There’s a bottle of Coty Muguet des Bois on Betty Draper’s dresser. This is one of the most popular Coty perfumes: created by Henri Robert and launched in 1941, it has top notes of aldehydes, orange, green leaves and bergamot; middle notes of cyclamen, lilac, jasmine, lily-of-the-valley and rose; base notes of sandalwood and musk.
Thanks to Elena Vosnaki for the id.
Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) opens a bathroom cabinet to get some medicines. There are a Weleda Iris soap and a L’Oreal Professional EverStrong shampoo (or conditioner, hard to tell) in it.
Mrs. Haldane, one of the victims of a mysterious strangler, had a very busy dressing table. Among her perfumes, there’s a bottle of Californian Poppy, a fragrance by Josephine Kell Ltd. The picture above refers to the 1940s version of the perfume, while the bottle seen in the tv show has a different shape and a different lettering on the front label.
The round bottle in front of Californian Poppy is the eau de cologne version of Worth Je Reviens, a floral aldehyde fragrance created by Maurice Blanchet and launched in 1932.
The brown tube looks like Crabtree & Evelyn Gardeners hand therapy cream.
There’s also a refillable atomiser of Rochas Madame Rochas.
Thanks to Jennifer for the hand cream id and to Nastja for the Worth id.
There’s a bottle of Botot mouthwash on the bathroom shelf.
There’s also a bottle of Fabergé Brut Oceans after shave.
Thanks to Cpt. Librarian for the mouthwash id.
There’s a tube of Aveeno daily moisturising lotion on the dressing table of Dominic West at the Donmar Warehouse in London, where he’s currently acting as the Vicomte de Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, adapted and directed by Christopher Hampton.
There are two perfumes on the shelf of the bathroom where Pierre (Michel Piccoli) is shaving and Hélène (Romy Schneider) is putting mascara on. The white bottle with a floral pattern is the refillable atomizer of Guerlain Chant d’Arômes, created by Jean-Paul Guerlain and launched in 1962; the white and green striped box contains Carven Ma Griffe, a chypre floral perfume created by Jean Carles and launched in 1946.
The smell expert Oscar Vibenius (Paul Reubens) appears again in Chuck’s life: he’s genuinely intrigued by her peculiar smell. Ned’s dog, Digby, has the same smell. It’s not a coincidence: both of them were brought back from the dead by the Pie Maker.
Oscar asks Chuck if he can smell her hair, because “hair can be so telling about so many things.” There’s nothing sensual in this scene, but the act of smelling someone has a certain intimacy.
Oscar soon realizes what’s the secret of Chuck and Digby: the peculiar “smell of ozone” is the evidence he needs to understand what happened to them.
There are lots of make-up products on the coffee table in Carol Aird’s living room, most of which are vintage pieces.
The item that caught my attention is the oval red box with white lid. This is the Du Barry face powder, produced by Richard Hudnut, an American businessman who first achieved international success in cosmetics manufacturing. This face powder was named after Jeanne Bécu, comtesse du Barry, the last Maîtresse-en-titre of Louis XV of France and one of the victims of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution. It’s unclear which version of the powder appears in the film – the lid is not clearly visible – but I think it’s the first.
When Mr Selfridge decides to open a beauty counter in his store, we are treated with lots of eye candy! Fragrances and toiletries start to appear on the counters just before the entrance door.
In the screencap above, some bottles of Mäurer & Wirtz 4711 Original cologne can be seen, along with some round soaps by Roger & Gallet.
I’m not sure about the scents of the white and pink soaps, but they could be discontinued. As a matter of fact, their boxes and packaging could be coming from the 1980s, definitely not from the most recent collections. Contemporary Roger & Gallet soaps are wrapped in tissue paper, as usual, but they only have a round sticker – not a wrapping label.
Some flacons bouchon coeur by Guerlain can be seen on another counter. Most of them have no label, so it’s impossible to know what fragrances they contained. One thing is certain: their glass stoppers tell us they’re from before 1962, year in which plastic stoppers replaced the glass ones. As for the Mitsouko modern bottle, the pump atomizer is a nice way to give it a vintage feel.
Agnes Towler (Aisling Loftus) meets Henri Leclair (Grégory Fitoussi) in the beauty department. They have a short conversation about fragrances, from which we learn that Agnes is a classic British girl, who loves traditional creations like Yardley Lavender. The aromatic fougère, launched in 1919, is another historically inaccurate choice, but in this context it works.
Joey Lisk is a shady wholesaler of luxury goods. A brand of stockings he sells (Le Minou Noir) is very important in the plot, but Endeavour Morse (Shaun Evans) notices something’s wrong from another detail. Lisk sells Acqua di Palma perfumes, a fake version of the historical Acqua di Parma. Morse knows the name of the product should be spelt with an R and not with an L.
The whole episode is full of references to Italian culture and history. Morse is an opera fan, so he often listens to music composed by Italian artists, but here we also have an Italian character, Luisa Armstrong, Thursday’s former love interest. She brings back memories from World War II and from the Italian resistance movement. In such a context, the presence of an Italian fragrance adds consistency to the plot.
Acqua di Parma is a brand founded in 1916; Colonia, a light and fresh scent, became hugely successful in the 1930s/1950s. Even though the line now includes several new products, Colonia still has the trademark yellow packaging we can also see in the episode.
World Wide Aura 
