Ectoplasm Solid Perfume

I have always been somebody who appreciates the stronger, more domineering fragrances from Lush. Like a bull in a china shop, I love to spray, smear, scrub and infuse my body with an odour strong enough to knock out under suspecting strangers on the street. If I can smell it a year after I've sprayed it, I'm a happy bunny.

Obviously, there is a time and a place for the subtler smells, and I can appreciate them too. However, there's a difference between a fragrance being purposely gentle and mild, and one that simply has a weak scent. As with most of the products in the recent Ectoplasm range, this solid limited edition perfume disappointingly slots itself into the latter category.

Adding onto my frustration about the lack of smell, I have never really been a fan of the solid perfumes all that much. While I appreciate how compact they are; how easy and mess free they are whilst travelling; and how their longevity outlasts their liquid counterparts ten to one. However, I find a lot of these solid editions don't make an impression strong enough for anyone but myself to enjoy, and even then I sometimes find myself struggling with to smell a perfume a mere twenty minutes after application.

This is why I have come up with a better approach to using solid perfumes, which gives them more of a purpose, better longevity, and makes them far more interesting and worth an investment after all. Rather than massaging them onto your pulse points and wherever else you wish to direct the fragrance, I scoop out a small amount and rub it into my scalp before massaging the tips of my hair as well. Not only does the scent last a lot longer this way, but you'll get to enjoy wave after wave of the aroma whenever the wind brushes past your hair. 

Massaging a small, raisin-size amount into your scalp means that the oils that have gone into making the perfume will be in contact with the heat of your body, so it'll continuously activate the scent and give you a longer experience. Adding them to the tips of your hair will not only moisturise away any dryness, but give you a closer experience to the perfume.      

In the pot, as with most of Lush’s other solid perfumes, Ectoplasm does have an underlining waxy scent that (I feel) spoils the fragrance a little. Alongside this, my nose detects a tangy and slightly sharp citrus scent, which smells more like the rind of a tangerine as opposed to the fruit itself. In this format, the grapefruit is definitely a little bitter as well, which makes a lovely scent, but not one that sits anywhere close to the original jelly bomb.

Once in the skin however, the oily note disappears and is replaced with a much warmer, fruitier scent. Again, while not that similar to Ectoplasm Jelly Bomb, it’s definitely in the right direction. In fact, it smells exactly like some of the undiluted squash drinks that I have tried over the years. It's definitely far more similar to the liquid shower scream than any other product in this scent family.

The longevity of this is fairly average. On my skin, the perfume began to fade after about twenty minutes, and needed to be topped up almost every hour to get the full experience. Unfortunately, I found that my nose was either terrible at picking up the scent or the solid perfume didn’t really project itself further than my skin itself. For I found that the only way I could truly smell this was if I stuck my nose to my wrists. Having said this, when I rubbed a little into the tips of my hair, I found that I was able to smell it from time to time, when the wind ruffled my hair. 

Overall, this is definitely a lovely scent for those who like fruity and rather citrusy smells, but there is nothing here that makes me want to invest in another tub. While I am one to enjoy a fruity scent, there's just nothing particularly special about this one: it's rather forgettable and far too simplistic.

The smell doesn't stick around for long; the fragrance doesn't match the bath bomb it is trying to imitate; and even as a hair balm it doesn't blow me away with the strength or longevity of its performance. As I really enjoy the smell of Ectoplasm, I really hope that Lush choose to bring out some better variations of this scent family, as so far I have not found a product to my liking.

Quantitative Ingredients: Organic Jojoba Oil, Organic Castor Oil, Candelilla Wax, *Limonene, Tangerine Oil, Perfume, Grapefruit Oil, Litsea, Cubeba Oil, Titanium Dioxide, *Citral, *Citronellol, *Geraniol, *Linalool, Colour 47005:1, Colour 42090:2.

Vegan?: Yes.

2018 Price: £9 for 6g.

Year Of Original Release: 2018.

Scent Family:
Ectoplasm Jelly Bath Bomb
Ectoplasm Liquid Perfume
Ectoplasm Naked Shower Scream
Ectoplasm Shower Scream
Ectoplasm Solid Perfume


Ectoplasm Washcard