11 Best Solid Perfumes To Buy In 2024 | Glamour UK

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Solid perfumes elicit the same degree of excitement as holiday minis. Pocket-size versions of our favourite scents, they are significantly less weighty than a 50ml bottle in your luggage and handy if you want to avoid everyone around you catching too potent a whiff of your favourite scent in a public space.

Typically they are condensed into a small bar made from a combination of natural materials like beeswax and almond oil with fragrance added to it. However, more novel formats have landed as this fragrance category gains steam, including sustainable singe-dose fragrance capsules and even a paintbrush and pencil.

Solid perfumes are often more concentrated, so they can last longer on the skin. Founder of Tenth Muse, Sophie Beaumont Willis, maintains that the brand's solid perfumes will last three months when swiping twice a day.

It's also worth remembering that perfume can be clingy by nature and needs something to grip onto. In the same way that you use a primer to extend the lifespan of your fragrance, solid perfumes can be used as a base coat to amplify the notes and guarantee longevity.

“Solid perfumes are also particularly great for layering with an eau de parfum or eau de toilette for additional fragrance intensity," Amanda Morgan, Managing Director of Diptyque UK, notes. "The fragrance will also last longer on moisturised skin, as it will hold the perfume longer.”

As for application, solid perfume is designed to be dabbed directly onto the skin with fingertips or via the applicator. “The scented balm reveals its fragrance when released onto the warmth of the skin,” says Amanda. “To make your scent last longer, as with other perfumes, you can apply on your pulse points where your body releases most heat – wrists, inside elbows, at the base of your neck and behind the ears.”

Solid perfumes are ideal for scenting on the go or slipping in your handbag for touch-ups throughout the day. There is one caveat though: avoid extreme temperature changes. A solid perfume kept in a car's glove compartment or a pocket may melt.

There's a place for both solid perfumes and sprays in your fragrance wardrobe. Your choice of one over another will depend on what your individual needs are. For example, solid perfumes play nicely with dry skin as they rely on a blend of perfume oils and hydrating vegetable oils or beeswax.

The absence of alcohol, which can dehydrate already parched skin, is key, too. “As the balm is created from alcohol-free wax, it makes it a gentle option for scenting the skin,” notes Amanda.

Solid perfumes are also typically more sustainable than liquid perfumes. Most come in refillable packaging rather than a heavy glass bottle with a pump dispenser that contains plastic and cannot be recycled. Better still, they can also be a more affordable way to test drive a perfume.

With so much going in their favour, it's hardly surprising that many brands now offer their hero fragrance in solid form. Take Jo Malone London, which has one of the largest offerings of solid scents, including some of their most loved fragrances like Lime Basil & Mandarin and Pomegranate Noir. It also offers a chic palette container to hold two solid perfumes so you can layer them, or just have the luxury of choice when deciding what to apply.

Then there's Diptyque, which also has a vast array of solid perfumes that come in the most artistic packaging we've seen. Among them are favourites like L'Ombre Dans L'Eau and Eau Rose, and each individual scent has a different embossed case. And lest we forget, the OG of solid perfumes, Glossier You, which has a vegan formulation and comes in a refillable format to mark the brand's ongoing commitment to being more sustainable.

Sephora

Glossier You Solid

Glossier You Solid has an alcohol-free, water-free vegan wax base that quite literally melts into skin, enveloping you in its signature blend of warm, woody ambrette Seeds and ambrox. The packaging features a removable, recyclable tin tray and a pink enamel compact with the brand's iconic G logo embossed onto the top. Simple swivel the lid, and massage the scent onto skin.

Lush

Lush Lust Solid Perfume

Lush are pioneers of solid beauty products, preferring them for their ability to be sold “naked” (i.e. without packaging). Their solid perfumes do not disappoint – especially Lust, which blends jasmine, rose and ylang ylang for a magnetic and moreish scent.

Net-A-Porter

Selfridges

Diptyque 34 Boulevard Saint Germain Refillable Solid Perfume

True to the signature of 34 Boulevard Saint Germain, this scented balm contains a blend of amber and patchouli accord, rose, cinnamon and blackcurrant, making it a warm, sunny and velvety fragrance that's great all year round. Once the balm is finished, simply replace the inner tin with a refill (which come in packs of three for just £31).

Shiro

Shiro White Tea Solid Perfume

Multi-tasking at its chicest, the shea butter and beeswax formula is infused with a fresh white tea scent and can also be used to moisturise cuticles and subtly fragrance the ends of your hair.

John Lewis

Selfridges

Jo Malone London Fragrance Combining Palette

All of Jo Malone London's fragrances are designed to either be worn alone or layered on top of one another for a bespoke blend, which is what makes this solid perfume palette so genius. Pick and choose your unique combination from an array of all their classics and apply as you wish.

Revolve

Unifrom Bliss Perfume Oil

This chic, roll-on perfume oil marries Swedish minimalism with some of the world's finest fragrance ingredients from Grasse in the South of France. But what is more surprising is the scent: a buttery smooth and softly spicy combination of green vanilla, saffron, almond and suede. The fact that it's vegan and alcohol-free just add to the appeal.

Cult Beauty

Space NK

Jo Loves A Fragrance Paintbrush

This unique solid perfume is dispensed via a paintbrush (with refillable cartridge) for easy, fingerless application. As for the scent? Think a fresh, grapefruit-infused rush of pomelo that lands on an earthy bed of vetiver and patchouli.

Harrods

Commune Seymour Perfume, Case and Refill Set

Close your eyes and imagine a Somerset orchard filled with ripe fruits, lavender borders and sun-speckled cypress trees. That's Seymour in a nutshell. Housed in what looks like a chic makeup compact, this fragrance is all-natural and 100% uplifting.

Boots

Lookfantastic

Marc Jacobs Daisy Drops Eau So Fresh for Women, 30 Capsules

Single-dose skincare in the form of pill-like capsules is lauded for simplifying your routine. Now Marc Jacobs has applied the same concept to fragrance with gel-like “drops”, formulated without alcohol, that you twist open and squeeze onto your skin. Not only does this delivery system dispense the exact amount of scent you need, but the shell is biodegradable and the aluminium tin infinitely recyclable. Eau So Fresh is bright without being bracing and combines sparkling grapefruit, with soft rose, warm musk and plum.

Boots

Boots #Mood Fresh Solid Perfume

Boots #Mood Fresh solid fragrance comes in a clever pencil and is designed to boost your mood with a single squiggle on your wrist. Sweet melon, tuberose, soothing vanilla and sandalwood blend together for a clean scent you'll lean on a lot during the summer months.

Tenth Muse London

Tenth Muse London Solid Perfume in Date Night

Tenth Muse was founded by Sophie Beaumont Willis after she was diagnosed with long COVID and found traditional fragrances irritated her skin. As the name implies, Date Night is an alluring after-dark scent powered by floral notes with spicy undertones and a trio – rose, vanilla and jasmine – of aphrodisiac-like notes.