Dior Sauvage: 19 Ingredients, a Luxury Price, the Same Black Box
Paying ten times more buys you a better scent, not a more honest label.
Sauvage is one of the best-selling prestige fragrances in the world, and its label proves a point worth making plainly: a premium price does not buy you disclosure. The second ingredient is “Parfum,” the same trade-secret entry a drugstore cologne uses, holding the same undisclosed complex of scent chemicals. What is named is mostly the EU allergen set and a stack of UV filters. The bottle costs more. The black box is identical.
The label, flagged
AlcoholACTUALLY FINE
Fearmongered as “toxic alcohol,” but at cosmetic use it is well-tolerated and evaporates within seconds. We clear it.
ethanol
ParfumCAUTION
Not a hazard in itself, but a legal black box. “Fragrance” can shield ingredients (including EU-banned ones) that you are never told are there.
the trade-secret black box
Water
LimoneneCAUTION
Harmless fresh, but it oxidizes in air and on skin into potent contact allergens. Real, measurable sensitization; not a cancer scare.
LinaloolCAUTION
Same story as limonene: weak on its own, a real sensitizer once oxidized. Common cause of fragrance contact allergy.
Ethylhexyl MethoxycinnamateCAUTION
An estrogen-active UV filter banned from Hawaii's reefs, and oddly sprayed onto skin and inhaled in a fragrance mist that makes no sunscreen claim at all.
UV filter (octinoxate)
CitronellolCAUTION
Recognized fragrance contact allergen (EU H317); cross-reacts with geraniol.
Butyl MethoxydibenzoylmethaneACTUALLY FINE
The workhorse UVA filter. It absorbs into skin like the others, but carries no specific harm finding, and it's what's actually protecting you from deep UVA.
UV filter (avobenzone)
Ethylhexyl Salicylate
UV filter (octisalate)
CoumarinCAUTION
A recognized fragrance allergen present in most deodorants. Sensitization is real but bounded; no credible cancer signal at cosmetic exposure.
Diethylamino Hydroxybenzoyl Hexyl Benzoate
UV filter
BHTCAUTION
A synthetic antioxidant the EU flagged for possible endocrine effects and the UK restricted in 2024, safe at low levels, watched closely abroad, unrestricted here.
CitralCAUTION
Among the most frequently reported fragrance allergens; a sensitizer, not a systemic toxin.
GeraniolCAUTION
One of the most frequently reported fragrance contact allergens in EU clinics.
CI 60730
synthetic dye
CI 14700
synthetic dye
CI 19140
synthetic dye
CI 42090
synthetic dye
Tocopherol
vitamin E
Source: SkinSort ingredient database. View label. Tap any flagged ingredient for the evidence.
What to use instead
The fix isn’t complicated: a fragrance-free or fully-disclosed alternative, with the ingredients flagged on this label designed out, closes these gaps at once. We pick the ones worth your money.
Shop phthalate-free fragrance →Editorial analysis of the publicly listed label and regulatory/peer-reviewed sources. Not medical advice, not affiliated with the brand. Verdicts are evidence-graded, we flag what the data flags and clear what it clears.