A Lamp Left On: Reviewing Solstice Scents Upstairs Window

If your idea of cozy is just vanilla syrup, you might want to sit this one out. Solstice Scents Upstairs Window is comfort with a spine, the kind of fragrance that keeps a small light burning while the rest of the house is quiet. I wore it on a rainy morning, then again at midnight, and both times it stirred the same sensation, a tender, almost cinematic pause.

This is an atmospheric indie perfume, but not a dusty room cliché. Angela St John knows how to balance place and skin. The opening flickers like a lamp being switched on, soft and slightly golden, with a cool-air ripple that reminds me of a cracked window. There is a suggestion of polished wood and a faint, ghostly sweetness, not bakery sweet, more like a memory of tea in another room. On me it moves toward a warm glow, the kind you feel more than smell, a hush of ambered light and breathable musks that never fall flat.

What I appreciate most is the restraint. Upstairs Window reads as intimate, not loud. It feels curated rather than cluttered, like someone tidied the scene and left only what matters. If you’re used to linear gourmands, this will surprise you. If you live for narrative niche, it will slip right into your rotation. Projection is close, a whisper rather than a broadcast, which suits the story. Longevity sits in that sweet spot where you catch it hours later on a scarf and think, oh, there you are.

As an indie perfume review, let me say this plainly. Solstice Scents has a reputation for atmosphere, and Angela St John leans into it here without tipping into theatricality. Upstairs Window feels like a welcome, but it also asks you to bring your own memories. Mine skews to winter evenings and staircase shadows. Yours may be sunlight and dust motes. Either way, the name is not a gimmick. It is a map.

If your shelf skews niche, if you like skin-close radiance, and if you crave a mood more than a note pyramid, Upstairs Window is worth your time. It is quiet, glowing, and strangely moving, a light left on for whoever needs it.