I’ve already sung the praises of traveling with non-liquid toiletries to take up less space when you’re carrying all your bags on the plane. After all, the more solid soaps and such you can stash in the main compartment of your carry-on, the fewer items you need to squeeze into your quart-sized clear plastic “liquids” bag. So, clearly I dig the idea behind solid perfumes, as well — particularly since a broken bottle of cologne in your carry-on or checked bag would be particularly disastrous.

crazylibellule and the poppies (yes, lowercase is the proper spelling), is a perfume, er, parfum, brand from France. Its creator is the founder of the wildly popular Sephora beauty retailer (which she sold back in 1997).  Translated, the company name means “crazy dragonfly and the poppies,” and its chief product is the Crazy Stick, or parfum solide en stick.

Each stick comes in a squat, cylindrical cardboard container and you twist the perfume up like lipstick (more like Chapstick, since the perfume is flat on top). The stick only holds .17 ounces of solid (compare that to the 2-oz tin below) and each retails for $18 on sites like Sephora.com — but you can find them for $13 on Amazon.com

I was sent four fragrances from the company, one each from four different collections, each of which contains six or seven different sticks). My favorite by far is Toi, mon Prince (aka “You, my Lord”) — a strange name from a collection that I frankly have no idea how to translate (my French education stopped at 10th grade): Les Divines Alcoves. Regardless, the blend of mirabelle plum (again, I have no clue what this is) and patchouli (which I typically associate with incense and headshops) works for me. I’m thinking I”ll start wearing “You, my Lord” daily.

My second favorite is from the Shanghaijava collection: Musc & Patchouli. Again, I am surprised that a product with patchouli appeals to me so much, but perhaps I’m more of an earthy- and spicy-scented gal than I thought I was.

For sure, the Vanilla Lemon Pie fragrance from the Poule de Luxe collection and the Rose a Saigon from the Les Garconnes collection are too fruity sweet for me. Funny, of the five scents, my husband most liked the Vanilla Lemon — go figure.

Regardless of what scent you choose, the solid perfume slides over skin smoothly, and a little goes a loooooong way. I think these Crazy Sticks would make lovely gift for any sophisticated female traveler, particularly a Francophile.

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For a much less expensive, hand-made version of solid perfume, considering checking out the options on Etsy.com, an online shop that connects people who create things with buyers. These folks typically — though not always — work out of their homes, so overhead is low.

Karina of Soap that Makes Scents, makes 2-oz solid perfumes in small tins that slide nicely into a purse or carry-on bag. Right now she has seven different scents for sale. The scent I received to review, “Love Me,” is too sweet and fruity for my liking — no surprise, since the fragrances in it include “Asian mandarin, brown sugar, Tahitian vanilla, and blends of juicy berry and pineapple.”

In reading about the other scents, I like the sound of “Jump Up and Kiss Me,” which is decidedly less fruity overall, with jasmine and violets as its base, and I’m guessing I’d also wear the “Chanel No. 5″ knockoff.

Since each perfume tin only costs $5, the solid perfumes from Soap that Makes Scents won’t put too big a dent in your pocketbook if you do choose a fragrance you don’t love. You can always go in with a friend and buy a few and then split them according to your tastes when the box of goodies arrives.