Well, perhaps not small packages: these concrete-type perfumes are very generously sized, truthfully speaking.
Julie Elliott was featured in Cafleurebon Profiles in American Perfumery, where she revealed her penchant for potions at an early age.
Julie Elliott knows what she is doing.
As the creative force, nose, blender, and aromatic alchemist behind San Francisco-based In Fiore, Julie utilizes the finest ingredients available to her- be they for efficacious and luxurious complexion care, or perfumed keepsake solid perfume amulets.
[I could rant on about the skin care, but today’s business concerns perfume ;-0]
In Fiore’s Parfums Solides are lovingly cosseted, presented in burnished golden- brass colored weighty metal mirrored compacts, engraved with the classic In Fiore logo.
Elegant and unfussy, each contains a labor of love: the medium which suspends precious botanical essences is itself comprised of jojoba seed oil and fragrant beeswax.
It is this base which melts upon contact, providing an exquisite intimate sensual experience, one which is long-lasting, yet remains close to the skin- literally and figuratively.
I find that I apply these concretes liberally [does that really surprise you ?] both for the moisturizing benefit and for the mesmerizing fragrances they provide.
Application = anointment. I find no other way to describe it.
Julie affords us a cornucopia of choice.
Whether you adore florals, crave woody resinous scents, desire the verdant, pine for the exotic- she offers you that scented journey, tenderly encapsulated.
While I’ve not yet smelled every one, I had purchased several of her solides a few years ago. Very recently, Julie generously sent me some of her favorites, and some newer offerings not yet available on her website.
Let’s start with those, yes?
Saffron of Kashmir
Notes: Indian saffron, sandalwood, Tunisian neroli, Tunisian orange blossom, oud
I find this delicious beyond all reason, because it evolves as I feel the very best perfumes should.
One moment, you smell a glorious sandalwood, only to waft orange blossom with the next breath. The oud is rich and sumptuous, not some Band-Aid smell- alike, and the saffron is toothsome, not medicinal…
A shape-shifting scented wraith, full of fragrant contradictions which work beautifully.
For something which appears so effortless, it is artfully nuanced. I think it is a magnificent composition, and I find myself reaching for it often.
I am besotted.
My brain is besieged with incendiary images of young, newly-wed Fay’s erotic frustration in the story Saffron [Little Birds, by Anais Nin].
In this tale, she discovers that her groom cannot physically possess any woman who doesn’t smell of saffron…
Read the story.
Oud White Rose
Notes: Bulgarian white roses, Indian oud, sandalwood, rose Bourbonia, rose centifolia
Precious, deep, rare: the pearl beyond price.
Let’s put it thusly- I once purchased two ccs of Bulgarian white rose otto– a gift from my dear husband, intended for my birthday.
It was the most costly essence in the shop, and with good reason: one whiff and my eyes rolled back in my skull, sweet satori.
NOW, imagine that same caliber rose otto blended with silky sandalwood, bookended by other buxom roses and richly spicy, leathery oud.
This is something which incurs the swoon.
Is it sacred? Is it worldly? It is each, and both.
Night Queen
Notes: jasmine grandiflorum, jasmine sambac, jasmine auriculatum, Bulgarian rose, rose centifolia, Italian bergamot peel, dark Indonesian patchouli leaf, Assam oud
A riot of night-blooming jasmine wed to rose and brilliant bergamot, seated upon the throne of darkness.
That throne of patchouli and softly smoky oud, the patchouli resembling nothing so much as Homer’s renowned wine-dark sea.
This is not a timid perfume; what began as blossom waxes indolic, devilishly jet-hued and saturated with mystery.
It must be aphrodisiac.
I don’t dare wear it to work, even though it wears close, and I am ‘past my sell-by date’ [at least, by American standards ;-)].
I cherish this highly provocative perfume, profoundly narcotic.
Vetiver Sambac
Notes: Indian vetiver root oil, Indian jasmine sambac blossom, Oman frankincense
This is sweetly singed balsamic grasses embracing fruity immoderate sambac under twilight’s cloak.
Olibanum, aka Oman frankincense, murmurs under the stars, resolutely resinous and calming.
It fascinates me how Vetiver Sambac morphs into a delicately green, subtly smoky skin scent.
The opening is so ardent; it is surprising how purringly it dries down.
Those who approach vetiver with trepidation or misgiving needn’t fear: this is a pastoral vetiver tinged with a wisp of the extinguished campfire.
Fumée d’Ambre
Notes: labdanum resin, dark Indonesian patchouli leaf, Bourbon vanilla, vetiver root, Oman frankincense
Oh, it smokes, all right.
Fumée d’Ambre has all it requires in its perfect simplicity.
It is John Singer Sargent’s inspiration and muse in his winter Tangier travels.
Blinding light against the backdrop of devotional ritual.
This perfume reveals all ‘through smoke’.
Less demanding than Messe de Minuit, more sizzling than Tom Ford’s Amber Absolute, it is not a spicy, cumin-y, plummy amber.
Vanilla insinuates herself on tiptoe; all about her is smoke, whirling dervish smoke, meditational embers which glow with intention.
Julie has yet more:
Bois d’Été – green, floral, leafy; it vibrates with a delicate hum of woods.
Fleur Orange-the delight of North African orange, jasmine, rose, Middle Eastern cedar and opoponax. Exquisite.
Fleurs Blanches –a profusion of the exotic white blossoms which render limbs languorously heavy and indolent with longing.
Patchouli Royale – magnificently deep and earthy, out-of-body experience for those who seek the depths.
Rose Noir – grassy, vivid, rosy resinous delight, bare feet in the wet garden.
Oud Amberi Attari – complex, disturbing in the finest manner imaginable. There are layers within layers which only reveal themselves over time; a reward for the patient and adventurous nose.
Queen Rose Attar – this is not an overstatement. The rose/ sandalwood/ oud that many dream of, but never seem to find- without the monstrous, brassy sillage which terrorizes women, animals and children in the street;-)
Now you’ve virtually smelled everything …
It’s only fair to say that combining is a temptation.
One solide is never quite sufficient, but it’s a grand place to start.
The Saffron and Oud White Rose are not fragrances available in San Francisco but are available upon request; Julie is currently replenishing her stocks of Patchouli Royale and Fumée d’Ambre [which should be available in November].
All others are available at:
My pick is Saffron of Kashmir, if I must pick one.
Julie has generously offered to award this solide to a commenter here on CFB.
Tell us about your anointing ritual; what tempts you about saffron [other than paella and Anais Nin‘s Little Birds!].
Draw closes on September 12, 2011.
Senior Editor’s note: I found the oils and watercolors of John Singer Sargent very evocative…
–Ida Meister, Natural Perfume and Senior Editor