Civet is the scent of the civet cat. The cats are tortured to create the perfume. But there are alternatives.
What is civet and where is it found?
Civet is an odoriferous substance, a secretion produced in the civet cat's anal glands. It contains cibetone, indole and skatole.
The name civet comes from Arabic and means musk. So he directly describes the smell of civet. It's a bit uncomfortable at first. Later it is very musky, leathery and yet pleasant. Civet is often combined with amber, sandalwood or other essential oils in the manufacture of perfumes. In addition, civet is used in both women's and men's perfumes. Among other things, it often serves as a fixative.
This is how you recognize civet
Unfortunately, cosmetic products often contain animal ingredients. These are often difficult to spot. The INCIs, the so-called International Nomenclature for Cosmetic Ingredients, can sometimes be very confusing because companies use different expressions so as not to deter customers. That is why we explain below how you can immediately recognize civet in cosmetic products.
If you are interested in cosmetic ingredients, we recommend the following Utopia podcast: The worst cosmetic ingredients - and how to avoid them.
This is how civet is obtained
To get to civet, civet cats are needed. The secretion civet is produced in their anal glands. The animals are distributed in South and Southeast Asia and in large parts of Africa. They are bred on the one hand for the scent, but also for fur and meat production. Ethiopia in particular traded in civet in the past.
The civet cats are kept in cages and teased there. This continues until they weed out the Secretion Tibet. This is then scraped out of the anal gland near the sex gland in a painful procedure. According to the Federal Environment Agency (p.19), natural civet is only used extremely rarely nowadays. Civet-like fragrances, on the other hand, are often synthetic, i.e. artificially produced. Mainly for animal welfare reasons.
In addition to the synthetically produced cicrete, there is another sustainable alternative. It is called labdanum oil and smells comparably musky. It is obtained from the resin of the cistus.
If you want to be sure that your cosmetic products do not contain any animal ingredients, vegan cosmetics are a good solution. That's why we have a few tips for you regarding vegan cosmetics below: How to recognize cosmetics without animal testing
Nobody wants our makeup, shampoo or shower gel to be tested on animals. But it's often not that easy...
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Pay attention to the above points, then you can be sure that your perfume does not contain civet.
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