In ancient Egypt (c. 3000 BC), solid perfume was among the earliest forms of fragrance, created long before the invention of its liquid counterpart. Aromatic substances like myrrh, frankincense, lotus, and cinnamon were blended with animal fats and beeswax, and made into funnel-shaped unguent cones and used in religious rituals, burial rites, and daily personal grooming. These solid perfume cones were placed on the head or on wigs that melted slowly, releasing scent during festivals and ceremonies. Nobles and pharaohs wore them not only for their luxurious scent but also for spiritual protection and as symbols of divine favor.
This process was later referred to as “enfleurage” - a means of extracting scents from flowers or other spices. This technique is still used today in Grasse, especially for extracting jasmine as it’s too fragile to be heated. First, a layer of animal fat is spreaded at room temperature on a plate surrounded by a wooden frame. The jasmine flowers are placed manually, one by one, on the fat for about 24 hours to absorbs the scents. The operation has to be repeated several times, until the fat is saturated. At the end of the process, the flowers are removed, also by hand, and the fat can be used directly as ointment in ancient times. Nowadays, it will be washed with alcohol to obtain a precious “ointment absolute” after evaporation.
Making solid perfume today has become much easier. With advances in technology, almost all the fragrance materials can be extracted into oils — especially with the invention of CO₂ extraction. Then, we only need to prepare a solid base, which usually consists of beeswax, cocoa butter or shea butter.
For this method, we gently heat the base until fully melted, then add the required essential oils according to the formula. After stirring at high speed until evenly mixed, we put the container on a digital scale and pour in the required weight. Finally, we let it cool until it completely solidifies.
The creation of our own solid perfume was initially inspired by Henry Jacques. As we all know, it is one of the most renowned perfume brands in the world, especially famous for its oil perfumes - "Correspondence" and “Down To Heart”.
Few people know that its solid perfume actually performs much better than the oil-based one and contains fewer synthetic fragrances. It gives people a warmer feeling of being embraced.
Of course, an even more important reason for us to make solid perfumes is that some of our vintage Oud oils are more than 30 or 40 years old. At that time, the agarwood raw materials were far less expensive than they are now, so the truly wild or sinking woods were distilled for oils, which is now an impossible mission.
Therefore, we can see that it cannot be fully dissolved in perfume alcohol (Right tube, 10%), compared to the cultivated one on the market nowadays (Left tube, 10%).
As a result, to preserve the whole profile of these treasures from decades ago, we decided to create these unique solid perfumes for you. For the first time, we have prepared some pure Oud ones. Compared with liquid oil, it is more convenient to carry and use in daily life. History has not passed, it has simply taken on a new form, continuing to accompany us in every moment of our lives.
