From 1 August a change few people will notice comes into force in the European Union, and it concerns every bottle standing in your bathroom. The list of fragrances that must be named individually on the label is expanding - from twenty-four to eighty-one substances.

Until now manufacturers could pack all of it into a single word. It said „parfum“ or „aroma“ and that was the end of the story. From now on, when they exceed a certain concentration, limonene, linalool, citral, geraniol, citronellol, eugenol and coumarin must be named by their own name. That applies to perfumes, creams, shampoos, conditioners, gels and deodorants.

Why does this matter more than it sounds? Because until now a person with an allergy had no way of finding out what they were reacting to. They bought a cream, their face went red, they threw the cream out and bought another - with the same hidden ingredient under the same generic name. „A person can check the ingredients list and more easily establish whether the product contains what is causing their reaction“, explains allergist Dr Elisa Haroun of the Estea Medica clinic.

The same doctor immediately adds something the industry will not put in an advert, but which is true: the presence of an allergen in a cosmetic product does not mean it is dangerous or that it will cause a reaction in everyone. Eighty-one substances on a label is not a list of poisons. It is a list that helps people who already know they have a problem.

Dermatologist Dr Cristina García Milán, who specialises in sensitive skin, adds the sentence that demolishes the entire marketing mythology of the last decade: natural does not mean harmless. Most of these very fragrances - limonene, geraniol, citronellol - come from essential oils and plant extracts. Those are precisely the ingredients sold as proof that a product is clean and gentle.

There is small print too. Products already manufactured and sitting on shelves have a transition period until 31 July 2028. So for the next two years, bottles with the old and the new label will stand side by side in shops, and the buyer will not know which version they are holding unless they read the underside of the packaging.

For our market this is what regularly happens - a rule adopted in Brussels that reaches us through the products rather than through any information. Goods are imported, labels change of their own accord, and nobody explains what they mean. At least now it is worth knowing that the long string of words on the back of the bottle suddenly says more than it did yesterday.