There’s a bottle of Halston cologne on Tara’s dresser. This is a hugely successful perfume, first launched in 1975: it’s a woody fragrance whose most prominent notes are oakmoss, incense and amber; it symbolized (and still does) the most glamourous and glitziest side of that decade.
Susanna (Winona Ryder) paints Lisa’s nails when the girl is strapped to a bed. The nail polish is pearly pink; according to its label, the shade is Sunspin by Avon. I couldn’t find any information about this shade, but here are some details about the bottle.
The film is set in the 1960s, but it seems the property master John Paul Jones combined a 1960s bottle with a 1970s screw cap. In the first picture above you can see two nail polishes from the 1960s: the shape of the glass bottles and the labels are reminiscent of the one appearing in the film. The second picture portrays Hello Sunshine, a “fun-shine nail tint” for girls which was launched in the 1970s; the screw cap is exactly the one seen in the film.
A couple of weeks ago, my friend Raffaella went to Stockholm, where she visited ABBA The Museum. She sent me some awesome pictures of the band’s dressing tables, so let’s see what’s on them.
On the left, next to the metal suitcase, there’s a box of Cacharel Anaïs Anaïs, the ultra-feminine and romantic perfume created in 1978 by Roger Pellegrino, Robert Gonnon, Paul Leger and Raymond Chaillan. The yellow bottle next to it is probably a shampoo or a shower gel; the brand is LdB (Lait de Beauté), a very famous Swedish brand established in 1948.
There’s also the unmistakable golden can of L’Oreal Elnett Satin hairspray.
Next to the hairspray, there’s the spray bottle of a Dior scent. The front label is not visible, so it’s impossible to tell exactly what perfume it is. It could be the Miss Dior cologne, the Eau Fraiche, Miss Dior eau de toilette, Diorissimo eau de toilette, or another Dior perfume who had the same bottle.
Just behind the glass, there’s a bottle of Oil of Olay moisturizing fluid.
There’s the beautiful royal blue, black and silver metal bottle of Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, too. Created by Michael Hy and launched in 1971, it’s a floral aldehyde scent.
On the far right there’s a bottle of Givenchy III, created by Pierre Dinand and launched in 1970 to celebrate the opening of the Givenchy store on 3 Avenue George V in Paris.
In the front row there are make-up products, among which a box of Kryolan false eyelashes and a Color Riche lipstick by L’Oreal. I’m not sure about this last id, though. L’Oreal lipsticks used to have a dark (aubergine?) case in the 1980s; ABBA’s last album, The Visitors, was released in 1981: had L’Oreal introduced the gold-case lipsticks yet?
On another table we can see a tin box of Nivea Creme. Next to it, an amphora-shaped bottle with gold cap: this is Nina Ricci L’Air du Temps. Despite being famous for its twin-dove fluted bottle, the perfume (eau de toilette version) was sold in this more basic bottle in the 1970s and 1980s.
There’s also a spray bottle of Rochas Madame Rochas, a Guy Robert creation launched in 1960.
The black compact in the centre front row is an eyeshadow palette by Elizabeth Arden. There’s another black compact on the right: I think it’s by Yves Saint Laurent (see the red and black logo with gold lettering), but I personally have no memory of black make-up cases, only gold ones.
David Bowie in his Aladdin Sane persona is Cherie’s idol. Lots of pictures of the British artist can be seen on the walls of her bedroom; among them, the famous picture where he’s sitting at his dressing table and applying his scene make-up. You may remember a Dior perfume in a houndstooth bottle appears in that picture.
Anaïs Nin (Maria de Medeiros) puts on some perfume. The bottle she holds is clearly the flacon bouchon coeur by Raymond Guerlain. The perfume she uses is Mitsouko, launched in 1919. It was her signature scent, along with Caron Narcisse Noir.
There’s a Coty Airspun face powder advertising on the back cover of a magazine lying on the floor in Heather Chandler’s bedroom.
This advertising campaign, starring top model Paulina Porizkova, was released in 1986.
Christina Aguilera has never loved social networks: she rarely interacts on Twitter and hardly ever posts personal pictures on Instagram. Yesterday things drastically changed, though; she literally took over her Instagram account by posting pictures of her favourite things, many of them are fashion-related. She made my day with the picture above, shot in her bathroom. It looks like a very quiet place, with crystals, a statue of Lakshmi (the Hindu goddess of wealth), marble and mirrors. The stone tray – Matthew Rutler’s – on the left caught my attention, with many interesting men’s perfumes on it.
The black and silver metal bottle is Mont Blanc Legend, a fresh fougère fragrance created by Olivier Pescheux and launched in 2011.
The studded bottle is Valentino Uomo, a gourmand scent created by Olivier Polge and launched in 2014. It contains notes of hazelnut, chocolate, leather, roasted coffee beans, cedar, myrtle and bergamot.
There’s another studded bottle, and it’s Versace Man Eau Fraîche, a citrusy scent with woody/fresh spicy notes, created by Olivier Cresp and launched in 2006.
There’s also Yves Saint Laurent La Nuit de l’Homme, an aromatic fragrance with notes of cardamom, lavender, bergamot, caraway, cedar and vetiver, created by Anne Flipo, Pierre Wargnye and Dominique Ropion in 2009.
The tiny bottles are from the John Varvatos fragrance collection coffret: they are Classic, Vintage, Artisan and Artisan Black.
The only products I’ve been able to id on Christina’s side of the bathroom are By Night, one of her fragrances, Viktor & Rolf Bonbon and Kenzo Flower in the Air. By Night was launched in 2007: it has a strong note of vanilla, plus apple, pineapple, peach blossom, freesia, heliotrope and lily of the valley. Bonbon is a gourmand perfume, with caramel as its key note; it was created by Cecile Matton and Serge Majoullier in 2014. Last but not least, Flower in the Air, created by Alberto Morillas in 2013, is a rose scent with notes of raspberry, magnolia, gardenia, pink pepper and white musk.
Thanks to my Twitter friends Roberto, Jon and Katie who did most of the ids for me.
There a bottle of Schwarzkopf OSiS+ Glamour Queen volumizing hairspray in the hotel bathroom where Ali and her dad are staying.
Felicia (Yara Martinez) gets a box of Revlon Colorsilk hair-dye for Ani (Rachel McAdams). The exact shade is Black #10.
The dressing table in Lucy Carrigan’s bedroom is pretty busy, but one bottle has caught my attention – the third from the left.
The label and the golden bow mean one thing only: Annick Goutal. It’s not the trademark fluted bottle, but the squared one, which I believe can be dated back to the late 1980s. It’s impossible to read the paper label, so we can only assume it could be Gardenia Passion (created by Goutal herself after a trip to Japan and launched in 1989), Eau d’Hadrien (the first fragrance of the French maison, created by Goutal and Francis Camail and launched in 1981) or Eau de Charlotte (created by Goutal for her step-daughter and launched in 1982). I’m not sure if other scents were released in squared bottles, though.
World Wide Aura 
