So, when was the last time you looked glamorous applying your perfume?  (If you spray a cloud of it into the air and walk through it, the answer is never.  Okay, fine, I’m guilty of it, too)  The solid perfumes from True Nature Botanicals bring to mind a bygone era of elegance and sophistication, but honestly, they couldn’t be more modern.  The compacts are gorgeous and weighty – chintzy lip balm tins they are not – and they are refillable, which is always a plus in my book.  A compact of solid perfume is also incredibly easy to travel with whether you’re packing it into a carry-on or an evening clutch.

I’ve been wearing Noble Woods (which has notes of vetiver, amber and labdanum) ever since I met True Nature Botanicals founder Hillary Peterson, who is a thyroid cancer and melanoma survivor, at A Night For Green Beauty.  This woman cares about ingredients.  In fact, she went to one of the oldest, most prestigious perfume houses in France to create her three signature scents (Noble Citrus, Noble Floral and Noble Wood;, they are all intoxicating).  Her perfumer was not only delighted to formulate “real” perfume, she informed Hillary that True Nature Botanicals spends at least five times more on ingredients than the leading luxury skincare and perfume brands.  This immediately becomes apparent when you wear this perfume.  Unlike synthetic perfumes, it “opens up” when it interacts with your own body chemistry and becomes a scent all your own.  I also never need to reapply it; the fragrance lasts all day.  Cost: $95.  Purchase it here.

Ingredients (for Noble Woods): immondsia chinensis (jojoba) oil, Noble Woods BlendTM [cupressus sempervirens (italian cypress) leaf/nut/stem oil, dipteryx odorata (cumaru) bean extract, cistus ladaniferus resin, vanilla planifolia flower extract, fusanus spicatus wood oil, citrus aurantium bergamia (bergamot) fruit oil, vetiveria zizanoides (vetiver) root oil, ribes nigrum (black currant) seed oil, jasminum sambac (jasmine) flower wax, chamomilla recutita (matricaria) flower oil, rosa centifolia flower extract, cistus ladaniferus oil], polyglycerol-3 beeswax (cera bellina), hydrogenated jojoba oil (jojoba esters), cera alba (beeswax), butyrospermum parkii (shea) butter, euphorbia cerifera (candelilla) wax, copernicia prunifera (carnauba) wax, dimethicone*, magnesium stearate

* True Nature Botanicals strongly believes in manufacturing the most effective results driven products without the use of toxins. Not ever. Our solid perfumes use Dimethicone 1000 which is a linear dimethicone with very large molecule size so it is not absorbed into the skin where as a the dimethicone rated by the EWG with a score of 3 contains much smaller molecule size which can then be absorbed into your body; because of this we feel confident in the safety and use of this source of Dimethicone in our solid perfumes.

A reminder as to why you don’t want to wear conventional (synthetic) fragrance: Currently, trade secret laws protect a fragrance’s proprietary formula, so the hundreds of synthetic chemicals that make you smell like a rose or a vanilla milkshake or whatever are not divulged on a perfume bottle’s label.  It will just read “perfume”, “parfum” or “fragrance”.  Among the hundreds of chemicals that go into creating a conventional perfume, many are known neurotoxins, skin and respiratory irritants and/or allergens and phthalates, which are hormone disruptors and carcinogens – these are especially dangerous to children and fetuses.  Not.  Worth.  It.

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