BBC documentary exposes ‘Perfume’s Dark Secret’

The BBC World Service’s Eye Investigation team yesterday released its latest documentary, 'Perfume's Dark Secret', which exposed the "worst form of child labour". Children as young as five are seen jasmine picking in Egypt for leading beauty brands including Lancome and L’Oréal.

Despite zero-tolerance child labour policies, Estée Lauder, Lancôme, L’Oréal and Aerin Beauty have been named among those who engage in the jasmine trade in Egypt through suppliers such as Givaudan.

The BBC said in a statement: "The BBC visited Egypt’s jasmine region during the harvest season in the summer of 2023 and found children — some as young as five years old — working in the jasmine fields that were supplying some global brands through factories in Egypt."

Egypt supplies about half of the global supply of jasmine, which is among the most valuable perfume ingredients. The BBC claims it witnessed children picking flowers in Egypt that were sent to factories that supply scents for Lancôme’s Idôle Intense and Aerin Beauty’s Ikat Jasmine.

BBC’s statement cited L’Oréal, after being shown the evidence, as saying: "Despite very strong commitments, we know that, in certain regions of the world where L’Oréal suppliers operate, certain practices don’t meet our commitments. However, we don’t shirk our responsibilities and we are fully committed to make things evolve in the right way."

In the documentary, a family with three children ages 5 to 15 are seen picking jasmine before school, which is illegal under Egyptian law.

"We believe the rights of all children should be protected and have contacted our suppliers to investigate this very serious matter. We recognize the complex socioeconomic environment surrounding the local jasmine supply chain and we are taking action to gain better transparency and work toward improving the livelihoods of sourcing communities", Estée Lauder told WWD yesterday.

According to the documentary's findings, the main three factories in Egypt to extract jasmine oil are A. Fakhry and Co., Hashem Brothers and Machalico. All three denied the use of child labour.

The BBC showed its findings to Givaudan, which is supplied kasmine from A. Fakhry and Co. Givaudan said the findings are "deeply alarming" and that it plans to take "action to remove the risk of child labour entirely".