When Elektra Abundance (Dominique Jackson) visits the nail salon where Blanca (MJ Rodriguez) works, it’s clear she’s not interested in getting a manicure. She asks for a top coat on her already done nails, and she soon points out her likes and dislikes.
She likes Revlon and Max Factor nail polishes. In the adverts above (both from 1987), you can see the design these brands had for their nail varnish bottles.
She totally dislikes Yardley, the British brand founded in 1770 which was incredibly successful in the 1960s and 1970s, but lost its appeal in the 1980s.
She’s not done with Blanca: her former daughter should take better care of herself and her “ashy complexion” by using Pond’s cold cream.
In the screencap above we can see a jar of Barbicide disinfectant on Blanca’s working station.
In the meantime, Blanca is applying the top coat Elektra has asked for. It’s by Seche Vite, even if this product didn’t exist in 1987 (the brand was founded in 1991).
When Blanca puts away the top coat, we can see a display of OPI nail polishes. This is historically incorrect, since the American brand, founded in 1981, expanded its portfolio to nail lacquers in 1989, not in 1987.
When Damon (
This is a lovely namedrop, because it refers to the Yves Saint Laurent perfume that really defined a decade. Created by Pierre Bourdon and launched in 1981, it was unforgettable in its original formulation, heavy on civet, honey, leather and musk.
There are two quintessentially 1990s fragrances in the Golden Bay Club locker room where David (David Caruso) and Matt (Chazz Palminteri) change after a squash match.
Angel (Indya Moore) finally gets her own apartment thanks to Stan. On Christmas Eve she goes through her beauty routine, waiting for her lover to pay her a visit.
The pink bottle on her vanity is Xi’a Xi’ang, a perfume launched in 1987 by Charles of the Ritz and later released under the Revlon name. Named after the Chinese word for “imagination”, it was discontinued in 1995.
While pretending to be Faustus Blackwood’s Stepford wife, Zelda Spellman (Miranda Otto) sits at her vanity and puts lipstick on.
When Angel (Indya Moore) goes to a perfume shop inside the Trump Tower for a job opportunity, a factice bottle of Chanel No. 5 can be seen in the background.
When the perfume counter is shown, some bottles of Yves Saint Laurent Mon Paris are shown. It’s a historically inaccurate choice, because this perfume (created by of Olivier Cresp, Harry Fremont and Dora Baghriche) was launched in 2016, thirty-one years after 1987, when the show is set.
There’s an OPI red nail polish in the room where Emmanuelle (Claude Gajan Maull) puts her son Tito (Vince Galliot Cumant) to bed.
There’s a factice bottle of a Christian Dior perfume on the fridge Augusta Terzi keeps in her bathroom. The bow-topped front label is impossible to read, so I unfortunately don’t know what perfume it is.
Margo (Bette Davis) and Karen (Celeste Holm) are at the Stork Club in New York with their partners. Two boxes of Le Galion Sortilège can be seen on their table. This choice is extremely accurate because the French fragrance, created in 1937 by Paul Vacher, really was the trademark perfume of the NY nightclub.
The boxes are unfortunately left unopened, so we cannot see its content, but this would be it – the beautiful fluted bottle the perfume had in its original version.
But the perfume bottles are not the only Sortilège presence on Margo’s table.
There’s a cute scented gadget – a 
Besides the cameo in the Mankiewicz film, many are 
