What's in our fragrances: transparency first

Ambient fragrance has long been a product of blind trust: you buy it for its bottle, its scent, its brand, rarely for its list of ingredients. That era is changing. In 2026, demand for transparency is becoming one of the strongest consumer expectations in perfumery. At Sens Collection, this is not a trend we are adapting to: it is a standard that has been part of how we make our fragrances from the very beginning.

Here is what this means in practical terms.

A long-standing mistrust

The general public has long associated synthetic fragrances with potentially irritating or poorly dosed products, mainly due to scandals in other sectors (cosmetics, household cleaning products…). Ambient fragrance, diffused continuously in a closed living space, particularly crystallizes this mistrust: unlike perfume applied to the skin for a few hours, it permeates the air we breathe throughout the day.

The result: our customers no longer just want to smell a fragrance; they want to know what it contains, who makes it, and under what conditions. This is a requirement that we share.

Where our fragrances come from

At Sens Collection, our fragrances are composed in Grasse, the historic capital of perfumery, by master perfumers. This is not a marketing argument added after the fact: it is the starting point of every creation. We are a family business, and this closeness to production means we know exactly what goes into each of our fragrances, from the first accord to the final bottle.

Our certifications: IFRA and REACH

IFRA is the international body that represents and oversees the perfume industry worldwide. Founded in Geneva in 1973, its role is simple to understand but essential in practice: ensuring that the raw materials used in perfumery are safe, both for health and the environment.

To that end, the IFRA publishes Standards operating according to three main principles:

• Outright bans on certain materials deemed risky,
• Outright restrictions, that is, maximum dosage thresholds that must not be exceeded depending on the type of product,
• Outright specifications, which set out the precise conditions of use of an ingredient.

These rules vary depending on the category of the finished product, as the exposure of a consumer is not the same depending on the use. Each fragrance composition that we use is subject to a certificate of conformity, issued by our perfume supplier, attesting that it complies with the thresholds set by the latest version of the IFRA Standards in force. It is this precise and continuously updated reference, as scientific research progresses, that makes IFRA the most recognized safety reference in the entire perfume industry.

REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) is a European regulation that more broadly regulates all chemical substances placed on the market in the European Union, not only those used in perfumery. It is managed by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).

In practice, REACH requires any company that manufactures or imports a chemical substance in the EU to:

• Register it with ECHA, with precise data on its properties and potential risks,
• Evaluate it, to verify that the information provided is accurate and sufficient,
• Go through anauthorization for the most concerning substances,
• Accepting restrictions of use when risks to health or the environment are identified.

For fragrance ingredients, this means that a raw material can only be used in our compositions if it has been duly registered and evaluated according to this European framework. Unlike the IFRA, which is a self-regulatory system specific to the perfume industry, REACH is a European law in its own right, applicable to all industrial sectors.

Why this transparency?

Many brands treat transparency as a regulatory requirement that should be mentioned in small print. We prefer to make it a separate argument, because we believe that a customer who understands what they are buying is a customer who trusts us more permanently. Explaining is not just reassuring: it also allows our professional customers (hotels, retail, wellness) to be able to justify their choices to their own clientele themselves.