Today, perfume has become a billion dollar industry with every celebrity and fashion house releasing a new fragrance every season along with the latest fashion trends.

There is a great mystery behind perfume because the majority of people don’t know how it’s made or the difference between synthetic and natural perfumes. Synthetic perfumes contain notes that can’t be extracted from nature, which creates longer staying power – but which could be at the expense of your health.

As a way to protect trade secrets, companies are permitted by the FDA to withhold fragrance ingredients, which means the consumer is left not knowing what they are actually spraying on their body. The most common ingredients for concern in synthetic fragrances are parabens, phthalates and synthetic musks which are all known carcinogens and hormone disrupters.

Consumers like myself are starting to become more educated and suspicious of the chemicals in mass-marketed personal care products and have started to seek out safer and healthier alternatives.

My passion for perfume came as a second nature alongside my love for fashion as they go hand-in-hand. I never used to pay attention to the ingredients in personal care products and perfume until my skin became irritated by the common ingredients found in synthetic perfumes and beauty products. This started my interested in natural skin care and fragrance and my quest for a natural perfume.

I searched high and low for the perfect natural perfume that matched my own physical chemistry but kept falling short. I decided to take matters into my own hands and contacted Karen Van Dyck, a master natural perfumer, to aid me in the creation of my own signature scent. Karen is a professional herbalist, green cosmetic formulator and natural perfumer who has been trained by the renowned perfumer Mandy Aftel in Berkley, CA. She guided me through the creation of my own fragrance through her in-house blending bar. As a result, I created a fragrance called Parisian Bouquet that can be found at Migration Boutique located at The Bay Centre in Victoria or online at my fashion and lifestyle blog laurajaneatelier.com

For those of you who are interested in creating your own fragrance, Karen guides her clients through an hour long, in-house blending bar session or offers a full custom perfume experience where the client experiences hundreds of exotic essences from around the world, find her at naturesfirstbeautybar.com.

If you have any fashion questions email laurajaneatelier@gmail.com.