MNN - Mother Nature Network

Most environmentalists I know don’t wear pachouli, but a good phthalate-free perfume can still be tough to find — especially on a budget. Agape & Zoe Naturals seeks to fill that scentless void -- and has come out with a new line of affordable, phthalate-free perfumes to make environmentalists smell sweet while avoiding all the chemicals too.

 

Agape & Zoe Naturals offers five scents — made entirely with organic grain alcohol and 100% essential oils and all ranked a “low hazard” 2 or below on Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep cosmetic safety database. Best of all, a 2-ounce spray bottle costs just $20!

 

Each perfume’s given a one-word descriptive name, which had me struggling to pair the right scent with the right event and mood. “Beauty” was an easy aspirational title, “Green” perhaps appropriate for eco-events, but “Faith” seemed a strange perfume for an atheist, and “Virtue” simply inappropriate for Saturday nights out –

 

But I stopped overthinking the names and just wearing the perfumes. My favorites were “Peace” — a calm, sweetly spicy scent with a mix of jasmin, lavender, and vanilla — and “Beauty” — an even sweeter mix of sandalwood and vanilla. Those who like floral scents will want to go with “Virtue,” which smells like an intense bouquet of gardenias. Prefer perfumes that remind you of your favorite foods? “Faith” will make you smell like a very sweet rootbeer. But unfortunately I can’t recommend “Green” even to environmentalists — because it smells exactly like spearmint toothpaste.

 

Want to give phthalate-free perfumes a try? If you’re not ready to commit a lot of money to this eco-luxury, try a one-third ounce rollerball, available on Agape & Zoe Naturals’s web store for just $5. One-ounce bottles with a cap (no spray) are also available for $10, while full-sized, 2-ounce spray bottles cost $20 each.

 

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