Category Archives: perfumes in tv shows

perfumes in tv shows

My Mad Fat Diary S01E06 (It’s a Wonderful Rae Part 2)

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chanelcocomademoiselle_bornunicornThere’s a bottle of Chanel Coco Mademoiselle on Rae’s mom’s dressing table. This is historically inaccurate: the tv show is set in the 1990s, while the Chanel perfume was launched in 2001/2002. Unfortunately, this is not the only mistake done by the show’s prop master: you may remember Britney Spears Fantasy and Tom Ford For Men perfumes appeared on Chloe’s desk in an episode of the second season.

yvesrocherpivoine_bornunicornA reader of this blog (Cpt. Librarian: thanks!) spotted another perfume for me, the one with the white bottle and the pink flower-shaped stopper. It’s Pivoine by Yves Rocher, a scent which was launched in the 1990s. This is historically accurate, after all.

perfumes in tv shows

How to Get Away with Murder S01E06 (Freakin’ Whack-a-Mole)

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eaudecartierconcentree_bornunicornCartier Eau de Cartier Concentrée, a citrus aromatic perfume created by Christine Nagel and launched in 2002, can be seen on Annalise Keating’s dressing table.

When I first spotted it, I thought it wasn’t the right choice for her. I expected her to wear something bold, more in-your-face, but then I realized I was wrong: the fresh note of yuzu combined with lavender, cedar, coriander, white amber and patchouli seems just perfect for her, as it’s fresh, clean and unfussy, a quiet detail in her hectic life.

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American Horror Story S04E06 (Bullseye)

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Venetian Romance is a fictional fragrance which has an important role in this episode. It’s Penny’s signature scent, the one she wears when she meets her lover Paul (Mat Fraser).

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Paul goes to a drugstore to buy it for Penny. Thanks to the screencap above we can see its bottle is actually the one of a historical and extremely popular fragrance, Evening in Paris by Bourjois. The cobalt blue bottle with the curved label began appearing in the late 1940s/early 1950s, so the choice to use it is historically accurate. A cobalt blue talcum powder bottle of the same scent can be seen on the drugstore shelf, too.

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In the episode we also learn that Paul is Elsa Mars’s lover. She smells Venetian Romance on him and understands he’s having an affair with another woman.

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As a revenge, she badly wounds Paul: she straps him to a bullseye wheel and stabs him on purpose. Penny arrives to the circus and finds Paul fighting for his life. Elsa immediately realizes she’s the one Paul is having an affair with. “Speaking of cheap perfume” conveys her contempt for Penny , but also her envy for the star-crossed lovers.