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Carolina Malis

Contributing writer for Style by SCMP, specialising in beauty, wellness and lifestyle


It’s easy to think of perfume as something that happens mid-air. The bottle comes out, the spray is sprayed, and suddenly you’re wrapped in a cloud of smoky wood, fresh citrus or powdery, herbal green forest after the rain. But the once spritz-centric category is being nudged sideways by a format that’s been in the background all along: solid perfume.
In the past year, solids have multiplied into refillable compacts and twist-up sticks, quietly taking over #PerfumeTok and fragrance counters as more labels translate their scents into wax-and-oil balms you can swipe on through the day.

That momentum didn’t come out of nowhere. Over the past decade, solid perfume has been popping up in waves. Glossier was one of the first mainstream brands to make it feel current, launching a solid version of its cult fragrance You back in 2018. Diptyque, meanwhile, has kept the category alive on the luxe end for years with its refillable cases, helping normalise the idea that a solid can be a core part of your fragrance wardrobe, not just a novelty.
“I often think of [solid fragrance] as the lip balm of perfume,” says Ella Wahlestedt, CEO and founder of Layermor, a US-based clean fragrance brand. “It’s something you keep on you and reach for naturally,” she adds. “It’s also more discreet to apply a quick swipe of solid perfume than to spray fragrance in public.”

Wahlestedt points to how seamlessly the format fits into modern routines. “There’s a strong ease and portability factor. Consumers want fragrance that fits seamlessly into their day-to-day lives,” she says. That practicality is hard to beat, especially if you fly with only cabin baggage, when your liquids bag becomes a tiny, transparent museum of difficult choices. A solid sidesteps the whole equation: no leaks, no breakages, and no negotiating with the 100ml rule at security.
There’s a business logic to the offering, too. Solid perfume lets brands expand without reinventing the scent wheel, as it were. “It creates a new category and revenue stream without starting from scratch,” Wahlestedt says, “allowing brands to reintroduce favourite or existing signature scents in a more wearable format.”
It’s more discreet to apply a quick swipe of solid perfume than to spray fragrance in public
Ella Wahlestedt, Layermor
The real difference isn’t just that the formula is solid instead of liquid – it’s the base itself. “Solid perfumes have a gentle wax base, often a synthetic or natural beeswax, that carries the fragrance,” says Joyce Barnes, COO of Tocca, a New York-based fragrance and beauty brand. “They melt into your skin, which creates a closer, more intimate fragrance experience than an alcohol-based fragrance, [where the alcohol] helps the fragrance project as it evaporates.”

Body heat does much of the work here, she explains: as the balm warms and softens on the skin, the fragrance is gradually released from the wax base. A spray, by contrast, has an immediate impact: “It has a wider projection and stronger sillage, which is the trail the scent leaves in the air,” Barnes notes. With a solid, there’s no quick alcohol evaporation to launch the fragrance into the room; instead, it stays close and keeps unfolding at skin level as you move through the day. That’s why solids can read as long-wearing in a very specific way: you might not smell them from across the room, but you keep catching them on yourself. But because there’s no alcohol lift, the opening can smell slightly different from the spray version: often smoother and rounder, sometimes a touch less bright at the start.

That balm base is also where skincare-adjacent claims come in. Most solids are anhydrous (water-free) blends of waxes and oils carrying fragrance concentrate, so ingredients like jojoba, coconut oil, squalene and butters are often promoted as additional benefits. Some of that holds up: oils and waxes can soften the skin where you apply them, thanks to their occlusive nature. This doesn’t cancel out fragrance sensitivity, however, so if you’re reactive or prone to irritation, patch testing is the sensible move.

That close-to-the-body diffusion is also shaping what brands are making. For the big houses, solids are being treated as an extension of the main fragrance wardrobe: Dior’s Miss Dior Mini Miss, for instance, puts a classic floral into a twist-up stick you can apply in seconds. And for heritage brands like Tocca, the format is being used to reintroduce signature scents in a new way – most recently with Laila, the label’s airy, clean-floral bestseller, now available in solid form. Thai holistic wellness, fragrance and lifestyle brand Pañpuri also offers “portable balms” made from plant-based waxes and butters, which come in beautiful vessels equipped with straps that can be attached to bags or keychains.

Some brands have gone further and made solids part of their fragrance identity. British stalwart Lush has built out an entire roster of popular solid scents that fans collect and return to, across a wide range of styles, from sweet to spicy to earthy.
At the newer end of the market, solid perfume has become some brands’ foundation. London-based Tenth Muse, which launched in 2023, has built its line around refillable solid balms with a “swap by mood” approach. Los Angeles-based Noyz, which went viral after launching in 2024, leans into the popular preference for lived-in, easy-to-reapply scents with The Solid Fragrance Pair, a refillable compact that holds two solids, designed to be layered or alternated throughout the day.

All of which points to the real shift: solids aren’t replacing sprays so much as expanding how people wear fragrance. “While some consumers are gravitating towards lighter, more controlled ways of wearing scent, many still care about projection and longevity,” Layermor’s Wahlestedt says. Still, for her, the strength of the solid category lies precisely in how well it sits alongside the traditional format. “It works incredibly well for touch-ups, travel and more subtle, discreet moments,” Wahlestedt says, “but for many consumers it hasn’t yet replaced the impact of a traditional spray.”


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While Diptyque and Glossier have kept the category alive for years, others like Dior are offering new formats for this alternative to conventional sprays


While Diptyque and Glossier have kept the category alive for years, others like Dior are offering new formats for this alternative to conventional sprays.


Why solid fragrance is the discreet luxury beauty habit taking over #PerfumeTok

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}While Diptyque and Glossier have kept the category alive for years, others like Dior are offering new formats for this alternative to conventional sprays

While Diptyque and Glossier have kept the category alive for years, others like Dior are offering new formats for this alternative to conventional sprays