BBC Releases Exposé Documentary: “Perfume’s Dark Secret”

A recently released BBC documentary looks at the sourcing of jasmine for use in fine fragrances. The film, “Perfume’s Dark Secret,” debuted on May 28. The documentary’s producers shine a light on human rights issues in Egyptian jasmine harvesting. The filming occurred in the summer of 2023.

The creators dig into the many layers of the fine fragrance industry—jasmine farms and producers, suppliers, auditing bodies and beauty brands. It shows young children and women who hand-harvest the flowers in the dark hours of the early morning for low wages.

You can watch the documentary here:

The documentary names the main jasmine producers in the country. It details ingredient suppliers and the beauty conglomerates behind luxury fine fragrances that are sold worldwide. It specifically calls attention to L’Oréal’s Lancôme and Estée Lauder Co.’s Aerin brands.

L’Oréal issued the following statement regarding the documentary:

“L’Oréal is deeply committed to respecting and protecting Human Rights and we believe that all forms of child labour are completely unacceptable.  We expect all our suppliers, including fragrance houses, to act in a responsible and ethical way.

We always act immediately if we identify any problems in our supply chain. 

And this is exactly what we are currently doing in Egypt, where we indirectly source a small percentage of the jasmine used in some of our products.  Thanks to our on-going monitoring process, in October 2023, after the last harvest, and before the BBC reached out to us, we first identified potential human rights issues, including child labour.   

Consistent with our Human Rights commitments, we decided to take immediate action.

As a result, since these potential issues first surfaced, we have worked to put concrete actions in place ahead of the next jasmine harvest in June.

To drive systemic change in support of local communities, in order to eliminate child labour whilst protecting the livelihood of the families who depend on jasmine picking, we have been a key player in setting up a coalition, in partnership with the Egyptian government, the Fragrance Houses and other industry partners.  This coalition is being led by the Fair Labor Association and the International Labour Organization, as part of their flagship ‘Harvesting the Future – Jasmine in Egypt’ project. 

We are very disappointed that the BBC chose not to include our concrete actions in Egypt, which we had already started to implement before they first contacted us and which we have actively shared with them in detail.”

At press time, ELC had not responded to Happi’s inquiry for a statement. However the company provided the following response to Women’s Wear Daily:

“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.”