Souffle de Mer is the fictional perfume that can be seen in Arlena Stuart Marshall’s bedroom. Its bottle doesn’t remind me of any real product, but the name is appropriate, since the film is set at an exclusive Adriatic island resort.
As Allison pointed out in the comments, in the film the French name of the perfume is translated as Breath of the Sea, a poetic rendition of the literal translation Sea Air.
The dresser in the picture above is packed with perfume bottles. Among them, I’ve been able to identify the following (from left to right):
Fabergé Tigress, launched in 1938. It’s the bottle with the fake fur stopper. Another bottle can be seen on the right, the stopper having a different fur pattern.
Caron Bellodgia, created by Ernest Daltroff and launched in 1927. There are two bottles of it.
Bourjois Mais Oui, launched in 1938. There are two bottles with the signature fan-shaped stopper; one of them is in its open box.
Guerlain flacon bouchon coeur. Impossible to tell which fragrance it contained.
When Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange) announces she will move to Hollywood for a fresh start, her “freaks” give her a precious gift: a set of Westmores of Hollywood beauty products.
The set is made of three golden bottles and a round box. The gold bottle on the left surely contains body powder, while the box contains face powder. The three bottles look like factices, while the box is emblazoned with the Westmore logo.
Ethel Darling (Kathy Bates) explains these products are “the best” and she’s right. The brand was founded in 1917 by George Westmore, an English wigmaker who established Hollywood’s first make-up department; he became the forefather of a dynasty of make-up artists who left an indelible mark in the history of cinema.
Purslane (Scarlett Johansson) is putting on some make-up: she’s using MAC Studio Fix powder foundation.
There are many interesting products in Imogene Duncan’s bathroom cabinet.
The black boxes on the top shelf are by MAC and contain lipsticks.
In the lower shelf there’s a blue perfume bottle with gold accents: it’s Dior Addict by Dior, a white floral fragrance created by Thierry Wasser and launched in 2002.
There’s also a jar of La Mer eye concentrate treatment.
Last, there’s a red box containing BeneTint lip and cheek stain by BeneFit.
Before leaving the Hawthorne School, Cordelia Goode (Sarah Paulson) and Myrtle Snow (Frances Conroy) comment on the smell in the air. Myrtle can’t bear it: she states Bourbon Street in New Orleans smells like Chanel No. 5 in comparison.
There are two perfume bottles in Colonel Race’s cabin. Despite the ribbons in different colours, I think they are the same bottle – Penhaligon’s Hammam Bouquet.
The woody floral perfume was created in 1872 by William Penhaligon, who found inspiration in the Turkish baths located in Jermyn Street, London.
The bottle above has the old packaging, the Turkish star and crescent design being a nod to its main inspiration.
Photographer Manuel Litran took this lovely picture of Liza Minnelli circa 1970 in New York, while the artist was putting her eyeliner on. On the dressing table there was a Max Factor product, the iconic Pan Stik, the original cream foundation in a stick.
One of the most important scenes of the film is when the actress Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway) finally gets to wear the Toussaint, a $150 million Cartier diamond necklace, for the Met Gala.
Her dressing table is packed with Marc Jacobs make-up, among which several bottles of Re(marc)able liquid foundation.
Here she’s holding Air Blush soft glow duo.
The large compact is Instamarc light-filtering contour powder.
In the morning, Kayla (Elsie Fisher) puts her make-up with a pink pear-shaped sponge, which is likely to be the Sephora Airbrush one. It’s a very generic tool and many brands make it, but I like to think she got it at a shop she could find in a mall.
The eye pencil she uses is by MAC.
