I’m a bit of a brat when it comes to body-care scents I don’t like. I revert to three-year-old me, recoil in horror with a look of extreme disgust on my face, and can’t help a knee-jerk “Blech!” You know this if you’ve ever come at me with a vanilla or dessert-scented thing. GAH! BLECH! YEESH!
So to the following Made-in-Canada brands, thanks so much for offering unscented versions of your excellent skincare formulas. I love you for them.
Lovefresh Body Goodies Naked Lotion and Naked Wash ($20 each, lovefresh.com) are the newest additions to a line professionals like as much as consumers do. I’ve spotted Lovefresh at a host of cute salons, and at well-respected spas such a the Stillwater in Toronto; it’s also at Haven Spa in Sidney, BC.
Consonant Body Organic Body Lotion in Pure Unscented ($22 and $42, consonantbody.com) stands out to me as gift-worthy. That’s a bit odd to say because really, everything in this post is gift-worthy. Maybe part of Consonant’s draw for me, aside from ingredients such as grapeseed, borage, olive and jojoba oils, as well as shea and cocoa butters, is the jaunty text on the labels and the brand’s crisp style.
Cake Beauty Un-Sweet Supreme Body Mousse and Un-Sweet Velveteen Hand Cream ($22 and $18, cakebeauty.com) renew my membership as a Cake Beauty fan. I’ve always really liked the textures and efficacy of the line’s body products; now I can use them.
Live Clean Sensitive Skin Fragrance Free Body Lotion ($4.99, Shoppers Drug Mart and Walmart; live-clean.com) is one of many winners from this natural brand, one of the first mainstream Canadian successes. (The Fresh Face collection of skincare is the company’s newest offering, so lightly scented it might as well be unscented. I’ve tried the daily moisturizing lotion as a body moisturizer for fun; my skin is a fan.)
Diane Lai Soothe Spot Treatment ($34, dianelai.com) is a calm-your-too-dry-skin blend of grape seed, coconut, olive and jojoba seed oils, as well as shea butter. Lai recommends this as a post-sunburn soother as well.
Dot & Lil Unscented Body Butter ($14, dotandlil.com) is hand-crafted in Montreal, and nourishes skin with shea butter and sweet almond oil.
Rocky Mountain Dry Skin Butter Unscented ($12.49, rockymountainsoap.com) is a travel-friendly stick of canola, cotton-seed and castor oils, and cocoa butter, too.
Actually, I adore LoveFresh’s grapefruit & tangerine-scented line, all the scents in Consonant Body, and Live Clean’s Fresh Water collection. Dot & Lil has creams scented with bergamot and satsuma, two of my most favourite scents in the world, and Rocky Mountain has a whole bunch I’d find irresistable. And Ryan Gosling is definitely on my list of Canadians I’d like to smell. But these unscented types needed a shout-out.
Are you a dessert-scent type? Fresh-scent fan? Or are you Team Unscented?
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Depends. I usually prefer unscented lotions. I have one perfume I love & wear daily, and it doesn’t bother my allergies (LaVanila; all their scents are amazing but I love the original). I’m currently loving Vaseline Extra Strength unscented lotion (how boring!) but it keeps my skin moisturised all day and doesn’t conflict with my perfume (which should be subtle, by the way! ;-)
Skin doesn’t care if you think your lotion is boring — it wants what it wants, right? :-) One of the smartest things any skincare company can do is offer unscented versions of their formulas. Olay actually just got in the unscented game with their popular Regenerist Sculpting Cream and a host of other face products. Smart.
And you’re right: subtle is key when it comes to fragrance. When it’s too much, it’s like smoking a cigarette in someone else’s face — doesn’t take other people’s sensitivities into account. #rude
I really understand you: I absolutely hate any perfume/lotion/shower gel that smell sweet. Every time I go to the Lush shop, a really nice shop assistant (always a different one) tries to sell me something that smells like vanilla, banana or caramel, but it actually makes me want to run away fast. These kinds of smells make me nauseous.
On the other hand, I really like fresh, ocean-like scents. My favorite perfumes are always the blue ones. Though I live very far from the sea and I am not particularly fond of the beach, I like how crisp, subtle and simple these scents are.
We have similar likes and dislikes, Gaëlle — vanilla, banana and caramel make me gag in makeup and body-care (yet I love banana bread, as well as vanilla and caramel desserts).
And I love aquatics, too! I’m all about fresh, crisp scents. I do actually like the beach, too, as long as I get to stay safely in the shade. I only love the sun because it has the power to give me shade.
I like to play on all three teams. I have to have an unscented anti-perspirant, and I also use Consonant’s unscented face wash, which you introduced me to. I like some sweet scents, but not all, some can make me feel sick too. And I also enjoy the refreshing citrusy scents – I love bergamot in my tea and my lotions :)
You are the best kind of team player, Angela! xoxo
I love scents but I like to keep them in my perfume and out of my skin care. I wear a lot of oriental fragrances like Opium and Shalimar. On the other hand, I have super sensitive skin prone to eczema and rosacea. I have been using Paula’s Choice Skin Care for a couple of years now – everything in her line is unscented and she has formulations for every skin care concern, from ultra dry skin to anti-aging and even shampoo and conditioner! The best part, it is all super affordable!
It’s worth noting that “unscented” and “fragrance-free” are two different things – fragrances can still be present in products labeled with the former, and that can irritate more than just noses sometimes. “Fragrance-free” means that nothing is added to the product in any attempt to make it smell different, so if the product has a scent, that’s what the actual ingredients smell like.
(And fwiw, I play on Ange’s team, too, haha! I personally prefer most of my skincare things to be fragrance-free so there’s less of a chance that the fragrances I /do/ choose to wear come out funky.)
Yes, that’s a good point MM, thanks so much. I’d thought about making that distinction (in fact was careful not to classify any of these as fragrance-free unless it was in the product name), but decided to save it for another time. You’re right, though — definitely worth noting!
My preference in scents is fairly narrow — most of what I use is fresh/citrussy, so whatever bodycare I use generally won’t interfere with my fragrances. When it comes to face care, though, I prefer fragrance-free and unscented.