The Case Against Fragrance

Kate Grenville had always associated perfume with elegance and beauty. Then the headaches started. Like perhaps a quarter of the population, Grenville reacts badly to the artificial fragrances around us: other people’s perfumes, and all those scented cosmetics, cleaning products and air fresheners. On a book tour in 2015, dogged by ill health, she started wondering: what’s in fragrance? Who tests it for safety? What does it do to people? The more Grenville investigated, the more she felt this was a story that should be told. The chemicals in fragrance can be linked not only to short-term problems like headaches and asthma, but to long-term ones like hormone disruption and cancer. Yet products can be released onto the market without testing. They’re regulated only by the same people who make and sell them. And the ingredients don’t even have to be named on the label. This book is based on careful research into the science of scent and the power of the fragrance industry. But, as you’d expect from an acclaimed novelist, it’s also accessible and personal. The Case Against Fragrance will make you see - and smell - the world differently. Review by Ilse Scheepers If you've never caught a gust of perfume or cologne from a fellow commuter and been struck with a blinding headache or instantly congested nose, you're lucky indeed. Grenville is one of the quarter of the population who experience these sort of adverse effects when they come into contact with fragrance, and she has embarked on a mission to investigate the use and abuse of synthetic chemicals in perfume, shampoo, soap, detergent and even garbage bags. Combining personal accounts with the science of scent, Grenville builds a careful - and fragrance free - case for closer examination into the use and regulation of the world of perfume and scent.