Is fragrance in skincare safe during pregnancy?

About 90% of women notice their skin change during pregnancy and plenty notice their nose change at the same time.¹

Fragrance sits where those two things meet. Here is what the evidence says and why you will not find one on the nātelle full ingredient list.

Is fragrance in skincare safe to use during pregnancy?

Fragrance in skincare is not a known pregnancy safety risk and there is no evidence that the fragrance in a face cream reaches or affects a baby.

The reason to reconsider it has little to do with your baby and a lot to do with your skin and your stomach.

Fragrance also does nothing for your skin. It's there for the experience of using the product, which is the part pregnancy tends to interfere with and that is why it belongs on any list of skincare ingredients to avoid during pregnancy.

Does pregnancy change your sense of smell?

If you feel like your nose has suddenly developed superpowers, you’re not alone. Around two-thirds of pregnant women report that their sense of smell feels way stronger than usual, with perfume, cooking odors, cigarette smoke, spoiled food, spices, and coffee topping the list of common offenders.³ This heightened sensitivity usually peaks during early pregnancy.³

Interestingly, science tells a slightly different story. Objective testing shows that pregnancy doesn't actually lower your "detection threshold", meaning you aren't technically picking up fainter scents than before.³ In fact, a 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis confirmed there is no measurable jump in actual nasal sensitivity.

Instead, the study found that pregnant women simply find most smells far less pleasant than they used to.⁴ So, the shift isn’t about how much you can smell, it’s about how much you can tolerate. If a scent suddenly makes you want to run for cover, that's because your brain's reaction to the smell has genuinely changed.

Most traditional skincare fragrances (which tend to be heavily floral, musky, or sweet) become major "hedonistic risks." They don't just smell unappealing; they can actively feed into morning sickness.

Can scented skincare make morning sickness worse?

Scented skincare can feed nausea.

Nausea and vomiting affect up to 70% of pregnancies, usually starting around 6-8 weeks and settling by 16 to 20 weeks.⁵ 

A heightened response to smell has long been proposed as one trigger, though that remains a hypothesis rather than a proven mechanism.³

Think about where skincare sits. A cleanser is held against your face with both hands and a moisturiser stays under your nose for the rest of the day. Unlike a candle, you cannot walk away from it.

If your routine is making the first hour of the morning harder than it needs to be, fragrance is the sensible first thing to remove.

Are plant-based fragrances gentler than synthetic fragrance?

Should I worry about phthalates in fragrance?

The phthalate used to hold fragrance in place is diethyl phthalate which is not the one behind the developmental concerns you may have read about.

Those come from animal and human research on di-n-butyl phthalate and DEHP, which are used mainly as plasticisers rather than as fragrance carriers.⁶

Fragranced products do raise measured exposure. In a study of 337 women, those who had used perfume in the previous 24 hours had 2.92 times the urinary concentration of the main diethyl phthalate breakdown product.⁶

There's no evidence of harm from diethyl phthalate at the levels used in skincare and no substantial evidence of safety in pregnancy either.

Out of an abundance of caution, a fragrance-free formula removes the question. We covered what actually crosses the skin barrier in our article: does skincare get into your bloodstream.

What does fragrance-free mean on a skincare label?

Fragrance-free means no fragrance materials have been added, while unscented can mean a masking fragrance has been used to cover an ingredient smell.

Under the Consumer Goods (Cosmetics) Information Standard 2020, a brand may list an entire fragrance as the single word “fragrance” or “parfum” rather than naming what is in it.⁷

One word can therefore stand for dozens of separate materials, including the limonene and linalool above. You are not missing something on the ingredient list. It was never required to be there.

This is why fragrance-free is the more useful phrase to look for. It describes what is absent, which is checkable, rather than what you happen to be able to smell.

Disclaimer: This article is general information and is not a substitute for individual medical advice. Speak with your GP, obstetrician or midwife about your own pregnancy.