Welcome to the weekly Perfume Chat Room, perfumistas! I envision this chat room as a weekly drop-in spot online, where readers may ask questions, suggest fragrances, tell others their SOTD, comment on new releases or old favorites, and respond to each other. The perennial theme is fragrance, but we can interpret that broadly. This is meant to be a kind space, so please try not to give or take offense, and let’s all agree to disagree when opinions differ. In fragrance as in life, your mileage may vary! YMMV.

Today is Friday, June 28, and we finally got some rain! Like much of the US, we’ve been experiencing an extended heat wave, with temperatures in the high 90s (Fahrenheit) and high humidity that made it feel even hotter. It’s all I can do to water my plants enough to keep them alive!

On a more serious topic also involving the cultivation of flowers, I recently reposted an article by the BBC that was published in late May: This Is Not Okay. The article is about an investigative documentary from the BBC called “Perfume’s Dark Secret.” It concerns the illegal child labor practices of firms that supply jasmine flowers for processing into oils and ultimately into perfumes. The only company mentioned in the article that appears to be taking this issue seriously enough to have real oversight and action plans is L’Oreal (which owns many brands, including Lancôme; its other brands include Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Viktor&Rolf, Valentino, Mugler, Azzaro, and the former niche brand Atelier Cologne). Most others in the supply chain, including major firms like Givaudan and Firmenich, come across as shrugging that this is the responsibility of someone else in the chain.

Now, I haven’t watched the documentary, and I know some of you have. I need to do so. I hope the BBC continues to follow this story and update readers/watchers on any progress made toward the commitments made by all of these firms. Ultimately, illegal child labor is a failure of governance, in this case by the Egyptian government. But we all have a role in the chain from flower pickers to perfume consumers. I don’t know what my personal response to this news will be, but I won’t be buying any new perfume until I figure that out. This isn’t a big step, as I’ve bought very little new perfume this year (trying to focus on and use the many fragrances I already have). I also buy little from these major brands, but I know that most perfumers at every level are getting their ingredients from part of this same supply chain. I need to research which perfumers may not. If any of you have already looked into this, please share what you’ve learned in the comments below. However, this is a matter of personal conscience, so I will delete any comments that seem to attack another individual commenter’s choices if they arise (I know my regular commenters wouldn’t do that!).

Sorry to be a bit of a downer in this week’s Perfume Chat Room, which is normally quite cheery, but I think this is a topic that’s worth discussing. Feel free to ignore it, though, and chat about something else that’s going on in your fragrant life this week!