Shereene IdrissBoard Certified Derm, Founder and Chief Nerd

Fragrance Free and Unscented in Skincare are NOT the same thing!

15 May 2026 · 1 min

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In this short video, dermatologist and founder Dr. Shereene Idriss explains why a product that smells unpleasant can still be a high‑quality, safe formulation for sensitive skin. She clarifies that “unscented” on a label usually means the product originally had an odor that was masked with added fragrance, so fragrance is still present. In contrast, “fragrance‑free” means no fragrance was added at any stage; any odor comes from the active ingredients themselves, such as niacinamide, arnica, and other raw actives doing their job. Idriss emphasizes that for people with sensitive skin, only fragrance‑free products should be trusted, and she holds her own brand to that standard despite the science‑like smell.

Chapters

Someone left this review on one of my products, and they're actually right. It smells funky, but here's why that's a good thing. If you have sensitive skin and you're buying unscented thinking you're safe, you're not. And these two words on a label mean opposite things. Unscented simply means that a product had a smell but a fragrance was used to mask it, so there's still fragrance in there. Whereas fragrance-free means no fragrance was ever added, so what you're smelling are the raw actives actually doing their job. When this person says good product but the product smells awful, yeah, it's the niacinamide, the arnica, the actual formula, not a flaw, and literally what fragrance-free should smell like. So if you're really sensitive, fragrance-free should be the only label you look out for. And as a dermatologist and the founder of Dr. Idriss, it's the standard that we hold ourselves to, even when it smells like science.