Profissimo's lemongrass oil is fine for a diffuser, not your face

Profissimo's lemongrass oil is a cheap, single-ingredient essential oil sold through dm's German house brand. As a room-scenting product it's unremarkable but perfectly serviceable; as a skincare additive — which is how a lot of buyers end up using essential oils — it's one we'd steer people away from.

What it is

This is a 10ml bottle of steam-distilled lemongrass essential oil (Cymbopogon, typically C. flexuosus or C. citratus). Profissimo markets it as "naturrein" — pure and undiluted — for use in aroma diffusers and homemade scent blends. There is no carrier oil, no dilution, and no cosmetic claim attached to it.

Key ingredients

The verified INCI is short and revealing: Citral, Geraniol, Linalool, Limonene, Isoeugenol, Citronellol. These aren't added fragrance compounds — they're the naturally occurring constituents of lemongrass oil that EU regulations require to be declared because every one of them is a recognized contact allergen under Annex III of the Cosmetics Regulation. Six declared allergens, zero buffering ingredients.

Citral is the headliner, typically 65–85% of lemongrass oil and responsible for both its scent and its sensitization potential. Published patch-test data consistently rank it among the more aggressive fragrance allergens, alongside oak moss and isoeugenol. Isoeugenol, also on the list here, is so reactive that EU rules cap it at 0.02% in leave-on cosmetics — a useful benchmark for how little of this material is considered safe on skin. Geraniol and citronellol oxidize on exposure to air into more sensitizing byproducts, and limonene does the same, forming hydroperoxides that are a well-documented cause of contact dermatitis in older bottles.

Who it's for / who should skip

If you want a lemongrass note for a diffuser, candle blend, or laundry sachet, this does the job at a low price. The scent is bright, grassy, and reasonably true to source — not as rounded as more expensive distillations, but recognizably lemongrass.

Skip it entirely if you're planning to add it to a moisturizer, body oil, or face product. Citral is also phototoxic at meaningful concentrations, and the oil as a whole becomes more reactive as it ages and oxidizes. Anyone with sensitive skin, eczema, rosacea, or a known fragrance allergy should not put this on their body even diluted — and "diluted" here would need to mean well under 0.5% in a leave-on product to stay within EU allergen limits for isoeugenol alone.

The verdict

Judged honestly for what it is — a cheap aromatherapy oil — Profissimo Lemongras is fine. The allergen declaration is transparent, the price is low, and the scent is accurate. We're scoring it in the mediocre range because Cosmeview reviews products as cosmetics, and as something that touches skin this is a six-allergen, undiluted essential oil with no formulation work behind it. Buy it for your diffuser; don't buy it for your face.