The information on this website is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of writing. However, we are not a legal consultancy, and laws and regulations change over time. So please take this information as a guide and do your own research. We do not accept liability for any incorrect or incomplete information on our websites.
Consumers expect perfumes and many room fragrances to behave in a certain way. Choosing another delivery system for fragrance needs therefore clear communication to avoid disappointment. One could even think of making that the main focus of the fragrance: 'alcohol-free', not a bad choice for many consumers think alcohol is a harsh, skin drying substance.
These include vegetable oils like olive oil and jojoba oil, derivatives of these oils like capric/caprylic triglyceride and fatty esters like isopropyl myristate. Drawbacks may be:
A typical example of a volatile silicone is cyclopentasiloxane. We have sold it for years for this purpose. We do not recommend it anymore for any spray application. The reason is that, though it is almost non-toxic it can be harmful to the respiratory system in case too much is inhaled. When used correctly this harmful inhalition probably can be avoided quite easy, but one can not expect this form the general public.
It is therefore very well possible that use of these silicones in many or even all spray applications will be made illegal in the years to come. Alternatively: the more you sell the more likely it is that at some time one of your customers is harmed by your product.
If that was not enough to convince you: many fragrances do not or hardly solve in silicone fluids. Making a low strength product is in general possible, but a full strength perfume is almost impossible.
The alcohol used in perfumery is ethanol. The chemical (slightly larger) brother is propanol, that comes in two varieties. One of these two is isopropanol. It shares many of the advantages and disadvantages with alcohol, but there are three important differences:
This group includes materials like dipropylene glycol, propylene glycol and derivatives like DPGME. They are fine to use in room fragrances like reed diffusers. They will evaporate slowly, but it is nothing compared with alcohol. For perfumes and spray formulations it is therefore not a good option. The same goes for the several other materials that are used for reed diffusers and alikes.
Water does not mix with most fragrance materials for water has a low LogPow, it is quite polar, where most fragrance materials are apolar. However, there is a work around that is used a lot. When the fragrance compound is mixed with (typically) 4-6 times the amount of a suitable solubiliser, the mix of fragrance and solubiliser wil mix with water in every ratio.
For some applications this may work, but for water based products are not very volatile it still is not a great solution for spay applications. They tend to foam a bit, which is not appealing. A good general purpose solubiliser is Polysorbate 20.
However: it certainly may be a solution in some cases. If so: make sure to add a preservative: water based formulations promote the growth of mold an fungi.