Named means present
Seeing linalool on a label is proof it is in there, above the labelling threshold, and that someone was required to tell you.
Reading a label
Can I tell if this is safe?
Usually not with certainty — and that is a fact about how labels are written, not a failure of your reading. Here is exactly where the line falls.
Start here
One word decides most of it
If a list contains parfum, fragrance, aroma or perfume, you can stop reading. That single word stands in for a mixture the manufacturer does not have to itemise — possibly a few substances, possibly several hundred.
It is a positive finding, not a gap. The label is telling you something fragranced is present and that its contents are not published. A product declaring parfum has not passed anything — it has declined to answer.
What a real label looks like
Three different things are happening in this list at once.
Aqua, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Glycerin,
Parfum, Citric Acid, Sodium Benzoate,
Linalool,
Limonene,
Geraniol.
Parfum the undisclosed mixture Named allergens pulled out of it by law
The named substances are not extras sitting alongside the perfume. They are the perfume — the parts of it that crossed a threshold and had to be shown.
The asymmetry that catches people
This is the most important thing on the page, and it runs one way only.
Unnamed does not mean absent
Below the threshold a substance is legally present and legally unnamed. A product can contain linalool and say nothing about linalool.
That asymmetry is the whole reason we can tell you confidently that something contains a fragrance material, and only rarely that it does not. It also means thresholds are not safety thresholds — they were set for labelling, from the concentration at which sensitised people typically react in patch testing. If you react below them, the label was never designed to help you.
Why some substances get named
In the EU, specific fragrance substances must be listed individually above a threshold.
0.001%threshold in leave-on products — lotion, deodorant, perfume
0.01%threshold in rinse-off products — shampoo, detergent, soap
26 → 82substances named, after Regulation (EU) 2023/1545
The first compliance deadline passed on 31 July 2026, so newer products should name considerably more than older stock sitting beside them on the same shelf.
Two claims that are not the same claim
Read both against the ingredient list rather than instead of it.
"Unscented"
Often means the product is not intended to smell of anything — sometimes achieved by adding a masking fragrance over the smell of the base. An unscented product can contain fragrance material.
"Fragrance-free"
The stronger claim — but in most markets it is not a regulated term and nobody checks it. Where a claim and a list disagree, we record the conflict rather than choosing which to believe.
"Natural" tells you nothing useful. Essential oils are fragrance materials: lavender oil is largely linalool. A botanical origin changes the supply chain, not what reaches your airway. Our rule is that fragrance function counts, never fragrance origin.
What each registry result means
Four outcomes. Only one of them is a clean result, and it is the rarest.
Contains — substance named
A tracked substance appears on the label by name. The most informative result: you know what is there and can match it against what you react to.
Undisclosed mixture
The label declares parfum or an equivalent. Something fragranced is present and its contents are not published.
This is not a pass. It is the absence of an answer, recorded as a finding.
Cannot determine
At least one ingredient is one we have not yet classified, so we cannot say nothing tracked is present. We name the ingredients that stopped us — so you can judge for yourself, and so we know what to research next.
This is an honest answer, not an error.
Nothing tracked found
Every ingredient was recognised, none is tracked, and there is no undisclosed mixture. The narrowest honest clean result: it says this label discloses nothing we track, which is not the same as "safe for you".
It is rare, because a single unrecognised ingredient is enough to withhold it.
In the shop, in five seconds
What to run your eye over, in order.
- Scan for parfum, fragrance, aroma, perfume — including plurals and translations like duftstoffe. One is enough.
- Scan for named allergens: linalool, limonene, geraniol, citronellol, coumarin, citral. Each is confirmed present.
- Look for oils and extracts with a plant name. If it is there to smell of something, treat it as fragrance.
- Read any fragrance-free or unscented claim against the list, not instead of it.
- Remember the direction: named means present, unnamed means unknown.
Where this gets you. You can usually establish that a product does contain fragrance. You can rarely establish that it does not. That is an unsatisfying answer, and it is the true one — a registry that rounded it up to "safe" would be worse than no registry at all.