FRAGRANCE
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I explain to people who are patch-test positive to fragrance mix that they
may also have allergic contact dermatitis to some spices (eg. nutmeg, cloves,
lemon oil, orange oil) so they have to play detective and stay away from
anything that seems to cause problems, or at least wash after handling those
things.

Kevin C. Smith MD FRCPC
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Do you think ingestion of these spices will cause a flare in the region of
their contact dermatitis? Or have you seen that?  

Diane Thaler
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I believe that "masking fragrances" like most other "fragrances" used in
products are a combination of many chemicals that could represent 50 to 300
different chemicals. 

Trey Truett, MD
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I generally instruct patients to use only "Fragrance-free" products and to
specficially avoid the label "unscented" because of masking fragrances.
This may be overly restrictive but better safe than sorry.

Because fragrances are typically complex mixtures, it is generally not
helpful to tell someone that they are allergic to cinnamic alcohol, jasmine
synthetic, oakmoss absolute, etc.  Better to keep it simple and tell them
to avoid all fragrance.

A.P. Truett III, MD
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