Virginia (Debra Monk) pays a visit to her son Dexter and his wife Anna. The skincare products she keeps on her dressing table are by Tata Harper.
The jar contains Water-Lock moisturizer.
The pale green bottle contains Superkind bio-barrier serum.
Anna (Emma Roberts) checks her make-up on a gold Stratton compact.
This is the second vintage sighting in this season, which is unusual because it is set in present day. I wonder if these details are leading somewhere in terms of plot or character development.
Thanks to Hillary, the lovely curator of the one and only Makeup Museum, for the id.
When Anna receives a gift basket from Hamish, we can see some interesting beauty products in it.
The two pump bottles on the left are Soap Cherie body oils – Orchid and Morning Rose.
The larger bottle is Aesop geranium leaf body cleanser.
There’s another Soap Cherie product: it’s the Magnolia body lotion.
Last, there’s a bottle of Malin+Goetz advanced renewal moisturizer.
Talia (Juliana Canfield) wears a lipstick in a beautiful red shade.
From the studded gold tube we can see it’s a vintage product.
It’s a Max Factor lipstick from the 1940s.
The brand has been endorsed by a huge number of cinema stars over the years. In the specific case of this lipstick, advertised as “the most wonderful lipstick in the world”, in 1947 it was endorsed by Lana Turner as Ginny Marshland from the film Cass Timberlane (1947) by George Sidney.
Talia gives the lipstick to Anna (Emma Roberts). Later in the episode, the protagonist wears it to attend a vernissage at her husband’s art gallery.
Although the lipstick actually worn by Talia and Anna is most definitely not the Max Factor one, I appreciate the fact that the vintage blue red shade was replicated.
There’s a Guerlain flacon montre in Marilyn Monroe’s bedroom.
This is a very unusual choice because there’s no evidence that Marily wore Guerlain colognes. The reason behind this prop is easy to explain: Ryan Murphy is clearly a fan of this bottle and of the French brand; both have often been shown or quoted in his shows.
It’s not a historically accurate choice, though: the gold screw-cap stopper was first introduced in 1972, 10 years after the death of the American actress. In the 1960s flacons montre were available with the ground glass stopper.
[1] Marilyn’s name will forever be connected to Chanel No. 5, but she was also a fan of the now-discontinued Rose Geranium eau de toilette by Floris.
There are several skincare products in Doris’s bathroom cabinet.
The white bottle on the left is E.l.f. mineral-infused face primer.
Next, there’s a tube of Avène Cleanance Hydra soothing cream.
The jar with silver cap is La Mer The Eye Concentrate.
The white plastic bag contains Burt’s Bees facial cleansing towelettes.
From a different angle we can also see a pump bottle of Aveeno Positively Radiant daily moisturizer.
Sarah (Frances Conroy) wants Mickey (Macaulay Culkin) to sleep over and she tries to convince him by listing the perks of her house.
There’s heat (a pretty basic feature) and the scent of Rigaud candles, which is definitely a luxurious touch. Produced by the French perfume house founded in 1852, these candles conjure an atmosphere of decadent wealth, perfectly in tune with the personality of the writer.
Even if we don’t actually see any candle on screen, I imagine Sarah burning Reine de la Nuit, with top notes of gardenia and freesia, middle notes of jasmine, rose and coriander, and a base note of patchouli.
Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange) is a character from Season 1 whose return in Season 8 has been much awaited and anticipated. She was “born to be a mother”, as shown by her decision to commit suicide in the Murder House, so as to spend eternity with her beloved children (who already live in the house). She gives lots of importance to appearances and to her own look, so it’s not surprising that she re-applies her lipstick before dying. The shade she’s using is a nude beige, reminiscent of the 1960s/1970s (decades in which she was young and desirable).
The gold tube is visible on a coffee table in the living room where her nephew Michael (Cody Fern) finds her lifeless. It’s a lipstick by Julie Hewett. The exact shade is hard to identify: it could be Annette, Biba, Simone or Odessa.
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.
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.
World Wide Aura 