some fully lab-made synthetic molecules, and then you have something called naturally derived. That means they may have started by extracting a small molecule from a natural ingredient, but they’ve completely adulterated it. In our book, it’s still synthetic. 

Everything needs to be looked at in a nuanced way, including naturals. ESAS doesn’t use every natural just because it’s natural. Even the ones they use they source carefully. They make sure they use it at safe dosages. A big part of the fragrance industry uses synthetic molecules mostly because they make those synthetic molecules. 

Did you know the fragrance industry is considered a chemical industry? A big part of these company’s revenue stream is from the synthetic molecules they make. Lilial is an example. Lilial is made by a fragrance company and they use it in their fragrances but they also sell it to other fragrance companies. It’s a whole other revenue stream for them. You don’t make money on naturals. With synthetic molecules, it’s your proprietary ingredient. You can charge whatever you want. Nobody knows what it’s made of or how it was synthesized. It’s all under lock and key when it comes to naturals.

Secrecy Behind Fragrance

Fragrance is sold as one word. When you buy a product, the ingredient label says ‘fragrance’. But as we said, that could include almost 4,000 ingredients in that one word. You have no idea unless you are working with a company that chooses to tell you every single one of its ingredients. 

It’s secretive within the industry, too. When a company makes a synthetic ingredient, there’s very little disclosure of what’s actually in the ingredient. Amanda even worked in the labs, and it wasn’t until later in her career that she got access to the full list of ingredients put in their products. 

Safe Synthetics

In episode 44, I talk through the difference between safe synthetics and natural scents. Companies are seeking EWG certification for things that are synthetically made. With the certification, we believe these are safe but I get a lot of questions if these ingredients and products have been studied. 

The fragrance industry doesn’t test, but a regulatory body called RIFM does. They focus on raw material safety assessments and evaluations. They come to these determinations through a bevy of different tests. It could be raw material testing or bridging testing due to molecular similarity with something else that’s on the market, however they derive or come to the conclusion that something is safe, but it doesn’t necessarily come from within the company. Seda and Amanda weren’t doing any testing; they were relying on other regulatory bodies in the industry.

It’s also dependent on where the brand is selling their product. There are different regulations between countries. A product in France might be completely different from what we have in the U.S. 

When I was researching, I could find medical research published information. For about 20% of the total 3,816 ingredients, nobody knows if they’re safe. Amanda used to work on raw material replacements. So there would be a formula that has been selling for a decade, and all of a sudden, one of the regulating bodies flags an ingredient. Behind the scenes, the team would have to replace that ingredient with something more up-to-date. One time, their company was on the hundredth replacement. How in the world would they know if it’s still safe? The industry has been under such lock and key that there was never an opportunity for true third-party testing. The testing is a gray area when it comes to fragrance molecules. 

When you create a fragrance formula, you follow the regulations based on the dosage level. Let’s say you can have 2% of this bad ingredient in your body care products. But, in candles, you can have ten times the amount of that ingredient because they consider that safe. Imagine you have all these products with the same ingredient, but the dosage level you’re inhaling is much more than what was initially regulated.

The International Fragrance Association (IFRA)

I email a lot of brands. Some of them love answering my questions because they have something to brag about, but a lot of them dislike my questions. One of the answers I often get back a lot from companies when I ask them for their fragrance ingredients is that it’s proprietary. They’re not going to tell me; I get the impression they don’t know anyway. 

They also always say they are compliant with the very strict safety standards of the International Fragrance Association. It’s a voluntary self-regulating body within the industry. A lot of people who sit on the board of IFRA come from the Industry. So, the very people who are making the synthetic molecules that are being regulated are sitting on the board regulating the molecules. It’s a conflict of interest. Like Seda said earlier, in one minute the IFRA can tell fragrance companies that they can’t use certain ingredients anymore. 

Diethyl Phthalate and Lilial

Let’s go through two examples. One of them is diethyl phthalate, which is a well-known endocrine disruptor. Exposure to diethyl phthalates is linked to negative birth outcomes, lower probability of pregnancy and birth from IVF, higher risk of preterm birth endometriosis, thyroid disorders, and an increased risk of breast cancer. This is not theoretical. Nobody should be putting these things on their bodies. 

A few years ago, California passed a transparency law that required anyone using a specific list of ingredients to disclose it. It’s posted on a public-facing website. I did a quick search for fine fragrances and here are some of the companies that use diethyl phthalates in their fragrances:

• Coach

• Jimmy Chu

• Mont Blanc

• Paris

• Monte Carlo

• Kate Spade

• Lanon Paris

There are hundreds of products on the list in California being sold, and that’s only those that have been reported.

Diethyl phthalate is used to make the fragrance smell good, be long-lasting, and be strong. Diethyl phthalate is a chemical ingredient that makes products stable. It’s also used to denature alcohol, so companies don’t have to pay hefty taxes to use alcohol for perfume. 

Why are companies still using diethyl phthalate? It’s still allowed. Some companies have switched away from it, but there are still many companies that haven’t been able to make the transition yet. 

There was a good study from the end of last year. They took a group of women and took away all their personal care products with parabens or phthalates in them for a month. They studied their breast tissue and gene expression. They found that the genetic expression risk of the breast tissue in women who avoided those personal care products for that short amount of time decreased by 73% in thirty days. Phthalates and parabens don’t stick around in your body. The problem is we’re lathering ourselves all day, every day in all these products. 

• Skincare

• Lotion

• Shampoo

• Conditioner

• Makeup

• Perfume

• Candles

We have so much exposure every day. Women use way more products than men do. Nobody wants to believe that they’ve exposed themselves to something that is going to have a negative impact. 

In 2017, the European Union shared that they have animal studies that show that Lilial causes birth defects. They started encouraging companies to phase this out of their fragrance. In 2017, it was a very popular ingredient being used a lot in fragrances. In March of 2022, they finally banned it, but it took five years to get regulation. 

In Europe, it’s illegal for a cosmetic to have Lilial in it. But the U.S. (as usual) is a little behind on this regulation. On that California database, over 1,500 fragrance products are being sold by Bath and Body Works that have Lilial in them. One of the reasons this podcast exists is to bring awareness. Some laws are moving forward to require more transparency on these issues, but it literally causes birth defects, and yet, Bath and Body Works is selling to all these teenagers. What is the moral responsibility of a company to disclose the possible implications of using their products? 

In the fragrance industry, there is no conversation about morality and the health of customers. That’s not why you’re in that industry; you’re in the industry to win. It is competitive, and these companies will do anything it takes to win. 

Seda thinks companies feel more of a moral responsibility when it comes to sustainability rather than health. The moral responsibility is making beautiful fragrances. That’s their perceived responsibility. But when they talk about sustainability, it’s more so in benefit of the synthetic ingredients. “Don’t use naturals because you’re depleting the environment.”

Botanical Fragrance with ESAS Beauty

Amanda and Seda left big fragrance in 2019. For a while, they didn’t know what they wanted to focus on. Their love and passion at the root of ESAS are ingredients. They love what comes with sourcing and growing ingredients. They knew they wanted to focus on growing ingredients sustainably because they knew there were issues with naturals and sustainability. Amanda and Seda wanted to help solve that problem through indoor, vertical farming.

They talked a lot about ingredients and started to develop all sorts of products. They launched fragrances first because people wanted a fragrance that was natural and transparent. In 2020, they pivoted to focus on what people need now. The first product they launched was a scented hand cleanser, which eventually evolved into now five categories and twelve different scents across each category.

Amanda and Seda know there’s a way to use natural ingredients and still evoke those beautiful experiences. You don’t see many brands doing what they’re doing. Amanda and Seda are happy to fill that void, and it brings them joy when people feel joy using their products. 

I love that they are so conscientious about their sourcing, and people can be confident in the ethics of the way they are producing natural products. The one thing that makes ESAS stand out is their scents smell amazing, and they actually last. The number one complaint I get as somebody who talks about natural fragrance and getting rid of artificial fragrances is the lack of smell. 

Amanda said that’s something they worked very hard on. Natural ingredients and the science behind them are tricky. It’s a blend of knowing which ingredients to use, which type of extracts to use, and how they all work together to make something last longer. 

ESAS doesn’t only do botanical fragrance. They’re uniquely making candles – out of olive in coconut wax. I don’t know anybody else doing this. Amanda and Seda understand why people use petroleum-based paraffin; it burns very consistently. The basic chemistry of making a candle is you want to make sure it burns well but is also hard enough so that when you ship, you’re not sending a pool of liquid. There needs to be a balance.

They played with so many different blends. They tried to find ways to get a wax version of coconut wax. By itself, it’ll just melt in transport. Then they found olive wax from Spain that works really well blended with coconut wax. And their candles came to be! 

The goal of ESAS is to scent your world in every way they can in the healthiest possible way. In addition to expanding their botanical fragrance assortment, they will be launching many more senses this year within each category.

I highly recommend all the ESAS products. You can check them out in my toxin-free shopping guide. Use code WENDY20 for 20% off. 

Related Episodes:

Episode 1: What the F*ck is an Endocrine Disruptor, Anyway?

Episode 44: Safe Synthetics in Perfume vs. Natural Scents: Cracking the Fragrance Code, Part 1