Our Standards

Responsible sourcing, clean formulas and ethical production are easy phrases to print on a website and hard to prove, and most brands stop at printing them.

This page is the proof, or as much of it as we currently have. We would rather show you our supply chain than describe it with adjectives.

Specifics Over Adjectives

The vocabulary around fragrance has been worn out: clean, natural, non-toxic, sustainable, conscious. None of these words has a legal definition in cosmetics, so a shopper cannot tell the difference between a brand that means it and a brand that bought the word.

So we treat them as headings, not claims. Everything below is specific. Where we cannot yet be specific, we say that instead of reaching for a softer word.

What We Will Not Use

This section is longer than the one about what we do use, and that is intentional. In perfumery, the decisions that matter most are usually refusals.

Animal testing. We do not test our fragrances or their ingredients on animals, and we do not sell in any market that requires it. We ask every supplier to confirm the same in writing.

Animal-derived materials. Several of perfumery's most famous materials come from animals. Natural musk comes from a gland of the male musk deer, and collecting it has historically meant killing the animal. Civet is scraped from the glands of civet cats, many of them kept in cages. Castoreum is taken from beavers, which are killed to collect it. Ambergris forms in the gut of sperm whales, and its sale is restricted in several countries, including the United States. We use none of them. We also leave out honey and beeswax absolutes, so every Aphrodisiac fragrance is vegan.

Phthalates. Diethyl phthalate is still legal and widely used in perfume as a solvent and fixative. The research on its effects is debated. We leave it out anyway.

Nitro and polycyclic musks. Most musk notes in modern perfume are synthetic, and that is the right choice. But two older families of synthetic musk have a poor record. Several nitro musks are now banned in the EU. Polycyclic musks such as galaxolide persist in rivers and have been detected in human tissue. We use macrocyclic musks instead, which break down more easily.

Materials banned in the EU, anywhere we sell. The EU has some of the strictest rules on fragrance ingredients in the world. Lilial, a common lily-of-the-valley material, was banned there in 2022 but is still legal in other markets, which means a perfume can be legal where it is made and banned where it is worn. We formulate every fragrance to EU rules, whatever country it ships to.

Undisclosed subcontracting. A manufacturer that quietly passes part of an order to another facility has broken the chain, and nothing anyone tells you after that point can be verified. It is the most common way a supply chain goes dark, and it is the refusal we enforce hardest.

Natural and Synthetic

Many brands market "natural" as if it means safer or kinder. In perfume it often means the opposite. Some of the most damaging materials in the history of perfumery, from deer musk to wild sandalwood, are natural. Many of the most responsible ones are made in a lab.

We use both, and we choose case by case.

Synthetic materials where the natural version comes from an animal, an endangered species, or a supply chain nobody can trace.

Natural materials where the supply is traceable, the harvest is sustainable, and the people doing the work are paid for it.

Accords, named honestly. An accord is a blend of materials built to smell like something else. In our notes, ambergris, leather and honey are all accords. No whale, animal hide or beehive is involved.

The Five Ingredients We Watch Most Closely

Our six fragrances use several materials that have serious sourcing problems across the industry. These are the ones we check hardest.

Jasmine, in Mandragora. Jasmine is picked by hand in the early morning, when its scent is strongest. Investigations in Egypt, one of the world's largest producers, have found children doing that work. We only buy jasmine from suppliers who can document who picks it and how they are paid. If they cannot, we use a synthetic jasmine.

Vanilla, in Mandragora. Most of the world's vanilla comes from Madagascar, where it is grown by smallholder farmers and where child labor in the harvest has been widely reported. We require fair trade certified vanilla or documented direct sourcing.

Sandalwood, in Midas. Indian sandalwood has been logged so heavily that the species is now listed as vulnerable, and illegal harvesting is still common. We use sandalwood only from sustainably managed plantations or synthetic sources.

Oud, in Djinn. Oud comes from agarwood trees. Wild trees have been stripped across Asia to the point that every agarwood species is protected under international trade rules. We use synthetic oud or oud from cultivated trees with full trade documentation.

Frankincense, in Nazar. Frankincense resin is tapped from wild trees in the Horn of Africa and Arabia, and overtapping has pushed some populations into steep decline. We require documented sustainable harvesting or use a synthetic version.

What the Certifications Actually Mean

Certification logos get used as decoration. They are worth understanding, because each one certifies something narrow.

Leaping Bunny is widely considered the strictest cruelty-free certification. It requires that no animal testing happens at any stage, including by suppliers, and it is backed by independent audits.

The Vegan Society trademark confirms a product contains no animal-derived ingredients and has not been tested on animals.

An IFRA Certificate of Conformity confirms a fragrance formula meets the safety standards of the International Fragrance Association for its intended use. It says nothing about sourcing, labor or animals.

A Cosmetic Product Safety Report is a legal requirement for selling in the EU. A qualified safety assessor reviews the full formula and signs off that it is safe to use.

UEBT, the Union for Ethical BioTrade, certifies that natural ingredients are sourced in a way that respects biodiversity and the people who harvest them.

FairWild covers the sustainable harvest of wild plants. Fair for Life certifies fair trade conditions for farmers and workers.

FSC confirms that the paper in our boxes comes from responsibly managed forests.

We list these to be useful to you, not to imply we hold them all. Where we hold a certification, we will say so on the relevant product page with the certificate number, so you can verify it yourself.

How We Choose Who Makes Our Fragrances

We work only with manufacturers that will answer questions. That sounds modest. In practice it rules out a large part of the industry, because answering a direct question about wages, sourcing and subcontracting requires a company to actually know the answer.

Before we work with a manufacturer or supplier, we require:

• Written confirmation that no animal testing takes place at any stage

• The IFRA certificate and full ingredient list for every formula

• The country of origin for every natural material, and documentation for the five ingredients above

• Documentation of its labor practices, including wages and working hours

• Disclosure of any subcontractors used for any part of the order

• A willingness to be named publicly as one of our suppliers

If a manufacturer will not provide these, we do not place the order. There is no version of this where we make an exception for a better price.

The Questions We Ask Every Supplier

These are the actual questions, in the order we ask them.

1. Who owns this facility, and who else produces here?

2. Who compounds this fragrance, and where is it filled and bottled?

3. Which materials in this formula are natural, and where does each one come from?

4. Has any material in this formula, or the finished product, been tested on animals, by you or by anyone supplying you?

5. How many people work here, how many are directly employed, and how many are agency or contract workers?

6. What is the lowest wage paid here, and how does it compare to the legal minimum and to a living wage for this region?

7. What are the standard hours, what is the overtime rate, and is overtime voluntary in practice rather than only on paper?

8. Which parts of this order will leave this building, and where will they go?

9. Who audited you last, when, and may we read the report, including the corrective actions?

On Wages

Legal minimum wage and living wage are different numbers, often by a wide margin, and a supplier can be fully compliant with the law while paying people less than it costs to live where they work. In perfume, the widest gaps are usually at the very start of the chain, among the people who pick flowers, tap resin and cure vanilla by hand.

We ask for both figures. Where there is a gap, we want to know it exists and we want it in writing. A supplier who can tell us the size of the gap is in a different category from one who has never calculated it.

We are not going to claim we have closed that gap. We are one small buyer. What we can do is refuse to pretend the legal minimum is the same thing as a fair wage.

Safety

Every Aphrodisiac fragrance meets the current IFRA Standards and is formulated to EU cosmetics rules, whatever country it ships to. The full ingredient list, including fragrance allergens, is printed on every box. If you have sensitive skin or a known allergy, email us before you buy and we will send the complete list so you or your doctor can check it.

Small Batches, No Waste

Overproduction is a planning decision. Brands make perfume against an optimistic forecast, and the surplus becomes someone else's problem.

We make each fragrance in small batches and blend more when it sells. That means a spell will sometimes be out of stock. We would rather tell you that than make three times what we need so we never have to say it.

Anything that does not sell is discounted or given away. It is never destroyed to protect a price.

Packaging

Our bottles are glass, and our boxes are recyclable paper. We seal each box with a plant-based cellulose film instead of plastic wrap. We do not include printed inserts, cards or tissue that exist only to make an unboxing look better on camera.

Traceability

For every fragrance we sell, we can tell you where it was blended, where it was bottled, which of its notes come from natural materials and which from synthetic ones, and the country of origin of each natural material.

If you want that information, email info@aphrodisiacnewyork.com with the name of the fragrance and we will send it to you. There is no form to fill in and no reason we would decline.

Where We Are Not There Yet

We are a young brand, and we would rather write this section than pretend it does not apply to us.

Our leverage is limited. A small order does not give us the influence over a supplier's practices that a large one would. We can choose partners carefully, and we do, but we cannot yet dictate terms further up the chain.

We cannot see every farm. We know who makes our fragrances and who supplies their materials. Beyond that, at the level of the individual field or forest, our visibility drops. This is true of almost every brand our size, and most of them do not mention it.

Our bottles are not refillable yet. Each spell has its own bottle design. Making those bottles refillable is a goal, not something we can offer today.

Spray pumps are hard to recycle. They combine metal and plastic, and most household recycling cannot separate them. We are looking for a better option and will update this page when we find one.

Shipping has a cost we have not solved. Perfume travels as regulated cargo, and free worldwide delivery does not make its carbon cost disappear. We are not going to claim otherwise while we work out how to address it honestly.

We have not commissioned independent lifecycle assessments. Doing that properly is expensive, and we would rather say so than publish a carbon figure we cannot defend.

This section will change as we do. It will not quietly disappear.

Common Questions

Are your fragrances vegan?

Yes. None of our fragrances contain animal-derived ingredients, including honey, beeswax, musk or ambergris.

Are you cruelty-free?

Yes. We do not test on animals, and we require every supplier to confirm in writing that they do not either. We are not yet Leaping Bunny certified. When we are, it will say so here.

Are your fragrances natural?

Not entirely, and we would not want them to be. Some natural materials come from animals, endangered trees, or supply chains that cannot be traced. We use natural materials where we can verify where they came from, and synthetic ones where we cannot.

Are they "clean"?

We do not use that word, because it has no agreed meaning in fragrance. What we can tell you is exactly what we leave out, which is the list near the top of this page.

Where are they made?

Ask us about any fragrance and we will tell you where it was blended and where it was bottled.

Can I wear them while pregnant or with sensitive skin?

We cannot give medical advice. Email us for the full ingredient list of any fragrance and check it with your doctor.

What You Can Ask

Any question about an ingredient, a supplier, a certification or a process can be sent to info@aphrodisiacnewyork.com. If we know the answer, you will get it. If we do not, we will tell you so, and then we will go and find out.

The Aim

The aim is a supply chain we can describe in plain sentences without reaching for a single vague word. We are not there yet. This page is how you hold us to getting there.