PerfuMate › Tools › IFRA calculator

IFRA calculator (Category 4)

Bring a formula, say how strong the perfume will be, and see which materials go over the IFRA 51st Amendment limits, and by how much. Calculated by the same engine as the PerfuMate app.

Your formula never leaves this device.

Your formula

or drop a PDF, Excel, CSV, JSON or text file

Concentration of the perfume

Formula in the finished perfume

Add a formula first.

How does the IFRA calculator work?

Each line is matched to the PerfuMate catalog: 2,223 materials, with their synonyms and trade names. Only an exact or a close match is used. Anything less is offered for you to pick, and a line you leave unmatched stays unchecked.

Every restricted molecule is then summed across the whole formula, the way the IFRA Standards are written: by molecule, not by bottle. Citral from lemon oil, from litsea and from neat citral is one citral total, judged once.

Each total is a share of the finished product: its share of the concentrate times the concentration you enter. Bergamot at 3% of the concentrate, in a perfume at 18%, is 0.54% of the perfume. Dilutions written in a name count at their strength, so "Ambroxan 10% in DPG" is one tenth Ambroxan.

The verdict is decided in exact whole numbers, in parts per billion, so no rounding can move a line across a limit.

This is the engine the PerfuMate app runs, ported line for line to JavaScript. Before this page is published, 165 test formulas go through both, and the build stops if a single number differs.

Which IFRA category does it check?

IFRA Standards, 51st Amendment, Category 4: fine fragrance on skin, the category for perfume, extrait, eau de parfum, eau de toilette and cologne.

IFRA sorts other kinds of product into other categories, with their own limits. This calculator, like the app, checks Category 4 only.

What concentration should I enter?

How much of the finished perfume is your formula; the rest is alcohol or another carrier. Strengths vary by house. The usual ranges: 2 to 5% for an eau de cologne, 5 to 15% for an eau de toilette, 15 to 20% for an eau de parfum and 20 to 30% for an extrait, sometimes more (the concentrations, explained). Enter your own.

100 reads the concentrate itself as the product, the strictest reading.

If the formula already holds its own alcohol or solvent, its real strength counts: a formula that is already 12% cannot become 18%, so the lower of the two is used, and the result says so.

What do the results mean?

Over the limit
Its share of the finished product is above the IFRA limit. The row shows by how much, and what would bring it inside.
Prohibited
Not allowed in Category 4 at any level.
Within 20% of the limit
Passes, at 80% of the limit or more. Exactly at the limit counts here too.
Within the limit
Below 80% of the limit.
Quality specification
Restricted by purity or peroxide value, not by a percentage. It never fails a formula here; mind the freshness of the stock.
No published figure
Measured, but the standard gives no number to judge it against, for example a prohibited molecule arriving only as a trace inside a natural.
Supplier review required
The supplier's certificate caps the product, but its composition needs review. Over the cap it fails; under it, it is not called a pass.
Not fully checkable
At least one material has no CAS and no published breakdown, so nothing is known about what it carries. Unknown content, not zero content.
Banned in the EU
IFRA allows it, EU law does not (Lilial, for one, since March 2022).

How are essential oils and naturals checked?

A natural is read through its typical constituents: the linalool in bergamot, the eugenol in clove. Those shares are typical values, and a batch varies by origin and season; your supplier's GC-MS or certificate of analysis is the real figure. In PerfuMate you can enter it, and the check uses yours.

Expressed citrus oils carry their phototoxicity cap. A distilled or furocoumarin-free cut is a separate catalog entry and does not.

Some trade blends and named grades carry their supplier's IFRA certificate. The certificate's cap applies to the product, and any constituents it declares still count toward the formula's totals. A natural with no breakdown and no certificate is reported as unchecked, never as fine.

How is the EU allergen declaration worked out?

Each material is checked against the EU's declarable fragrance allergens, the list in Annex III of the Cosmetics Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 as amended by Regulation (EU) 2023/1545, as the PerfuMate app holds it. A material that is itself on the list counts at its full weight. One that carries listed allergens inside it, like the linalool in bergamot, counts through its typical composition, and a dilution counts at its strength.

Each allergen is summed across the formula and shown as a share of the finished perfume at the concentration you enter. The regulation requires an allergen to be named in the list of ingredients when its concentration exceeds 0.001% in a leave-on product, such as a perfume, and 0.01% in a rinse-off product. PerfuMate marks every share at or above 0.001%, so one exactly on the line is declared too. Those names, in the table's order, are the line for the label.

Typical compositions are typical: a batch varies with origin, season and distillation, and a typical composition can list only the main constituents. Your supplier's allergen declaration for your lot is the figure to label from. A material with no published composition is listed as not fully counted, never as allergen free. This is a calculation to compose against, not legal advice.

How to make an EU allergen declaration, step by step.

Is my formula uploaded anywhere?

No. The catalog and the IFRA table load with the page. After that, reading your file, matching names and calculating all happen inside this browser tab. Nothing you drop, paste or type is uploaded, stored on a server or logged.

The page's visit counter records which page was opened, never what is on it. The first PDF you drop downloads a PDF reader library, and your file is read by it here, on your device. Download PDF likewise fetches a PDF-writing library and the app's own font, then draws the file here; nothing is sent. The concentration you last used is remembered in this browser only.

No. It is a calculated reference check from indicative data, to compose against. It is not a certificate of IFRA conformity, not a safety assessment and not legal advice.

Before you sell, check against the official IFRA Standards and your suppliers' certificates, and have the product assessed by a qualified safety assessor.

IFRA limits are not the whole law. In the EU, fragrance allergens above 0.001% in a leave-on product must be named on the label, and a few materials IFRA allows are banned outright. PerfuMate writes the allergen declaration from the same formula.

Data: IFRA Standards, 51st Amendment, Category 4. Compared entry by entry with the official IFRA document on 2026-08-16: 252 of 252 comparable limits match. The other 39 of the 291 entries are 8 specification standards that publish no limit and 31 class or constituent standards. Catalog of 2,223 materials, built 2026-10-25.

Which files can I upload?

PDF (with selectable text, not a scan), Excel .xlsx (the first sheet), CSV, TSV, JSON or plain text. Or paste.

A header row is read by name: Material, Ingredient or Name for the material; Weight, Amount or Grams for the amount, or %, Relative or Absolute for a share; Dilution for the bottle's strength.

Without a header, each line is a name and an amount, in any order: Bergamot Essential Oil 3 g, 3.5 Hedione, Ambroxan 10% in DPG, 1.2. Weigh in g, mg or kg, or give every line in %. Drops and ml are not a mass, so those lines are set aside.

PerfuMate's own CSV, JSON and PDF exports are read with their dilutions, and with the concentration when the file states it.

Download the PDF from the page to keep this check.
perfumate.app/ifra-check