Category Archives: cosmetics in tv shows

Selena: The Series S02E09 (When All the World is Sleeping)

In the show’s finale we are given a beautiful shot of Selena’s vanity. There are several MAC products and two surprising perfume bottles.

The small brush on the left side of the screen is MAC 182 buffer brush.

Then there are some lipsticks and compacts, which could be blushes or face powders.

The intriguing choices can be seen on the right side of the screen, where there are two Guerlain bottles.

One is the refillable metal canister, shown here without stopper.

The other is a small flacon montre with golden conical stopper. The front sticker is not shown, so there’s no way to know what eau de cologne this contains.

I’m quite surprised to see Guerlain perfumes on Selena’s vanity and not the one that was her trademark perfume in real life.

In this picture, taken at the Selena Museum in Corpus Christi, we can see Chanel make-up products (including the famous Brick lip colour, now discontinued) and brushes, and one perfume bottle – Boucheron Pour Femme, a white floral fragrance created by Francis Deleamont and Jean-Pierre Bethouart and launched in 1988.

Since this perfume is still on the market, I wonder why the show’s prop masters haven’t used it in this scene.

Selena: The Series S02E05 (Oh No)

Selena (Christian Serratos) has just arrived at her boutique to interview candidates for a sales assistant position. Yolanda (Natasha Perez) hands her a MAC lipstick.

When Selena applies it, we can see it’s a deep red shade, possibly Russian Red (intense bluish red), which she used in real life.

Euphoria S01E09 (Trouble Don’t Last Always)

In the opening scene of this special episode, Rue (Zendaya) and Jules (Hunter Schafer) are reunited and happy. Jules is getting ready to go to school and Rue is watching her. On the dresser on the right, next to the lamp, there’s Schmidt’s lavender and sage deodorant.

The pink tube on the washbasin is Neutrogena oil-free pink grapefruit acne wash.

The liquid soap on the toilet tank cover is Love Beauty and Planet murumuru butter and rose liquid hand wash.

The peach pump bottle is Lime Crime Unicorn Hair color conditioner.

Last, the pink tiny box is a ColourPop limited-edition Jelly Much eyeshadow in No Rest for the Vivid.

Thanks to Stef for the Lime Crime conditioner and ColourPop eyeshadow ids.

Murder, She Wrote S02E12 (Murder by Appointment Only)

While in New York, Mrs. Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) is caught in a complex murder mystery featuring an unknown lipstick, a former student of hers (Elizabeth, the victim), her shady past and her fiancé, co-owner of Lila Lee, a door-to-door cosmetic company. Always willing to help with the investigation, Jessica and the local lieutenant Varick (Herb Edelman) discuss a jewel-studded lipstick case found on the crime scene, the lipstick in it and the one used to vandalise a portrait of the victim in her apartment.

The lipstick Varick is holding is pale pink, definitely not the bright orange-based red on the portrait.

Norman Amberson (Robert Culp), Elizabeth’s fiancé, confirms Jessica’s observation: the lipstick in the jewel case is Midnight Pink [1].

Later in the episode, Jessica’s nephew Grady (Michael Horton) finds a lipstick in the Lila Lee sales kit.

He thinks he’s found the one, but Jessica disagrees. The shade is not the same. “It’s a little bit too pink”, she says, and we, lipstick lovers, are furiously nodding because we know what she means.

This shade is Tangerine Glow. Still not right. But while checking the complete list of Lila Lee lipstick shades, Jessica finds a code number is missing.

She pretends to be a Lila Lee saleswoman whose customers want the lipstick with the missing code and pays a visit to Mr. Hillsdale (Fred Ponzlov), the chemist who created it.

Hillsdale’s reply sounds like a death toll: that colour has been discontinued. Lila Lee Amberson didn’t like how it looked on the rim of a white cup.

That perfect shade, “not too orangey, not too pink”, was called Tangerine Twist [2].

Here lies the solution of the mystery. The discontinued lipstick was used at a photoshoot, confiscated by Lila Lee Amberson (remember that she hated it) and passed to her brother, Elizabeth’s fiancé. At this point the murderer’s identity is clear, right?

[1] Maybelline did a bright pink lipstick with the same name. Maybe this episode served as source of inspiration.

[2] Jafra did a frost orange lipstick with the same name.

I May Destroy You S01E12 (Ego Death)

One of the first places we are introduced to in this show is Ego Death, a London bar with a prophetical name. It’s the place where the protagonist, Arabella, and her best friend Terry (Weruche Opia) often return to in an attempt to exorcise it as a negative symbol and find closure to the traumatic event the show opens with.

In this scene, Terry is retouching her make-up by applying a MAC lipstick in a nude shade.