From The Beauty Closet

Solid Ground

8 years ago by

Solid Ground

I’ve become the cheerleader for solid perfumes.*
(Niche, I know, but someone has to do it.)

And this one, which comes by way of one of my favorite all-natural beauty companies, True Nature Botanicals, is a step up. It’s a woody and amber scent, but I really love the metal casing. For some reason the weight of it has that old school charm and feels really chic when held in the palm. And so easy to apply on the sly no matter where you are…

I’m just more into the subtlety of a signature scent of the solid kind.
How about you? Anyone else out there over walking through a cloud of someone else’s perfume? Could a solid perfume maybe be the answer?

* I have a mutual paranoia of not smelling nice and also smelling way too nice, remember? Developed by way of many intense encounters with bad aftershave on the subway…

Noble Woods, True Nature Botanicals.

14 comments

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  • Charikleia November, 3 2015, 11:44 / Reply

    I feel your “paranoia” of not smelling nice and smelling way too nice, and also have some creepy after shave stories to tell. Never tried a solid perfume though, but I think just because the ones I wear (Gucci – Guilty and Dior-Escale a Pondichery_for years now) come only in spray… I would never change them for the world, need to have my signature scent by all means!

  • When it comes to perfume, subtlety is really key (along with being sensitive about with allergies and situations where perfume is not at all appropriate — such as in a health care setting). A solid perfume seems like a good way to achieve that since you can easily control the amount you apply. I’m going to have to check it out!

  • Me too!
    I discovered it with dyptique, and completely felt in love with the object

  • Have always wondered about them. Do they melt in the warm weather ?

    Thank you !

  • I totally agree about subtlety! My hesitation about solid perfumes, though, is that they (or at least the ones I know) are not as complex over time as I’d like. What I love about a really great traditional perfume is how it changes over the course of hours of wearing, sometimes very dramatically. It’s art with the temporal dimension added. Are there any good solid perfumes that do that? If so tell me! I’ll dive into this with a happy heart…

  • I would love also a post about perfumes for the hair!

  • Oh yes me too Cecilia! I would love some hair fragrance but not sure what or where to buy in Australia. I want to try before I buy.

  • Ai-Ch'ng November, 5 2015, 1:55

    I adore a subtle, “lean-right-into-and-close-to-me-to-catch-it” scent – possible only with solid or oil perfume.

    The best one I have ever used, and am so glad to have found after years of fruitless earthing, are oil perfumes by a Perth perfumer and his wife, called “Eternal Scents”. My favourites are Arabian Jasmine, and ones they made specially for my husband, mother and another for myself. They also do out-of-this-universe frankincense ones (all the fragrances are unisex, in keeping their incredibly gifted creators’ philosophy that scent is universal and without gender). My father has an oil perfume by the same perfume alchemists I use, that makes us think of wandering through an old Japanese castle. It’s truly evocative! Used in the tiniest amounts, it is unbelievably intimate because you can only catch it on another person when you lean right in, and uses only pure, non-chemical ingredients. I use a tiny drop in my hairline at the crown, and it’s absolutely magical both for me, and for my partner (the only persons who gets in that close to my head to detect it). Other people get tiny little whiffs if they’re talking very closely to me and inhaling, and I love that I don’t leave a trail of smell after me, like a puppy leaving it’s “mark” everywhere. Perfume should be intimate, and solid and oil perfumes (the latter being my preference, which are either incredibly pure like my husband’s Frankincense one, or my own Arabian Jasmine, or intangibly and evocatively complex like the ones my father, mother and son use). Non-aerosol and totally natural perfumes create just the most incredibly emotional response in the wearer and the one who’s lucky enough to lean in close to you to detect it.

  • Aren’t they greasy?

  • Yes, they can be. They can also stain your clothes.

  • love this!!
    thanks!!
    you’re my new ”Nature/non-toxic products guru”!!

  • I love the idea of a weighty, metal case. Very old-school charm. Makes you value and enjoy the experience of applying it more, I think. I haven’t tried solid, but agree that traditional spray can be overwhelming at times. I have a roll-on oil scent I love. It remains all day, but not overwhelmingly so. I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled for this solid. Sounds like the scent is right up my alley. Have a lovely day, Neada!

  • I like my scent close to the skin. I use scented body lotion, but sometimes wear an EDT, which is just the right strength for me, and lasts whole day on me. I’ve had solid perfume by l’Occitane and just wasn’t as satisfied. Right now I’m thinking of melting my Lush Tender Is the Night massage bar into an empty lipbalm tube, it smells heavenly.

  • I love the subtlety of solid scents. I recently discovered the solids in small glass containers by Roberta Andrade. My favorites are “water” and “monsieur” — http://www.robertaandrade.com/elemental-scents/

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