Solid Perfumes Have an Ancient History

THE ORIGINS OF SOLID PERFUME

Perfumery has it origins in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, the Middle East and India. Egyptian perfumes were used as offering to the gods and aesthetically by those that could afford the expensive ingredients.

Ingredients in Egyptian Solid Perfumes.

Aromatics such as juniper, cardamom, cinnamon, benzoin, myrrh, frankincense and honey were made in to powders to burn and oils or balms to anoint the body and hair. The lily and lotus flower were esteemed perfumes for the elite, extracted over many weeks and set in purified animal fat.

Some of the first perfumes created were balms or solid perfumes. Plant material, as flowers, wood shavings and resins are steeped in oil, strained and then added to purified fats to create a solid fragrance. 

A famous ancient Eqyptian solid perfume, called Metopion, was made with the following recipe -

Oils of bitter almonds and olive with cardamom, sweet flag (calamus root), honey, myrrh, seed of balsamum (sap from Commiphora spp.  gileadensis or frankincense sap?), galbanum and turpentine resin soaked in wine. This would have been warmed, strained and allowed to set into an unguent. 

Solid perfumes today are essentially fragrance or natural aromatics set in oil and wax. They are quite stable and release the scent when applied to the skin and warmed. When making my solids I create the perfume for an oil and wax carrier, which is higher in concentration than ethanol based perfumes, as the rate of evaporation is slower and reduced. Just like the Ancient Egyptians, I use resins as fixatives to sustain the perfumes base notes and give the perfume longevity.

Solid perfume can last on long time on the skin as it is bound to the wax. They are an intimate product to use as they do not 'push' the fragrance far beyond you and the one close to you.

Explore these solid perfumes -

Witchery - a bewitching smoky, amber, sweet resin

Bohemian Rose - an adventurous rose with spice notes and patchouli

Jasmin de Nuit - an intoxicating jasmine floral tempered with green citrus and powdery oakmoss.