It is a truth universally acknowledged that traveling with a perfume bottle is not a wise idea. I’m not speaking about airline liquid prohibitions or the weight a 100 ml bottle adds to an already heavy shoulder bag. The threat of shattered glass if the bottle breaks, the subsequent odor suffusing all the items in your carryon, liquids seeping dangerously close to electronics—none of it sounds like a good idea. But arriving at your destination without the comforting bouquet of your signature scent—that doesn’t sound very appealing either.
For years I’ve kept a bottle at home and one on my desk at work, packed whole flacons in my checked bags when I travel—wrapped up amid the clothing in the middle of my suitcase—and hoped for the best. But lately, I’ve noticed a whole host of options to help you carry it with you. Not in your bag, but on your neck, wrist or fingers—”wearable fragrance” where the scent not only mingles nicely with your skin, but the bottle itself comes with you.
The idea of turning your scent into an accessory has a centuries’ old legacy. While “pomander” might today summon images of oranges studded with cloves and hung on the Christmas tree, back in the 16th century, people were advised to carry these homemade bundles to ward off the malodorous scents associated with the plague. Into the 18th century, physicians hid a variation on the pomander in the tops of their canes so that they could take a subtle whiff when encountering their sicker patients. As a more scientific understanding of germ theory took hold, the impetus became less medicinal, more practical, then pleasurable. The “vinaigrette” of the 19th century was a small, often silver case that housed not a salad dressing but a small sponge sometimes soaked with ammonia, the pungent scent used to revive a woman whose too-tight corset had caused her to faint. In the 1970s, Estee Lauder produced miniature flacons on gold-hued chains; large charms like miniature croissants that open to reveal a solid perfume inside; a charm bracelet where the charm holds a solid perfume pendant. In 1985, Dior issued a limited edition bracelet meant to house their famous Poison perfume, a thick, hollow noodle finished with resin stoppers that could be filled with the scent.
Today’s wearable fragrance runs the gamut from gilded ornaments to stripped down bolo ties with hidden compartments to smooth, ceramic pendants you’re meant to saturate with scent. Some are even puzzles: I spent a good minute or two trying to pry open Mind Games’ solid perfume pendant before realizing the hidden door rotated upward (not out, like a locket) to access the pistachio-heavy scent. “Blending fragrance, style, and strategy” the copy on the box reads—a mind game indeed. Other perfume jewelry, like De La Fuente’s solid silver perfume ring takes a simpler approach. After siphoning perfume into the tiny hole (a process aided by a doll-house-sized funnel, if you can find one), you simply wear it against your skin, allowing tiny drops to eke out all day long.
Some of the newer wearable fragrances seem to be aiming to connect us with our more youthful selves. A ring from Anna Sui, whose rose-shaped plastic top flips open to expose one of three scents, is evocative of the 90s-era classic rubber rings that adorned the tops of Hard Candy nail polish bottles. I wore the lavender-colored bauble on my pinky for an afternoon and felt like I was returning from the trip to the mall, the fizzy lemon scent only augmenting the time-travel effect. The glassine butterfly ring from Carolina Herrera, which holds just 11mm of the La Bomba scent, is designed to be worn across the middle two fingers like candy-colored brass knuckles. But the chunky lepidoptera proved so distracting I found it almost impossible to type, which is perhaps the point: This fruity scent is made for play.
