The 17 Best Clean Perfumes Worth Adding to Your Rotation

Read the back of virtually any bottle in your bathroom, and we're betting you'll find the word "fragrance" or "perfume" listed as one of the ingredients on just about all of them; the blanket term is ubiquitous in most personal care products. The problem? Companies have no legal obligation to disclose the exact combination of ingredients included, as it's considered proprietary information.

Of the possible 2,947 ingredients listed by the International Fragrance Association (IFRA), fragrance mixtures typically contain several hundred chemicals, most of them synthetic. According to a 2018 study, they also emit the same amount of chemical vapors as petroleum emissions from cars. These vapors (also known as volatile organic compounds or VOCs) react with proteins in our body which can result in physical immune responses—including breathing problems, migraines, hormone disruption, skin irritation, and more—which can compound into damaging health effects in the long run.

To save you time and effort while you're in search of a new go-to, we've pulled together a few editor- and shopper-beloved clean fragrances to shop below. From those that are 100 percent natural and organic to some slightly cleaner than you have now, these coveted picks are breaking boundaries by offering total ingredient transparency.