So, what’s in Febreze AIR?
Let’s take a look at the list of ingredients.
If you want to follow along, I’ve included a link to the ingredients in the description..
Or using the smart label app, you can scan QR Code on your Febreze product.
Before we dig in, I need to let you know --- this video was sponsored by Procter & Gamble, the
company that makes Febreze.
They flew me out to Cincinnati so I can speak with their scientists and check out their
labs . Although they are paying me for my work, my opinions are honest and completely
my own!
#sponsored.
Okay, let’s get started.
One of the key odor-fighting ingredients is BETA-CYCLODEXTRIN.
It’s a ring shaped molecule made of starchy sugars.
It looks like a donut with an outside that loves water and inside that loves oil.
When you spray Febreze, the oil-loving center of the B-cyclodextrin gives the oily odor
molecules a big hug.
This prevents them from binding to the receptors in your nose.
Smell eliminated!
The cyclodextrin, now heavy with a trapped odor molecule, falls to the floor where it
can be wiped off the surface with a towel or sucked up with a vacuum.
Fun fact: it took Febreze YEARS to develop scents that weren’t trapped by their own
cyclodextrin molecules!
This must mean that unlike the oily-odor molecules, most of the fragrances in Febreze are hydrophilic
or water-based to avoid being trapped.
Odor trapping is definitely different than the scent cover-up going on with some other
air fresheners out there.
The ingredients that cover-up odors are known as masking ingredients, and often contain
heavy perfumes which can only superimpose a pleasant odor on top of an unpleasant one.
So you get to enjoy the scent of smelly socks + fake fruit.
Some combinations can even lead to a worse scent than the one you started with.
Don’t believe me?
Listen to my interview with Dr. Pamela Dalton, cognitive psychologist, odor expert, AND winner
of the Guinness World Record for creating the worst smell ever.
The video is right here.
Beta-cyclodextrin isn’t the only ingredient in Febreze that works overtime.
It turns out many bad odors are acidic.
This is why we put baking soda in the fridge — to lower the acidity and neutralize the
substance causing the odor.
Febreze Air contains citric acid and sodium citrate, which are a weak acid and mild base.
Together they neutralize the pH and lessen odors.
After the malodors are removed, fragrance is released and replaces the unpleasant smells
with something more pleasant, fresh and enjoyable.
Some of these fragrances include odor converters.
These reactive FRAGRANCE ingredients actually bind to a broad range of odors and turns them
into a different molecule that our scent receptors can’t detect.
One example would be a molecule such as citral, which is naturally found in lemongrass.
But I did learn that by the end of 2019 Procter & Gamble will be sharing all fragrance ingredients
all the way down to 0.01 % for Febreze and other products sold in Canada and the US.
Good move Febreze!
The rest of these ingredients don’t directly impact the scent, they just help the product
do its job.
WATER to mix it all together, DIALKYL SODIUM SULFOSUCCINATE, a surfactant that keeps ingredients
from separating, HYDROGENATED CASTOR OIL to help oil substances dissolve in the water,
ALCOHOL so the mist dries after it’s sprayed, and BENZISOTHIAZOLINONE which prevents microbes
from contaminating the product.
I noticed something else really cool.
Most aerosol sprays contain propane or butane, which acts as a propellant to help push out
the ingredients in the product.
But Febreze uses NITROGEN, which is not flammable and better for the environment.
With Earth’s atmosphere being about 78% nitrogen, heck!
It practically IS the environment!
So does Febreze eliminate odors?
According to these ingredients, it’s certainly up the challenge!
How do you deal with stinky odors in your life?
Pets, hockey gear, garbage strikes?
Let me hear about it in the comments section below.
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