If wishes were horses, I’d have an Arabian farm. Seriously, I have no idea how that particular figure of speech is supposed to end. In any case, a common wish that people come to me with is that I make perfume or some other product that’s “hypoallergenic.”
I am the woman who breaks out from use of a hypoallergenic fabric softener. I’m among the first in line to tell you that there ain’t no such thing as “hypoallergenic.” Your body can decide it’s allergic to anything it wants to at any time - there are even people with allergies to water (usually skin only which is still deeply uncomfortable.)
I don’t know how the term hypoallergenic came about, but I know that the US government doesn’t see it as having meaning. From the FDA, “There are no Federal standards or definitions that govern the use of the term “hypoallergenic.” The term means whatever a particular company wants it to mean. Manufacturers of cosmetics labeled as hypoallergenic are not required to submit substantiation of their hypoallergenicity claims to FDA.”
I would LOVE to claim that my goodies are hypoallergenic. I might contemplate even trading an eyeball for it if I didn’t enjoy depth perception so much . But I can’t. I have customers tell me that they don’t react as harshly to my perfumes as they do to over-the-counter synthetics, but I just don’t have the means to gather the data to prove that mine are less allergenic than theirs - and sadly, the chemicals that produce synthetics know this.
All I’ve got is customer testimony to an absence of allergic response from much too small of a data sample. So still, use with caution. You never know when your body might turn on you.
