When Alex (Taylor Zakhar Perez) and Henry (Nicholas Galitzine) visit the Royal Waterloo Hospital for Children and Women in London, they end up in a broom closet after being alerted of a possible terrorist attack. The close proximity allows Henry to realise Alex is wearing Le Labo Santal 33. According to him, it’s a sign that Alex has “good taste”.
This woody powdery eau de parfum was created by Frank Voelkl and launched in 2011.
A Tocca fragrance and Chanel Coco Mademoiselle can be seen on Katie’s dressing table.
Many years ago a reader of this blog left a comment on this post mentioning an article from the 1990s where Courtney Love spoke about her love for fragrances. Since then, many people have told me about it, always in elusive terms, as if the article existed but they were not quite sure about that.
Thanks to the endless mine of vintage material that is Instagram [1] and thanks to Edward who sent it to me, now we can finally read the aforementioned article! It was published on Mademoiselle Magazine in May 1993. As Lydia explained in her comment, it’s truly a monologue about the complex and very personal connection between memories and perfumes.
This is the first time I write a post about an article, instead of analysing a picture, but the subject is so intriguing that I hope you will appreciate the change. Let’s see the fragrances Courtney mentioned.
1_ “Hippie oils” from Body Scent in Seattle [2]: she wore them on stage because they mixed “well with sweat”.
2_ Chanel No. 5: she said all boys loved it because it reminded them of their mothers.
3_ Fracas by Robert Piguet. Courtney’s love for this tuberose triumph, created by Germaine Cellier and launched in 1948, is well-known and well-documented. In the article she defined it her “number-one perfume”, a fragrance she always managed to wear even when she was poor and on food stamps.
4_ Christian Dior Diorissimo and Tuvaché Jungle Gardenia are mentioned along with Fracas. Courtney said Diorissimo was “great to wear in L. A.” because “it’s jarring and pink and very feminine, but also wintry”. On the other hand, she established a parallel between Jungle Gardenia and Fracas: “it’s loud and insane but really rare – no one wears it.”
In conclusion she said Fracas is “genius no matter where you go”, a perfume Joan Crawford or 1920s singer Libby Holman could have worn.
5_ According to Courtney, Kat Bjelland, the frontwoman of Babes in Toyland, wore hippie oil almost exclusively. On the other hand, Jennifer Finch, the bassist of L7, sometimes wore Cacharel Anaïs Anaïs, “the ultimate femme smell”, after Courtney had given it to her for Christmas. This Cacharel white floral fragrance was created by Roger Pellegrino, Robert Gonnon, Paul Leger and Raymond Chaillan, and launched in 1978.
6_ As opposed to the worst smells (those in rock vans), Courtney lists her favourite smells: “Fracas, lilacs, fresh baby head, the way my husband smells like waffles and daphne, a North-West flower that comes out in early spring and is overwhelming“, adding “fresh gardenias” to the list.
7_ The article ends with another long list of great smells: Courtney mentions some places (gas stations, thrift stores, the Seattle Public Library and Portland’s rose garden), human smells (“female milk vapor”), drinks (“cappuccino on a slushy day”) and many beauty products/toiletries.
The “Spanish baby cologne” she mentions is too vague to identify.
The “baby bee talc” that follows was possibly Burt’s Bees dusting powder. I am not 100% sure this specific item was already on the market in 1993, but at the time the brand had already been established, so it could be a good guess.
Weleda iris soap is mentioned, too.
Dana Love’s Baby Soft bath gel is a product that comes with a nostalgic aura [3]. The original musky rose perfume was created by Ron Winnegrad and launched in 1974.
In the 1980s and 1990s make-up items had very distinctive smells. Courtney mentions Chanel make-up, Dana Tabu lipstick (it reminded her of Ireland, where she briefly lived in the 1980s) and Cover Girl make-up.
Johnson’s Baby shampoo and powder have very distinctive smells, too. I think you noticed that Courtney often mentioned baby products, which is understandable: she had given birth to her daughter Frances Bean in August 1992, so when the article was published Frances was only nine months old. Living with a newborn baby affects your sense of smell and introduces new smells into your life, not only from toiletries but also from the baby’s and your own bodies.
The last product is Carmex lip balm, with its peculiar menthol smell.
[1] Savana posted the article on Instagram in July 2022.
[2] According to my research, this shop doesn’t exist anymore.
[3] Another fan of Love’s Baby Soft is Sarah Jessica Parker. The Dana fragrance inspired SJP’s first eau de toilette, Lovely, created by Clement Gavarry and Laurent Le Guernec and launched in 2005.
Marlene Dietrich worked just once with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer: it happened in 1944 for Kismet by William Dieterle, an Arabian-Nights extravaganza set when “when old Baghdad was new and shiny”. The picture above was taken at the time.
There are many beauty products on her dressing table, but one has caught my attention: the bottle half-hidden behind the photo frame.
It’s a glorious flacon bouchon coeur by Guerlain. Designed by Raymond Guerlain in collaboration with Baccarat, it was originally created to house extraits of three fragrances by Jacques Guerlain – L’Heure Bleue (1912), Fol Arôme (1912) and Mitsouko (1919).
The front label cannot be read, so we wonder what fragrance was in the flacon. Dietrich was said to be a fan of perfumes like Bandit by Robert Piguet and Angelique Encens by Creed; the Guerlain fragrance usually mentioned among her favourites is Shalimar, traditionally housed in the flacon chauve souris. One may assume she wore Mitsouko, but I don’t agree: I personally see her wearing an evocative, comforting yet dark perfume like L’Heure Bleue.
On the far right side of the table there’s a bottle of Sea Breeze skin antiseptic.
Thanks to Kailey for submitting this post and for the Sea Breeze id.
Marion (Janet Leigh) is retouching her make-up. To do so, she’s holding a Max Factor compact: it’s Creme Puff creamy make-up base and powder.
Thanks to Daniel Roldán for submitting this post.
Gloria Vanderbilt’s two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan has recently been featured on The World of Interiors: photos by Annie Schlechter and words by Vanderbilt’s son, Anderson Cooper, walk the reader through furniture and accessories of a place where the American artist, designer and writer lived for 23 years.
On the small table on the left there’s a Cyprès candle by Rigaud.
The first thing one notices on her vanity is the massive bottle of Worth Dans la Nuit: made of frosted blue-stained glass and decorated by raised stars, it was made by Lalique in 1924. This is an early issue of the bottle, as we can see from the stopper, described as “a disc with an eclipsed moon of crystal-polished glass in bas-relief against a cobalt-stained sky filled with raised, crystal-polished stars”. This stopper stopped being produced in the 1930s because of an allegation of trademark infringment, so the later versions feature the eclipsed moon only.
Dans la Nuit is a floral fragrance created by Maurice Blanchet.
Next to Dans la Nuit there’s a bottle of Outremer Pêche eau de toilette.
The third non-decorative bottle is Robert Piguet Fracas extrait. This tuberose triumph was created by Germaine Cellier and first launched in 1948.
Dans la Nuit is not the only Worth perfume on this table: there’s also a big empty bottle of Je Reviens eau de cologne.
The last product I can see is the round tin box of Smith’s Rosebud salve.
Thanks to alindri for submitting this post and to Cédric for the Rigaud candle id.
Once in Bodega Bay, Melanie (Tippi Hedren) gets attacked by a seagull. Mitch (Rod Taylor) tends to her head wound after taking her into a diner.
The gold compact Melanie is holding is Revlon Petite Love-Pat in the early 1960s design by French jewellers Van Cleef & Arpels.
This compact was refillable with either Love-Pat complete make-up (it combined pressed powder and foundation) or Touch and Go pressed powder.
Thanks to Daniel Roldán for submitting this post.
Jocelyn’s vanity is packed with beauty products.
On the left side of the table there’s a bottle of La Mer The Concentrate serum.
The two perfume bottles are decorative but I recognise their stopper: it’s from Annick Goutal perfumes (old packaging).
There’s also a bottle of MAC Studio Fix fluid foundation.
The dropper bottle is a face serum by L’Oreal, but even in this case I think the prop masters modified it: the bottle looks like the one from Revitalift 1.5% hyaluronic acid serum, but the dropper seems to have been taken from Revitalift 12% pure vitamin C + E + salicylic acid Serum.
Next to the serum there’s another L’Oreal product – Color Riche lipstick.
Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) is holding Chanel Les Beiges face powder compact while lining her lips.
Thanks to Alessandra for submitting this post.
Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) is getting ready to go on stage for her much-anticipated comeback.
On her dressing table there’s a bottle of Sunday Riley C.E.O. 15% vitamin C brightening serum.
The lip pencil she uses is Charlotte Tilbury Lip Cheat, possibly in Foxy Brown.
From a different angle we can see an Ouai hair conditioner, too.
When she finally meets Tedros (The Weekend), we can see a bottle of Etat Libre d’Orange Rien Intense Incense behind her. This amber woody fragrance was launched in 2014.
Thanks to Alessandra for submitting this post and to Jack Mason for the Etat Libre d’Orange id.
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