

A striped round box can be seen in Maria Callas’ medicine cabinet.

Later in the film, we get a beautiful shot from above which shows the box contains face powder.

It’s Polvo Chela, an Argentinian cosmetic from the 1920s.


A striped round box can be seen in Maria Callas’ medicine cabinet.

Later in the film, we get a beautiful shot from above which shows the box contains face powder.

It’s Polvo Chela, an Argentinian cosmetic from the 1920s.

I was looking forward to watching the latest Pablo Larraín film documenting the last days in the life of Maria Callas (Angelina Jolie) because I *knew* (hoped) some interesting beauty products were in it and I was not disappointed.

The first product I spotted in the scene where Maria is sitting at her vanity is a white jar by Guerlain containing skincare. The exact product is unclear (it could be the Crème Stabilisante, shown in the 1975 advert above, the Collagena or the Crème Magistrale), but the choice is historically accurate, because this packaging was marketed in the mid/late 1970s.

Next, there’s a Dior amphora bottle, originally designed by Fernand Guéry-Colas. This bottle housed different Dior fragrances (Miss Dior, Diorissimo and Diorama), so once again it’s unclear which fragrance sits on la Divina’s vanity.

I was surprised to see a massive flacon chauve souris containing the Guerlain classic Shalimar, a fragrance created in 1925 by Jacques Guerlain. According to online reports, Maria Callas used to wear Chanel No. 5 and Revillon Detchema, but there’s nothing that can beat the impressive presence of this bottle on a film set, so I totally approve of this choice.


Another surprising presence is a box of Madame Rochas, a white floral fragrance created by Guy Robert and launched in 1960. It may not be accurate, if we assume that Callas never wore it, but it surely looks good on her vanity.



Later in the film, Maria sits at another vanity. There’s another flacon chauve souris on it but there’s also a Guerlain zigzag box, first introduced in 1967. Reading the front label is impossible, so its content is unknown.
There are two Jean Patou fragrances on Vanessa’s dressing table: one is Joy, the other one is Eau de Joy. Launched in 1929 as “the world’s most expensive perfume,” Joy was created by Henri Alméras with 10600 flowers of jasmine and 28 dozens of roses, plus notes of ylang-ylang, musk, tuberose and sandalwood. Eau de Joy was launched in the 1960s: it’s dominated by jasmine notes, along with civet, aldehydes, lily of the valley and rose.

On the dressing table there are also a box of Summer Eye Cream by Germaine Monteil, still wrapped in plastic, and a bee-lid jar of Yardley face cream.
Thanks to vintageimagebox for the Yardley id.