Don't miss these
Stay In The Know
Select the newsletters you’d like to receive. Then, add your email to sign up.
By submitting your information you agree to the
Terms & Conditions
and
Privacy Policy
and are aged 16 or over.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
An account already exists for this email address, please log in.
(Image credit: Getty Images; Launchmetrics; Ulta)
Jump to category:
Shop the Best Alcohol-Free Fragrances
Meet the Experts
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Share this article
Join the conversation
Follow us
Add us as a preferred source on Google
Subscribe to our newsletter
First came the
body mists
. It’s not that these were the first alcohol-free fragrances ever made—
perfume oils
and
solid formats
have been around for centuries, if not millennia—but suddenly it seemed like everyone was adding these lighter, often
more-affordable scents
to their lineups.
“We saw a huge uptick in alcohol-free fragrances one to two years ago with the big boom of body mists,”
Charlene Valledor
, a product developer and co-founder of the brand incubation firm
SOS Beauty
, confirms. “One of the things that people didn't love about spraying these mists all over your body was that there was always a big waft of alcohol. We were trying to minimize that.”
In 2026,
fragrance
as a whole is a huge category. It seems like every other pitch that lands in my inbox is for an alcohol-free product. Some of these are spray-on formulas, like the aforementioned body mists or low-concentration eaux fraîches. Others are roll-on perfume oils and gels, many of which still contain benzyl alcohol despite being labeled alcohol-free. “[Benzyl alcohol] is an aromatic alcohol, not a volatile beverage alcohol (ethanol) and can be used in products labeled ‘alcohol-free,’”
Bee Shapiro
, founder of
Ellis Brooklyn
, explains. And in addition to the increasingly common balms, solid perfumes now come in
fun jelly form
.
Article continues below
But ditching the alcohol and still making an effective fragrance product isn’t exactly easy. It’s widely reported that
perfumers first started using alcohol in their formulas
around the Middle Ages, and they’ve largely stuck to the process since. Alcohol acts as a highly effective solvent, meaning it helps blend the perfume oils and water and all the other ingredients you need for a fragrance into one cohesive liquid. “[Alcohol] is the easiest way to solubilize 18 percent or more of fragrance oils,” cosmetic chemist
Krupa Koestline
says, explaining that 18 percent is the minimum amount of oil you need for a perfume to be considered a perfume. “If you take alcohol out of the mix, you have to solubilize so much oil into water. It’s very hard to do.”
Alcohol, which is lighter than water, dries quickly (or “flashes off,” as perfumers say) and doesn’t leave behind any lingering scent or residue. Valledor explains that this is what helps create a nice, airy
cloud of fragrance
that lands evenly on your skin. It’s also true that scents without alcohol tend to have less staying power, both in terms of day-to-day wear and how long they’ll last on your shelf. “Traditional alcohol fragrance acts as almost an adhesive, for lack of a better word,” Valledor says. Since it’s easier to dissolve a higher concentration of fragrance oils into an alcohol-based formula, there are more pure perfume molecules to stick to the skin, which makes it last longer. Formulas without alcohol can separate more easily and deteriorate more quickly, notes
Frank Voelkl
, principal perfumer at dsm-firmenich.
The way alcohol helps perfume oils stick to your skin is also what allows the fragrance to develop throughout the day. “[With an alcohol-based perfume,] you will see very nicely the evolution of the fragrance’s top note, mid-note, and base note,” Voelkl says. When you remove the alcohol, “the fragrance sits much more on your skin rather than evolving … [so] the experience is a bit more linear.”
A roll-on oil or solid balm is... a bit more of a gentle experience than a mist of alcohol. It’s a little bit more relaxing.
Charlene Valledor
So why would someone want to get rid of this fantastic, experience-enhancing solubilizer? For starters, alcohol is quite drying, which can be irritating to some. “People like me who have
dry skin
don’t want alcohol anywhere near them,” Koestline says.
Alexandra Keating
confirms that that was a big reason why she wanted the first fragrance from her brand,
Uni
, to be an alcohol-free formula. “We’re a hydration brand,” Keating says. “We didn’t want you using products on your hair or your skin that were going to dry you out.” Keating is also one of the many people who, anecdotally, say that alcohol-free formulas don’t trigger their migraines the way traditional eau de parfums do.
Stay In The Know
Get exclusive access to fashion and beauty trends, hot-off-the-press celebrity news, and more.
But a touch of dryness at the scene of your spritz is likely not the

Book Your Appointment

Ready to transform your skin? Visit Candy Beauty Skin Care at 32 Pell St, Chinatown, NYC.

Call (646) 691-8273 or book online at candybeauty.store.

Our expert estheticians are ready to create your personalized treatment plan.

Source: https://www.marieclaire.com/beauty/fragrance/alcohol-free-fragrance-trend-best-products/