Ingredients · Not for the smell

Water (aqua)

Odorless.

What it is

There to carry, keep or colour the perfume, not for its smell.

What perfumers do with it

Softens the alcohol's sting and lowers cost; too much clouds the oils

Worth knowing

Named on 94 of 101 alcohol-based perfume labels sampled from Open Beauty Facts in 2026.

Known in

Twilly d'Hermès (Hermès, 2017); La Vie est Belle (Lancôme, 2012)

Also called

aqua; deionized water

On the label of 857 of the 1080 perfumes read so far

No. 5Chanel · printed “Aqua (water)”SauvageDior · printed “Aqua (water)”ShalimarGuerlain · printed “Aqua (water)”MitsoukoGuerlain · printed “Aqua (water)”Eau SauvageDior · printed “Aqua (water)”AngelMugler · printed “Aqua/water/eau”

See all 857