A Guide to IFRA Certificates for Candle Makers
IFRA certificates are tickets provided by anyone who sells fragrance that indicate what that fragrance can be safely used for.
“IFRA” stands for The International Fragrance Association – a global group responsible for publishing guidelines around safe use of fragrance ingredients.
“Safe” in this case, means compared to the latest IFRA guidelines. Our knowledge of fragrance materials and their safety continues to evolve, and the rule book created by The International Fragrance Association evolves with it.
The most widely used artifact of the IFRA is an “IFRA Certificate of Conformity”, which broadly states how much of that fragrance is usable for a specific application.
In this guide you will learn:
- What IFRA certificates are
- Why safety certificates matter
- Who creates IFRA certificates
- How to read an IFRA certificate
- If you need to pay attention to IFRA certificates
Let’s dive in!
What is an IFRA certificate?
IFRA certificates help answer the question, “what is in this fragrance oil?” by forcing fragrance makers to spell out the maximum concentration that oil can be used.
For example, a fragrance oil might only allow up to 2% if used in lotions, but 100% if used in candles.
Obviously you wouldn’t make a candle with a 100% fragrance load, but the certificate shows it’s safe to use any amount of that fragrance for candle making.
Almost every commercial fragrance oil sold will have an IFRA certificate with it. If it doesn’t, you should request one from the supplier if you need to know that information.
Certificates are not an explicit ingredients list for a fragrance.
Rather, they describe the MAXIMUM concentration of the oil that can be used for a given category like “candles” or “lip balm”… more on that below.
Why do IFRA certificates matter?
Certificates give makers TRANSPARENCY when crafting up a new invention.
The fragrance market is wide and broad, and almost anyone can make and sell fragrance oil. An IFRA ticket helps people who buy FRAGRANCE OIL understand how safe or unsafe they are to use.
Think about it this way: an unlabeled bottle of fragrance oil can contain just about anything, in any concentration. That bottle could be hyper concentrated to the point that only a 1% fragrance load would be needed for a strong candle, or it could be diluted to the point that you would never smell anything before 12%.
The point is that not every fragrance oil is created equal.
Inside the bottle could be any number of different irritants or allergens, and it could be super concentrated, extremely diluted, or anywhere in between.
An IFRA certificate tells artisans how to integrate a fragrance oil and avoid health risks from using too much.
Transparency, especially with fragrances, is critical.
Who creates IFRA certificates?
Anyone selling fragrance oil should have an IFRA certificate, but where do they come from?
Despite the “IFRA” in the name, tickets aren’t actually issued by The International Fragrance Association.
In fact, you don’t even have to be a member of the IFRA to generate a certificate.
IFRA certificates are, “established by a fragrance mixture or ingredient manufacturer”. So pretty much, it’s the responsibility of the distributor of a fragrance oil to cobble together an IFRA certificate.
Resellers of fragrance, like Candle Shack or The Flaming Candle are responsible for coordinating with a professional or third-party certification service to generate an IFRA certificate for every synthetic fragrance oil they sell.
Do they have to?
Not really, but it’s an industry standard for fragrance suppliers to provide IFRA tickets even if they aren’t a member of The International Fragrance Association. The IFRA provides a digital template for sellers to fill in with information about their fragrance. Templates are revised anytime the IFRA undergoes a significant change in their standards.
At the time of this writing the 49th amendment was the most recent change around December, 2019. Prior to that, the 48th amendment was published in June of 2015.
Candle makers do NOT have to create IFRA certificates for the products they sell.
IFRA certificates are created by fragrance oil sellers, not by the artisans that consume those fragrances.
How do you read an IFRA certificate?
The first thing to know about IFRA certificates is the concept of categories.
IFRA Categories
Everything covered by a certificate falls into a usage category.
For example, candles fall into the category labeled “Products not intended for direct skin contact, minimal or insignificant transfer to skin” which happens to be Category 12 under Amendment 49 of the IFRA Standards.
Reed diffusers happen to be Category 10, “Household care products with mostly hand contact”.
The IFRA categories somewhat sensible organize the exposure type a user might have with a fragrance. Candles (where the fragrance is thrown into the air) are treated differently than lotion, where a user would literally be in direct contact with the fragrance ingredients.
If a known contact allergen is used in the fragrance oil then you’d probably want to restrict the use of it if used in a product that requires direct contact.
Thus, compiling an IFRA certificate requires a fragrance house to figure out what ingredients can’t hit certain thresholds.
Why are all categories evaluated?
Because a single fragrance oil can potentially be used for many different applications. An oil made for soaps can also be used for candles or lip balm. In fact, it benefits fragrance houses to craft oils that are broadly usable, but more on that later.
As a candle maker there’s really two steps to follow when reading an IFRA ticket.
1. Validate how current the IFRA ticket is (from the supplier)
The International Fragrance House amends their standards every so often in response to changing industry needs, regulations, and scientific research. This pressures resellers to keep their documentation up to date, but creating a valid IFRA certificate usually requires coordination between chemists, business people, and a 3rd party certification service – all of which takes time and money.
The most recent change was communicated in late 2019, but amendments are published every few years:
| Amendment | Date of Notification Letter |
| 49th | December, 2019 |
| 48th | June, 2015 |
| 47th | June, 2013 |
| 46th | June, 2011 |
| 45th | June, 2010 |
| 44th | July, 2009 |
Most certificates you’d see today are either from the 48th or 49th amendment. The distinction is critical, especially for candle makers, because the 49th amendment actually changed the category descriptions.
Under the 49th amendment, candles are category 12 whereas they were previously category 11.
Compared to the older version, the 48th amendment.
The easiest way to tell which version you’re looking at is if it includes Category 12 or not. Category 12 was added in the 49th amendment and doesn’t exist in the previous version.
Some suppliers may not provide a literal IFRA certificate and will instead illustrate the maximum concentration allowed in other applications with verbiage like:
- “Maximum usage amount”
- “Safe for soaps up to 4%”
- “Not for use in lip products”
…which is secretly the same as what an IFRA ticket offers you.
2. Check the category that matches your use case
Most likely you’re a candle maker, in which case you probably won’t care about anything on an IFRA certificate – the International Fragrance Association almost always results in a 100% usage allowance for candles.
If you’re buying fragrance oil for use in lip products, soap, or reed diffusers you absolutely need to refer to the IFRA certificate.
When you find the category that matches your use case, observe the limit.
This number is intended to represent the maximum safe concentration you can use in your application. It is not a suggested amount, but a ceiling.
Think about it this way, if your soap recipe requires a 5% fragrance load but the IFRA certificate shows 1.95%, then you wouldn’t be able to use 5% in your recipe without going above the allowed limit.
…but can you go above the allowed limit?
Do you need to follow the IFRA standards?
Technically, you don’t have to follow the IFRA standards if you aren’t a member, but you DO have to follow the law. Similar to following the industry standard burn test for candle development, if you sell a product that causes an irritation and you’re found to have not followed the IFRA standards, you can be liable for damages.
The IFRA certificate, while not the law itself, is an industry standard that should be observed by every artisan consuming fragrance oil.
Here’s a small list of items and their IFRA categories:
| Item | IFRA Category (49th Amendment) |
| Candles | Category 12 |
| Wax Melts | Category 12 |
| Reed diffusers | Category 10A |
| Bar soap | Category 9 |
| Lotion | Category 5A |
| Lip balm | Category 1 |
Anytime you buy a fragrance, especially for non-candle applications, make sure you review the IFRA certificate from your seller.
The world of fragrance and the science behind it constantly evolves, and IFRA (along with their research partner, Research Institute for Fragrance Materials) works to keep up with the latest findings. They also have lobbyists and other interests, but that’s speculation for another day.
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