(Last updated: May 13, 2026.)
Introduction#
This post is for fragrance sensitive people who are looking for tips on how to better remove fragrance from their laundry. I am talking specifically about laundry that is otherwise clean and properly laundered, but that still presents with fragrance.
The techniques discussed here are NOT the right starting point for laundry that has smells from long term build up from improper washing. If you’re dealing with persistent smells or odor rebloom unrelated to fragrance exposure, or if you’re dealing with textiles with heavy fragrance and an unknown history, then you probably want to start with a full reset using the Spa Day Soak and Rehab Wash protocol.
Sources of Fragrance#
There are two main sources of fragrance that I wrestle with:
Casual Cross-Contamination. You have clean, fragrance-free clothes. Then you go into a high fragrance environment (usually for an extended period of time) and you come out with fragrance on your clothes that persists even after a proper wash cycle. The main example of this in my life is my child’s school clothes. These go to school fragrance-free, come home presenting significant fragrance, and the fragrance persists even after a proper washing. If this is what you’re dealing with you should start with a Fragrance Lifting Wash.
Manufacturing Applied Fragrance. Nearly all new clothes today come treated with fragrance… sometimes aggressively so. Throwing these new items directly in with the rest of your laundry is a good way to transfer that manufacturing fragrance to all your other clothes for a while. If you are fragrance sensitive it’s probably worth the effort to strip the manufacturing fragrance up front before introducing the new items into your normal laundry flow. If this is what you’re dealing with you should start with a Fragrance Lifting Soak.
Fabric Type Matters a Lot#
The ideal method to get fragrance out of textiles depends a lot on the fabric type. Cottons are often the easiest to deal with. Polystester is harder. Elastaine/Spandex is the hardest of all. In fact, I try to avoid buying textiles with elastaine whenever possible since it’s so hard to get fragrance out of it. Sadly it’s all but unavoidable in underwear and sportswear. If you’re trying to get fragrance out of elastaine you should be probably expect that there will be long warm soaking involved.
My Methods#
I am an empiricist; I try things until I see them work reliably and predictably. I only recommend things that I have done many times. And while I have a hobbyist’s understanding of surfactants, oxidizers, enzymes, and other common laundry ingredients I want to be absolutely candid that I am not a formally trained chemist. My inspirations come from internet resources, textile and surfactant industry papers, and conversations with various people who also have an interest in fragrance removal. We each have our own baselines, so what’s good enough for me may not be good enough for you… or may be overkill for you. By all means… do what works for you! My methods are likely imperfect. My explanations may be technically or scientifically wrong. I am absolutely open to feedback and suggestions. I’m sharing these techniques because they have helped me get fragrance out of my laundry. If this is important to you I hope they help you too.
Some Remarks About Scented Laundry Products#
I mostly try to keep my fragrance sensitivity to myself. I’m a big proponent of live and let live. Having a working society often means all of us making small sacrifices to accommodate the many different preferences and goals we each have. But the concentration and permanence of the fragrance in products today is so severe that it feels wrong not to say at least a few words about it.
Many laundry products today are designed to achieve and persist very high levels of fragrance. In some cases this is done with oily/waxy binders that transfer fragrance to things that the textiles come in contact with. In some cases it’s done through cationic bonding of fragrance to fibers, which helps the fragrance not wash out but usually minimizes the amount of transfer. In some cases the persistence is achieved through new technologies like micro-encapsulation, which persists, and transfers, and bonds fragrance cationically. Some of these fragrance components are hard to remove once they get on your clothes or transfer to other cloth surfaces (e.g. car seats, furniture, etc.). Some of them are basically impossible to remove.
It’s not just that some of us don’t like these fragrances - as in we have a preference. It’s that some of us react to them in ways that are disruptive to our daily lives, or sometimes even medically dangerous. For example, I sometimes have panic attacks triggered by fragrance exposure. Some people get migraines. Some people experience allergic responses like congestion, breathing difficulties, or even anaphylaxis.
Unfortunately, fragrance sensitivity affects my life in major ways. I can’t use public laundromats anymore. I have had to donate and replace clothes after washing them in public washers because I could not find a way to get to remove the fragrance or to stop it from transferring to other clothes in my laundry. High traffic public enclosed spaces are often difficult to be in so I avoid them whenever possible. Any travel is uncomfortable and I avoid it unless absolutely necessary. Riding in an Uber is usually difficult. Renting a car is a challenge. Staying in a hotel is often uncomfortable and I always bring my own towel/washcloth/pillow case. I maintain a whole separate set of “travel clothes” and a separate travel CPAP for when I do have to travel. The degree to which these current generation fragrance products affect me and other fragrance sensitive people feels… well… unfair. I understand some folks want fragrance in their laundry and that’s a reasonable personal choice. But maybe we could find a more fair common ground by pulling back specifically on the fragrance compounds that have high degrees of cross-contamination and long-term persistence? Given the ubiquity of durable fragrance in the world right now the situation feels pretty hopeless.