With an extensive nail polish collection and working at home away from a scent free work place, I have been exploring indie perfume options. Some of the first ones I tried and loved are from Solstice Scents. If you are not familiar with indie perfumes, they are often inspired by something, and in the case of Solstice Scents Manor, transports you back to an old mansion now languishing.
Manor is the scent of a once grand estate, now disheveled, forgotten and left exposed to the elements. The faint scent of previous owners and their esteemed guests – exquisitely perfumed ladies mingling with the intense rich and musky scent of smartly dressed gentlemen – meets rich wood floors and heavy wooden doors long since opened, decaying beadboard and Wainscot topped off with a thin layer of dust. It is very sophisticated and absolutely intoxicating.
Manor is a blend of woody-vanilla musk coupled with an incredible vanilla and exquisite oud. The scent is sweet and rich due to the vanillas, woody and incensey from the oud blend and a touch of sandalwood. On initial application and coldsniff, the aloeswood is a little stronger than it is on the dry down. Manor settles down wonderfully. After hours on the skin it does smell much sweeter due to the vanillas, though the woody/incense element is still detectable. Manor contains natural and synthetic oud.
Solstice Scents Manor Perfume Review
This was chosen for me by my swap partner for an indie reddit swap when I said I was looking for a library themed scent. Solstice Scents’ collection includes the perfume Library but this works so well on me that I prefer it.
Solstice Scents Manor perfume really reminds me of the nearby Dundurn Castle. It is more of a manor home/mansion than an actual castle and far from forgotten and dishevelled. The “castle” is a museum now and beautifully restored to the time when MacNab lived there in the 1850s. It specifically reminds me of MacNab’s study/library that you can see here. The library has walnut panelling while the manor perfume is just “woody” but it still transports you back in time to when real materials were used in houses.
It balances dark and sweet warmth from the vanilla and seems to get warmer over time. I tried this as an oil and the throw was medium but it lasted all day with some vanilla noticeable before my shower the next morning. There is a sharpness, likely from the oud, on application but after 20 minutes or so, it is very much in the background just stopping Manor from being too sweet. I don’t get much “dust” but it definitely has an older feel to it. Every so often you get hints of the musk and perfume, but the woody-vanilla is definitely are the forefront of this perfume.
Solstice Scents manor is definitely on my list of potentials to full size at some point, but I have lots of samples to try first so maybe another woody vanilla will take its place, but definitely one to try if you are looking for a similar scent.