The Fragrance Free Nation Standard
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What Qualifies as Fragrance-Free
For a product to be listed on Fragrance Free Nation, it must meet all four of the following:
1. No fragrance
No ingredient listed as “fragrance,” “parfum,” or “perfume,” whether natural or synthetic, and regardless of purpose. This includes masking fragrance, added to obscure another smell rather than create one.
“Fragrance” as a labeling term doesn’t distinguish natural from synthetic, or scent-adding from scent-masking, so neither do we. A natural fragrance blend, or a fragrance used only to mask, is still fragrance.
2. No essential oils
This includes oils sometimes marketed as natural or aromatherapeutic additions, such as lavender, lemon, tea tree, eucalyptus, or peppermint oil, regardless of the stated reason for including them.
It does not include carrier oils (e.g. coconut, jojoba, sunflower oil), which are not essential oils and carry no inherent fragrance or scent of their own.
3. No fragrance by another name
No compound defined by, or isolated for, its scent, regardless of why it was added or what it’s called on the label. This includes compounds such as linalool, limonene, geraniol, citronellol, eugenol, bisabolol, and menthyl lactate, whether the brand’s stated reason for including them is fragrance, preservation, or any other function.
If it’s present, it’s a fail.
Some plants are used in products for their scent, and the scent comes with them whether they’re added as an oil, an extract, a water, or a powder. Rose water smells of rose just as rose oil does. So this also covers any extract, water, powder, or infusion of the following plants, or any blend containing them, whatever it’s called on the label: vanilla, rose flower, lavender, jasmine, mint, citrus peel or whole citrus fruit, orange flower (neroli), ylang-ylang, gardenia flower (tiaré), tuberose, osmanthus, frangipani (plumeria), sweet violet (Viola odorata), rose geranium, patchouli, sandalwood, vetiver, and lemongrass.
These plants are on the list because scent is the main thing they bring to a product. Other plants, such as calendula, chamomile, or rosemary, are there to do a job, like soothing skin or keeping oils fresh, and smell only faintly of themselves. Those are natural aroma, not fragrance (see Natural Aroma Disclosure below), but if our hands-on product testing finds the smell too strong, the product still fails (see How We Verify It below). The list decides, not the reason a brand gives for using a listed plant. We add plants to it as new ones come up.
Some parts of these plants don’t carry their scent, and still pass: seed oils and seed extracts, rosehips (the fruit of the rose), cell-culture or callus extracts, and single compounds refined from the plant, such as citric acid, unless the compound is itself covered above.
4. Presence, not purpose
It doesn’t matter why an ingredient covered by criteria 1 through 3 is in a product. Whether a brand added it for scent, for preservation, for a marketed skin benefit, or any other stated reason, our community reacts to what’s physically present, not to a brand’s intent. If it’s fragrance, an essential oil, or a compound covered under criterion 3, it fails, full stop.
This is different from a raw or minimally processed ingredient’s own inherent character. Tallow, shea butter, beeswax, and calendula, for example, are not fragrance, essential oils, isolated aromatic compounds, or plants listed under criterion 3, they’re functional raw materials that simply have a natural scent of their own, the same way any raw material does. That natural, inherent aroma is not a violation. See Natural Aroma Disclosure below.
If you have a sensitivity to a specific ingredient like these, rather than to fragrance itself, our ingredient exclusion tool lets you filter products based on that. See Ingredient Exclusion below.
How We Verify It
This process applies to FFN Shop listings. Amazon Finds go through a lighter process. See FFN Shops vs. Amazon Finds for how they differ.
For each brand, we request a representative sample of their products. What this confirms is whether a brand understands and consistently applies the standard as a practice, not just whether one product happened to pass on its own.
That sample goes through the following checks:
1. Ingredient review
We check the full ingredient list of each sampled product against all four criteria above.
2. Hands-on product testing
If a product passes ingredient review, we test it directly, against a defined protocol:
- Scent check on first opening
- Scent check during normal use
- Residual scent check afterward (on skin or fabric, once dry)
Testing is conducted by our review team, people with real, lived fragrance sensitivity, applying the same standard our community relies on directly rather than inferring it from a label. Detectable fragrance at any checkpoint is a fail. A natural aroma from a functional ingredient is not itself a fail, but if our team feels it’s too strong to list in good conscience to our shoppers, the product fails, regardless of its ingredient list.
3. Packaging testing
The packaging the sample arrives in is tested using the same standard: no fragrance, essential oils, or compounds covered under our ingredient criteria, regardless of why they’re present. Paper, cardboard, and other packaging materials can have a mild natural smell of their own, and that’s not a violation, the same way a natural aroma in a product isn’t. Packaging that passes receives a Fragrance-Free Packaging badge, shown on the product’s shop page.
A noticeable aroma in the packaging doesn’t automatically remove a brand from our platform, it means they haven’t taken the same precautions with packaging that they have with the product itself. In that case, the packaging status on their shop is labeled Packaging Not Confirmed Fragrance-Free instead of Fragrance-Free Packaging.
The badge reflects the specific batch we tested. It doesn’t guarantee every batch a brand ships will match it, and it doesn’t cover what happens after a product leaves the brand, such as contamination during warehousing, shipping, or delivery. This applies to our testing generally, not only packaging: we test the sample we receive, not every unit a brand ever ships. Your experience may differ due to factors outside our control.
A brand’s products must pass ingredient review, and its sample must pass hands-on product testing, for the brand to be listed as an FFN Shop. Products the brand adds later must pass ingredient review.
Natural Aroma Disclosure
This applies to FFN Shop listings. Amazon Finds do not go through this process. See FFN Shops vs. Amazon Finds below.
A product can meet every criterion above and still carry a mild natural aroma from a functional ingredient. Nothing was added for scent, but some raw ingredients (a clay, a butter, a base oil) have a smell of their own. Brands disclose that aroma directly on the product page, as part of our verification process:
- What the natural scent is: A plain description of what it smells like.
- What ingredient it comes from: The specific ingredient responsible, so it’s traceable, not a mystery.
A product with a disclosed natural aroma still meets every criterion above. The aroma comes from a functional raw material’s inherent character, not from fragrance, an essential oil, or an added compound, so disclosing it isn’t a workaround, it’s just telling you something true about the product. The disclosure exists because some people react to any strong smell, not just fragrance, and deserve to know before they buy, not after.
FFN Shops vs. Amazon Finds
Fragrance Free Nation also carries Amazon Finds, products sourced through Amazon, as a discovery tool to help take the confusion out of finding fragrance-free products in general.
Amazon Finds are checked against our ingredient criteria only (no fragrance, no essential oils, no fragrance by another name, no fragrance or scent regardless of intent). They do not go through hands-on product testing or packaging testing, and they carry the Amazon Find label rather than the FFN Shop label.
| What it goes through | FFN Shop | Amazon Find |
|---|---|---|
| All four ingredient criteria | ||
| Hands-on product testing | — | |
| Packaging testing | — | |
| Natural aroma disclosed by the brand | — | |
| Label on the product | FFN Shop | Amazon Find |
- All four ingredient criteria
- Hands-on product testing
- Packaging testing
- Natural aroma disclosed by the brand
- Labeled FFN Shop
- All four ingredient criteria
- No hands-on product testing
- No packaging testing
- No natural aroma disclosure
- Labeled Amazon Find
We include them because they’re useful for discovery, not because they’ve earned the same trust as an FFN Shop product.
If We Got Something Wrong
We do our best, but no one’s perfect. If you think we have made a mistake with a product listing that does not belong here, we really want to know. Contact us to let us know which product it is and where it doesn’t meet our criteria. Similarly, if you feel strongly that a product does not belong here for another reason, feel free to share that with us too.
Every product page also has a report button, so you can easily let us know while you are browsing or shopping.
Contact us at [email protected]
Ingredient Exclusion
This standard does not cover every sensitivity. Beyond fragrance, essential oils, and the other ingredients covered above, many people also react to specific ingredients, dyes, or other additives. Those needs are personal, and too varied for one standard to define for everyone.
For that reason, we offer an ingredient exclusion feature, so shoppers can filter products based on their own specific needs, in addition to everything covered above.