Soie — Hand Beauty

Floral Hand Serum: The Experience of Wearing LUXURY FLORAL on the Hands

A floral hand serum is a fragrance for the hands that you wear each time you moisturise. LUXURY FLORAL is a floral citrus with the grace of tea time in a hotel, unfolding from top to base notes with the warmth of the skin.

Dabbing perfume on the wrists is an old habit. A floral hand serum offers something slightly different. You wash your hands, smooth in the serum, and with that gesture a floral scent rises softly from the hands, returning each time your fingers come near your face. Fragrance here is not a by-product of hand care but part of hand beauty itself.

This page takes LUXURY FLORAL, the floral heart of Soie's five fragrances, and describes how the scent rises and settles, the hours and seasons it suits, why a hand serum's fragrance is gentler than a perfume, and how to layer it with a soap in the same scent.

The notes of LUXURY FLORAL on a floral hand serum

LUXURY FLORAL is a scent where the relaxation and the grace of tea time in a hotel live side by side: a gentle floral citrus of bergamot and neroli, finished with jasmine and musk, clean and refined.

Its notes are bergamot, mandarin, neroli, rose, vetiver, musk and amber. It opens with the brightness of citrus, passes through a floral layer of neroli and rose, and settles into the soft trail of vetiver, musk and amber. It was composed with an elegant afternoon in mind.

Every Soie fragrance is perfume-grade, composed over many years by the brand's own perfumer from raw materials selected around the world, and blended with the temperature and humidity of the hands in mind. How a scent evolves on the hands is therefore part of its design. The notes of each fragrance are introduced on our fragrance page.

How the scent unfolds: just after, thirty minutes on, hours later

The fragrance of a hand serum changes on the skin over time. Just after application, the bright top of bergamot and mandarin rises; as the skin warms it, neroli and rose come forward; eventually only the trail of musk and amber remains close to the hands.

Just after. While the hands are pressed together to spread the serum, citrus and flowers are at their fullest. Spreading the serum is itself the moment for enjoying the scent.
Thirty minutes on. The fragrance settles close to the skin, noticed softly when the hands are brought near.
Hours later. Until the next wash, the base lingers quietly. Washing lets the scent go; moisturising brings it back.

It is designed as a fragrance enjoyed close to the hands, not one that projects like a perfume, which makes it easy to wear at work or out and about. The way the scent changes on the skin is also described in a journal piece.

The hours and seasons that suit a floral scent

Scent reaches emotion and memory through the sense of smell, and the same floral leaves a different impression depending on when it is worn.

Afternoon. LUXURY FLORAL was composed with tea time in mind. Applied after the wash that follows lunch, it lends the afternoon's work or errands a calm brightness.
Evening and night. Smoothed in slowly after the last wash of the day, its musk and amber trail keeps company with the quiet hours.
Across the year. With citrus brightness in its opening, LUXURY FLORAL lifts the hands in the dry air of autumn and winter, and in spring and summer wears as a clean, light floral citrus. It is a scent for every season.

Within the floral family, Soie offers other directions too: COLOR DROPS for a transparent fresh floral of lilac, wisteria, rose and a watery accord; ELEGANT TIME for the sweetness of osmanthus and tuberose warmed with oriental spice; SAKURA for the dewy freshness of cherry blossom, magnolia and white rose.

Wearing fragrance on the hands: amount, layering, occasion

With a hand serum, the amount decides the strength of the scent. One or two pearl-sized drops on the back of one hand, spread between both hands and worked between the fingers and around the nails: this standard amount gives a fragrance noticed softly when the hands come near.

Matching the soap

Washing with the LUXURY FLORAL hand soap and moisturising with the serum layers the scent through both washing and moisturising, so that it lasts longer as a fragrance for the hands. Combining two different scents to find your own way of wearing them is another option.

Thinking of the occasion

At work or in company, a scent kept close to the hands is a courtesy to those around you. Before meeting someone, apply a little ahead of time so that the bright opening has settled. If you also wear perfume, keep the serum to the backs of the hands rather than the wrists, and use a little less. The wider idea of fragrance for the hands is set out in our hand fragrance guide.

Frequently asked questions

Is a floral hand serum too strong to wear at work?

No. It is designed as a fragrance enjoyed close to the hands, so it does not project the way a perfume does; you notice it softly when the hands come near. One or two pearl-sized drops is the standard amount, and at that amount it is easy to wear at work or out and about.

What does LUXURY FLORAL smell like?

A scent where the relaxation and grace of tea time in a hotel meet: a gentle floral citrus of bergamot and neroli, finished clean and refined with jasmine and musk. Its notes are bergamot, mandarin, neroli, rose, vetiver, musk and amber, composed with an elegant afternoon in mind.

How long does the scent last on the hands?

Citrus and flowers are fullest just after application, the scent settles close to the skin within about thirty minutes, and the trail of musk and amber lingers quietly until the next wash. Washing lets it go and moisturising brings it back, which suits a habit of reapplying after every wash.

Can I wear it with perfume?

Yes. Because the serum's scent stays close to the hands, it rarely competes with a perfume worn elsewhere. When combining them, keep the serum to the backs of the hands rather than the wrists, use a little less, and begin with a perfume in a similar floral family, where the two sit together most easily.

I don't care for florals. Which Soie scent should I choose?

SUPREME TEA, a calm blend of Japanese and Western teas with herbs, is the easiest alternative. COLOR DROPS offers a light, transparent freshness and SAKURA a dewy, clean one. All Soie products are fragranced; there is no unscented version, so choose the family you enjoy.

Soie's floral hand serum

Soie (pronounced swah; French for silk) gives Enlight Hand Serum, a beauty serum made only for the hands, a perfume-grade fragrance by the brand's own perfumer. LUXURY FLORAL is one of five, alongside ELEGANT TIME, COLOR DROPS, SUPREME TEA and SAKURA, and beneath the scent EGF and KGF (skin-conditioning ingredients) and five ceramides and peptides (moisturising ingredients) lead the hands towards moisture and smoothness. The texture sinks in without stickiness, so a phone or keyboard can be touched straight away.

Wash with Moist Fragrance Hand & Body Soap in the same scent and moisturise with the serum, and the fragrance layers on the hands. 30 mL. A floral worn each time you moisturise is the habit Soie proposes.