Every Halden product says fragrance-free on its page, and people sometimes write to ask what that means when the Daily Cream still smells of something when you open the jar. It is a fair question, so here is the plain answer.
What we leave out
Fragrance-free means we add nothing to a formula for the sake of its smell. No perfume, which an ingredient list calls Parfum or Fragrance, and no essential oils, which smell just as much and are added for the same reason. None of the five products has either.
You can check this yourself. Every product page lists its full ingredients, from the largest amount to the smallest, and you will not find Parfum, Fragrance or an oil from a flower, a citrus peel or a herb on any of them.
So what is that smell?
The ingredients themselves. Shea butter has a natural nutty note, and we use a lightly refined one, so it keeps a faint trace of it and nothing stronger. Hold the jar close and you will notice it; once the cream is on your face, most people do not. The Gel Cleanser and the Milk Essence have almost no smell at all, and the Face Oil only a faint, soft one from its plant oils.
Why we make it this way
Mostly because of how we want the routine to feel. A cream you put on twice a day should not follow you around, compete with what you wear or change its smell from one batch to the next. Without added scent, what you notice is the texture: a soft cream that sinks in within a minute and leaves no greasy layer.
It also keeps the lists short. The Daily Cream has twelve ingredients, and each one is there for what it does in the jar. We explain every key one in our story and in the post on what is in the cream.
- Look for Parfum, Fragrance and essential oils in the list
- A faint smell can come from the ingredients themselves
- If a product smells different from the last one, write to us
