to not understand why people spend money to pollute their homes with pointless chemicals?

People still have coal fires where I live. Our house reeks of other people's fires all winter. I have to breathe it in when I'm out and about. I spend over an hour a day in my car, presumably breathing in petrol fumes all the way. A few aldi scented candles and some smelly sprinkles in my laundry isn't going to do much.

Neighbour cats like to sh*t in my garden. They also bring me bits of dead animals. Otherwise they don't bother me.

Whether they’re harmful is by the by. The smell isn’t nice, it’s putrid.

I’ve bought stuff off Vinted and you can tell they’ve used these rank ‘scent boosters’ or whatever they’re called because you can smell it as soon as the ipost locker door swings open. None of that says ‘clean’. Clean shouldn’t really smell of anything.

If your laundry needs an extra dose of rancid floral slime, then you perhaps need to rethink your whole washing hygiene.

They look like pastel coloured lentils and stick to things because they often don't dissolve properly. They're also far too scented.

Thank you. That is really fascinating.

I’ve long suspected that ‘natural’ essential oils were not some distillation or extract only of ‘fruit of the earth goodness’. I’m grateful for your expert insight.

In reply to a couple of comments by @iwafs:
Their comment that "i will repeat that smelling of BO or dog is better than the poison in laundry boosters. And make no mistake, it is poison. Anyone who voluntarily ingests it is foolish."
To ingest is to eat: I strongly suggest you don't eat scent boosters.
I am a certified cosmetic chemist and have worked in the perfume industry for 25yrs (that doesn't mean I'm an industry shill).

To another of your points: It's impossible to buy totally unscented soap, as all soap bases smell disgusting (fatty, of the base oil they're saponified from. The worst I ever smelled was a russian soap base made from fish oils - we had to work really hard to cover that base odour!)

The lavender, vanilla etc. essential oils that you buy in shops, markets etc, are diluted with the exact same chemicals you worry about in your 'synthetic' products. They are also major components in these synthetic products, as many natural oils are comparatively cheap: citrus oils in particular.

The strong smell of Lush is purely from natural fragrances, yet many find it less bearable than synthetics (I don't, but must admit it's strong).

Also, a PP mentioned allergy to fragrance mix: all the ingredients in this, are from natural essential oils (clove, cinnamon, etc) and the 26 common allergens that must be legally listed on the packs of cosmetics & household products are all naturally occurring in essential oils. So in many cases natural is more harmful than synthetic. (edited for typos)

Oh, right. It was just a chuckle.

If you do use lavender oil and it works please start a thread and spread the word.

Well I don’t like them, but surely you can understand why others might like the smell.

Never heard of scent boosters till this thread! Off to google!

Thanks, a mocking response was really what I was looking for. 😓

Wow. Even more judgement. So, if they don't have the same opinions as you, they must have been indoctrinated?

I mean, I don't really like scented things for the home myself, but your methods of analysis are amazing.

People wanna breathe that shit in, fine. But why subject your kids to it, people should be doing everything they can to keep them as healthy as possible.

Have you tried a Glade Plug-In?

I appreciate that your garden will wilt and die and you’ll need a hazmat suit to put the washing out, but it might keep the moggies at bay.

I confess that I really enjoy the smell of ammonia. Lovely clean smell.

Made in a factory though. So bad.

I love a scented candle! Have to be careful because of my asthma, but frankly given my elderly, smelly pets, without the candles my home would definitely not smell as nice 😂

They smell nice, or at least they do to the people using them.

My house smells like pets, particularly rats but because they are sensitive I can't use any scents at all so I have an air purifier and hope nobody is offended when they come round.

I picked one of the kids up from their friends last week and their house smelt lovely with some sort of fragrance. I was very envious but not enough to stop me keeping my furry potatoes.

Everything is bad for us and the environment these days so people just want to live their lives how they see fit.

She can say it smells clean. Some scents do have a clean smell to them. Who made you the judge of how people experience smells?

Would lavender scent stop them coming in my garden, without harming them of course?

I hate scented laundry and air fresheners but I do like a natural essential oil diffuser

I don't know what a scent booster is

Lavender oil is toxic for cats.

They don’t even smell nice.

Look her up on Instagram

Yes, but wasn’t as widely used until she came on the scene

Bingo! I knew we’d get to natural v artificial/unnatural/chemicals.

There are a few more on the thread following this one.

There’s nothing inherently bad about organic or inorganic chemistry.

I really don’t think anyone’s being ‘deliberately dumb’.