solid perfume

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Junk

Small glass pot of purple solid perfume with black lid.

Oh, Junk, how I love you–one part Tiger Balm, one part black currant cough drops–you heal my soul with comforting ’70s vibes of beaded doorway curtains and rusty VW micro-buses, JOB rolling papers and Aquarian tarot decks.

The solid is much preferable to the spray, so it can be rubbed into the skin like a curative salve. Apply every four hours or as needed.

My little pot expires next year. I cannot wait until someone asks me what I’m wearing, so I can nonchalantly say, “Just some old Junk I had.”

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Umabel

UmabelA gorgeous balm scent that feels so lovely–I put it on my elbows, my knees, the back of my hands–anywhere the skin is rough in the winter.

The stick goes on like velvet, warming up peachy sweet with a hint of citrus, and stays a few inches above the skin for several hours. Finally soaks in with sugared iris and some rosy sandalwood.

Would make a nice first perfume for a kidling.

This piece is comforting and sweet, too.

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Fantasy

fantasyWeird fruit tart with sprinkles.

Shrill kiwi slices on top a white cupcake iced with white chocolate, decorated with some white flowers.
Lasts long after the party is over, ending with woody vanilla and birthday candle wax (that may be a feature of my solid scent rather than the spray) and musk.

Enormously popular, but the best of Britney’s lot is by far Midnight Fantasy.

This cover of Womanizer is pretty good–

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Daisy

daisy
Daisy shaped gold and white enamel perfume pendant and wild field asters casting pretty shadows.

For the girl who wants to fit in.
Fashion is stressful–she likes her school uniform. Daisy is mild-mannered and pleasant, and doesn’t bring attention to herself.

Strawberry ice cream and shy violets, some unassuming citrus and pale woody musk at the end.

I hung the solid pendant from my rear-view, and now my car smells rather nice, but also like I haven’t been driving long.

Colbie Caillat released this sweet little song out in 2007, the same year Marc Jacobs came out with Daisy.

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Macadam Paz

macadam paz
Light blue cardboard push-up stick printed with Albrecht Dürer’s 15th century woodcut drawing of a rhinoceros.

Vanilla musk on the skin that turns into really enjoyable leather and peaches, hot nutmeg and herbal incense–

This Le Soft is perfectly soft butch–sweet and rough, spice and smoke–held close.
I like her quiet confidence.

Pair with a watch or wallet chain and other marvelous cliches.

Here’s my other favorite gender-bendy-Frenchie at the moment–

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Eu Vent de Vous

eu vent de vousStarts harsh but finishes mellow.

Cardamom bombs the opening, the same throat closing assault when entering any truck stop store outside Paris, Appalachia–menthol cigarette ash and candy bars–but then it slowly melts into the skin with tobacco and vanilla a la Tom Ford.

Not many people realize Tom Waits actually wrote this one–also harsh and mellow.

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Juicy Couture

juicy couture edgesThe solid goes on with cool waxy watermelon and warms up to a creamy tuberose with a bite of peach.
Lasts for an hour with faint but big sillage, then dissolves into caramel on the skin.

It’s much nicer than I expected–delicate and lighthearted and fun–so nice to find a teen perfume done really well.

This song came out at the same time, cliche and cute (with a teenage fantasy revenge video), but still charming.

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Zazou

Zazou(I’m falling in love with these solid perfumes. Airplane friendly and moisturizing!)

Zazou–surprisingly, given the twee packaging–is a sophisticated little neroli limeade spiked with aqvavit.
It opens fresh, a zing of citrus as it warms up on the skin, then relaxes and turns floral with an herbal undercurrent.
Sits just above the skin for hours until sinking under into warm green woods.

The Zazou subculture in France most likely took their name from Cab Calloway’s scat riff “Zaz, zuh, zah!”

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Rentless

rentless edge
Large Rentless bottle and solid perfume pot on botanical illustration of labdanum (rock rose.)

So Lolita Lempicka ran off and joined a coven, and came back organic and amazing.

Sugary licorice and lemonade top notes that last for hours, resin and burnt caramel all night long.
Bonfire dancing, bohemian patchouli flirting and aniseed incantations at midnight. Wakes in the morning still smelling of fairy sin on the skin.

Brash, pansexual and gorgeous.

The solid is tamed down–the gateway drug version–more secretive, the sweetness hiding in leather. I love it no less.

This song.

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Sikkim Girls

sikkim girls edges
Pot of LUSH solid perfume (tinted rose, though the scent isn’t rosy at all) and paper cut-out of bottle with original label–a black and white and red woodcut of two women.

A blast of jasmine and frangipani that melds into an almost edible sweet spice. The tuberose keeps it more floral than gourmand, with a sharp green edge.

On me, the solid perfume settles to the skin with creamy vanilla after an hour.

I’d rather this one in an incense stick, to burn behind a beaded curtain while drinking Indian tea.

Abhibyanjana Rubhi is from Gangtok. She had a song in Priyanka Chopra’s movie Pahuna, filmed in Sikkim. Her first single’s video is a little hard to watch, but the song is marvelous.