Small class, long list of cautions
The essential oils, entry by entry
The smallest reach of any class with a page here, by a wide margin - only a small fraction of the catalogue prints one at all. It also shares with the fragrance materials a distinction no other class here has: the site's calmest grade never appears in it. Read as a group, the entries explain how a small set of ingredients comes to account for a disproportionate share of the encyclopaedia's cautions.
- Entries in this class
- 21of 329
- Masks printing one
- 2913% of 219
- Reached by the Regulation
- 80 capped
- Typical place on a label
- 79%of the way down
Essential oils are distilled or pressed plant volatiles, carrying scent and a variable mixture of aromatic constituents out of the plant they came from.
That is the job this class does in a formula, which is not the same as what it does to skin. The second question is answered entry by entry, against a source we read - the grading rubric sets out how.
The short read
Not one entry in this class is graded at the site's calmest level. Only the fragrance materials share that, and the reason is the same on both pages: contact sensitisation rather than any cap. These are variable natural mixtures, and several of the constituents they carry are recognised allergens in their own right.
The labelling duty arrives two ways, and the second is easy to miss. Some of these oils are named in Annex III in their own right - Regulation (EU) 2023/1545 put the citrus peel oils there under their own names - and separately, the declarable allergens inside an oil must be named when a product carries enough of them.
Tea tree, lavender, the citrus peel oils, eucalyptus and rosemary are the ones that actually turn up, late on their labels. A mask can be fragranced without any of them, and it can be scented by one of them without the word parfum appearing on the pack at all.
All 21 essential oil entries
Widest reach first. The grade and the EU status are separate columns because they are separate questions: a capped Annex V preservative can be the calmest thing on a label, and an unrestricted plant extract can be the entry most worth reading. Every one of these entries has its own page, with the sources behind it.
- Depends on you
- Genuinely relevant for some people, or depends on dose and pH.
- Worth knowing
- EU-restricted, a common contact allergen, or subject to live debate.
| Entry | EU status | Masks | Sources | Place on a label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Depends on you: Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree) Leaf OilTea tree oil | No specific restriction | 8 | 3 | 81% downusually below ≈1% |
| Worth knowing: Citrus Aurantium Peel Oil | Labelling requiredallergen | 7 | 1 | 82% downusually below ≈1% |
| Worth knowing: Citrus Medica Limonum (Lemon) Peel OilLemon peel oil | Concentration-restrictedallergen | 7 | 1 | 71% downusually below ≈1% |
| Depends on you: Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) OilLavender oil | Labelling requiredallergen | 7 | 3 | 48% downusually below ≈1% |
| Worth knowing: Citrus Aurantium Bergamia (Bergamot) Fruit OilBergamot oil | Concentration-restrictedallergen | 5 | 2 | 87% downusually below ≈1% |
| Depends on you: Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf OilRosemary oil | No specific restriction | 5 | 0 | 80% downusually below ≈1% |
| Depends on you: Eucalyptus Globulus OilEucalyptus oil | Labelling requiredallergen | 4 | 0 | 83% downusually below ≈1% |
| Depends on you: Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Peel OilSweet orange oil | Labelling requiredallergen | 3 | 0 | 58% down |
| Depends on you: Cupressus Sempervirens OilCypress oil | No specific restriction | 2 | 0 | 82% downusually below ≈1% |
| Depends on you: Pelargonium Graveolens (Geranium) OilGeranium oil | Labelling requiredallergen | 2 | 0 | 72% downusually below ≈1% |
| Depends on you: Salvia Officinalis (Sage) OilSage oil | No specific restriction | 2 | 0 | 90% downusually below ≈1% |
| Depends on you: Salvia Sclarea (Clary Sage) OilClary sage oil | No specific restriction | 2 | 0 | 81% downusually below ≈1% |
| Depends on you: Santalum Album (Sandalwood) OilSandalwood oil | Labelling requiredallergen | 2 | 0 | 88% downusually below ≈1% |
| Depends on you: Anthemis Nobilis Flower OilRoman chamomile oil | No specific restriction | 1 | 0 | 94% downusually below ≈1% |
| Depends on you: Cedrus Atlantica Bark OilAtlas cedarwood oil | No specific restriction | 1 | 0 | 45% down |
| Depends on you: Commiphora Myrrha OilMyrrh oil | No specific restriction | 1 | 0 | 76% downusually below ≈1% |
| Depends on you: Cymbopogon Martini (Palmarosa) OilPalmarosa oil | No specific restriction | 1 | 0 | 51% down |
| Depends on you: Leptospermum Petersonii OilLemon-scented tea tree oil | No specific restriction | 1 | 3 | 100% downusually below ≈1% |
| Depends on you: Mentha Arvensis Leaf OilCornmint oil | No specific restriction | 1 | 0 | 76% downusually below ≈1% |
| Depends on you: Ormenis Multicaulis OilMoroccan chamomile oil | No specific restriction | 1 | 0 | 69% downusually below ≈1% |
| Depends on you: Ho Leaf OilHo leaf oil | No specific restriction | none | 2 | — |
1 of these entries are in no mask in this catalogue. They are documented for reference - EU-restricted substances kept so a reader knows what should not be on a label, and ingredients that turn up in skincare but not in these masks. The EU watchlist collects the restricted ones.
Where this class sits on a pack
An ingredient list is not in a random order. Article 19(1)(g) of Regulation (EC) 1223/2009 requires it to run “in descending order of weight of the ingredients at the time they are added”, and then allows everything under 1% to be listed “in any order” after the rest. So the top of a list is a statement about quantity and the bottom of it is not - which is the ≈1% line the Panel draws on every product page.
Counted across every appearance of this class in the catalogue, and measured as a fraction of each list’s own length so a 4-entry pack and an 81-entry pack count equally, the essential oil entries sit a median 79% of the way down a list, and 79% of those appearances fall below the ≈1% line. Where that share is high, position has stopped telling a reader anything about how much is in the pack.
Every class in the encyclopaedia, side by side
The encyclopaedia sorts its entries into 24 classes and 10 have a page: a class needs 15 entries to carry one, below which a landing page is a re-headed filter view. “Other” is excluded whatever its size, because a bucket cannot be a landing page. Every figure here is counted across all 24, so any comparison in the copy above is scoped against a set you can see rather than against the ones that happened to ship.
| Class | Entries | Masks | Grades | EU-reached | Place on a label |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Humectant | 42 | 21598% | 41graded well tolerated1graded depends on you | 0 | 33% |
| Emollient | 41 | 12959% | 40graded well tolerated1graded depends on you | 1 | 36% |
| Preservative | 28 | 17881% | 14graded well tolerated2graded depends on you8graded worth knowing4graded avoid | 234 banned | 78% |
| Botanical | 25 | 12457% | 17graded well tolerated7graded depends on you1graded worth knowing | 0 | 50% |
| Emulsifier | 22 | 15671% | 22graded well tolerated | 0 | 51% |
| Thickener | 22 | 19790% | 22graded well tolerated | 1 | 55% |
| Essential oil | 21 | 2913% | 18graded depends on you3graded worth knowing | 8 | 79% |
| Fragrance | 19 | 13260% | 11graded depends on you6graded worth knowing2graded avoid | 192 banned | 88% |
| Antioxidant | 17 | 16073% | 15graded well tolerated2graded depends on you | 0 | 61% |
| Active | 16 | 12155% | 9graded well tolerated1graded depends on you5graded worth knowing1graded avoid | 71 banned | 46% |
| Exfoliantno page | 9 | 3616% | 3graded well tolerated6graded depends on you | 3 | 53% |
| pH adjusterno page | 9 | 14868% | 9graded well tolerated | 3 | 72% |
| Othernever a page | 9 | 7333% | 8graded well tolerated1graded avoid | 21 banned | 72% |
| Clay / mineralno page | 8 | 4621% | 7graded well tolerated1graded worth knowing | 7 | 17% |
| Fermentno page | 7 | 2612% | 7graded well tolerated | 0 | 38% |
| Film formerno page | 7 | 5927% | 7graded well tolerated | 0 | 64% |
| Solventno page | 6 | 21498% | 3graded well tolerated3graded depends on you | 0 | 6% |
| Colourantno page | 5 | 3817% | 4graded well tolerated1graded depends on you | 3 | 96% |
| Peptide / proteinno page | 5 | 3014% | 5graded well tolerated | 0 | 67% |
| Chelatorno page | 4 | 9845% | 4graded well tolerated | 0 | 77% |
| Siliconeno page | 4 | 157% | 3graded well tolerated1graded worth knowing | 1 | 25% |
| Surfactantno page | 2 | 52% | 2graded depends on you | 0 | 26% |
| UV filterno page | 1 | 42% | 1graded well tolerated | 1 | 35% |
| Occlusiveno page | 0 | 00% | — | 0 | — |
An entry has exactly one class, so the entries column sums to 329. The masks column does not sum to 219 and is not meant to - a single list prints entries from a great many classes at once.
Read another class
The other classes with a page
The class a mask mostly is
The humectants, entry by entry
42 entries · on 215 masks
Where the label names a plant
The emollients, entry by entry
41 entries · on 129 masks
Where a list means permission
The preservatives, entry by entry
28 entries · on 178 masks
Unrestricted, and not always calm
The botanicals, entry by entry
25 entries · on 124 masks
The invisible class
The emulsifiers, entry by entry
22 entries · on 156 masks
Texture, and nobody reads it
The thickeners, entry by entry
22 entries · on 197 masks
The class the law knows entirely
The fragrance materials, entry by entry
19 entries · on 132 masks
Where a cap signals purpose
The actives, entry by entry
16 entries · on 121 masks
Mostly working for the formula
The antioxidants, entry by entry
17 entries · on 160 masks
Every entry in this class has a page of its own in the ingredient encyclopaedia, where you can search any name off the back of a pack. To see the masks that print these names, and narrow them by price, format or what you want kept out, filter the full catalogue.
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