Tag Archives: featured

Taking Care of Business (1990)

Debbie Lipton (Anne De Salvo) works at the Chanel beauty counter at I. Magnin luxury department store in Los Angeles. She may be loud and very chatty with her former high school classmate Spencer (one of the protagonists), but she looks very classy and professional at her workplace.

Besides her lovely Chanel black-and-white outfit, she’s surrounded by a beautiful selection of skincare, cosmetics and fragrances by the French maison.

Behind Debbie there’s a Chanel skincare counter. It’s impossible to tell what those glass bottles contained, but I’m pretty sure one of them was Lotion Douce (shown above in a 1978 advert).

Hard not to notice the huge factice bottle of Chanel Coco eau de toilette, an amber/warm spicy fragrance by Jacques Polge launched in 1984. The advert above, starring Inès de la Fressange, was released in 1989.

Right in front of Coco there’s a bottle of Chanel No. 5, the classic floral aldehyde fragrance by Ernest Beaux launched in 1921.

The white pump bottles are body lotion/body emulsion testers. Hard to tell what fragrance these were ancillary products of.

The atomisers in front of the pump bottles contained No. 22 (white atomiser) and No. 19 (steel grey atomiser). No. 22, a white floral fragrance by Ernest Beaux, was originally launched in 1922; on the other hand, No. 19, a green floral fragrance by Henri Robert, was launched in 1970.

A different angle reveals another factice – a massive black glossy case of Chanel Lift Sérum, an anti-aging product launched in the late 1970s.

There are also several black boxes, possibly containing compacts. Moreover, just below the oval mirror on the right there’s a Les 4 Ombres eyeshadow palette.

Debbie has helped Spencer (Charles Grodin) with his misadventures; before getting his privileged life back, he gives her a dalmatian puppy as a thank-you gift. I’m sure Debbie and the puppy will become best friends in no time.

Behind Spencer and Jimmy (Jim Belushi) there’s an interesting Christian Dior product. The front label is not fully visible, but I managed to identify this white pump bottle as part of the Capture skincare line, shown above in a promotional card from 1987.

Andy Warhol’s Bathroom Cabinet (1988)

In 1988, one year after Andy Warhol’s death, his business manager, Fred Hughes, commissioned photographer David Gamble to take pictures of the artist’s New York home. The picture of Warhol’s bathroom cabinet is probably the most famous result of that photoshoot: it was sold for $25,000 at an auction and in 2012 it was displayed at the exhibition Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A print of it is in the collection of The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

No need for me to explain why I have decided to analyse in detail the contents of this cabinet. I have scrutinised fictional and real-life bathroom cabinets and dressing tables for more than 10 years, so I couldn’t miss the opportunity to write about this iconic cabinet.

Before starting, let me say that medicines and several beauty products haven’t been included: I never write about medicines and the aforementioned products, now discontinued, haven’t been identified yet. The description of other products, although identified, is not completed by pictures because I haven’t found any online.

Let’s start with the top shelf.

The aqua green jar is Clinique 7-Day scrub cream: this product is still on the market, but the packaging has been changed (now it’s available in tube form).

The glass bottle with white stopper on the far right is Janet Sartin sun lotion. This brand and their beauty salon in New York still exist.

On the second shelf, starting from the far left, we can see a glass bottle of Guerlain Extrait de Pot-Pourri aux Plantes Marines, a home fragrance.

Seeing a Chanel no. 5 ancillary product (an after-bath spray) is not surprising: Andy Warhol included the iconic bottle of the French perfume in his Ads series.

Next, another Guerlain product – Vétiver talc. Unfortunately I haven’t found a picture of the product in the packaging shown in Warhol’s cabinet, but the pagoda-like bottle is so charming, isn’t it?

The bright yellow bottle contains Fabergé Kiku after-bath cologne, an amber floral fragrance launched in 1967.

The black bottle with white stopper contains Pantene For Men Hair Groom conditioner.

Next, a bottle of Alo Sun Fashion Tan suntan lotion. Again, the product shown above (displayed at the National Museum of American History) doesn’t have the exact packaging as the one in Warhol’s cabinet.

The silver tube contains Framesi Gelly’s color enhancing styling gel. This Italian haircare brand, still on the market, was founded in 1945.

Last, the glass bottle on the far right is another Janet Sartin product.

On the third shelf there’s a small-sized bottle of Vidal Sassoon shampoo.

In the back of the shelf there’s another Janet Sartin product, housed in a white jar.

Another Alo Sun product – the After Tan lotion – sits on the same shelf.

On the fourth shelf there’s a Sally Hansen product: I haven’t found any picture of it online, but the bottle reads that it’s a desensitized skin conditioning lotion.

Next to it there’s a jar of Interface herbal rub scrub. This is another product which I haven’t found any evidence of online. The brand doesn’t exist anymore.

One of the most interesting products is Halston 1-12 shaving foam. The fragrance was launched in 1976 and is still available on the market. Warhol using a Halston beauty product makes so much sense that I would have been surprised if I hadn’t found any in this cabinet.

The jar with blue cap contains Noxzema Antiseptic Skin cleanser pads.

Just under the Noxzema pad jar there’s Clinique Sub-Skin firming cream.

Among the lip products I can see a Lip Smacker Bonne Bell lip balm (cherry or strawberry-scented) and a tube of Vaseline Lip Therapy balm.

On the fifth (bottom) shelf there’s a bottle of Cetaphil lotion.

Next, a bottle of Vitabath Spring Green body wash.

On a jar of Vaseline pure petroleum jelly there’s a bottle of Lubriderm Lubath body wash.

Next, there’s a bottle of Neet cocoa butter lotion hair remover.

La voz humana (2020)

The Woman (Tilda Swinton) is applying mascara in front of a round mirror. The bathroom she’s in is tiled in different colours and is full of beauty products and toiletries.

Starting from the left red-tiled niche, I’ve identified:

Rochas Eau de Rochas bath and shower gel

Chanel La Crème Main hand cream

Perlier Honey Miel bath and shower cream and Thai Coco body lotion

Chanel Paris-Biarritz shower gel

Moving right, there’s the blue-tiled niche, where there are two hair products:

John Frieda Luxurious Volume Touchably Full conditioner

L’Oreal Extraordinary Oil oil-in-milk leave-in hair cream

Now there’s the washbasin counter, packed with bottles of medicines.

On the far left there’s a tube of Natura Bissé The Cure all-in-one cleanser.

There are two different bottles of elixirs by My Yébenes. The first on the left is Repair, while the second one (a bit further moving towards the right) is Resistance.

There’s also a jar of Natura Bissé C+C Vitamin face cream.

The first perfume bottle I’ve spotted is Hermès Eau de Citron Noir cologne.

Then there’s obviously the Chanel No. 5 factice.

There’s also a bottle of Chanel Les Beiges foundation among the medicine bottles.

Next, two products by Natura Bissé from the C+C Vitamin line – sun protection at the top left corner of the washbasin and micellar cleansing water next to the tap.

Moving back to the first screencap, all the right part of the counter is for Chanel make-up items. So we can see

Joues Contraste powder blush

Rouge Allure red lipstick

A cream blush

Poudre Universelle Libre loose powder

Les 4 Ombres eyeshadow palette in Tissé Camélia

Palette Essentiel in Beige Clair

Les Beiges compact powder

Le Lift Lèvres et Contours firming cream.

Last, two toothpastes in a silver glass

One is Marvis Classic Strong Mint toothpaste.

The other is Verkos Kemphor toothpaste.

American Psycho (2000)

americanpsycho_bornunicorn1Patrick Bateman’s bathroom cabinet is one of the best ever featured in the history of cinema. He’s a psychotic narcissist who spends a great deal of time and money to take care of his physical appearance. No wonder that the selection of perfumes and hair, skin and body products in his bathroom is very refined and luxurious.

americanpsycho1_bornunicorn

americanpsycho2_bornunicorneauxdecaronpure_bornunicornOn the middle shelf of his cabinet we can see the fragrances Caron Eaux de Caron Pure and Yves Saint Laurent Pour Homme. The other products are L’Occitane Spray Coiffant (now discontinued), Phytoplage sun protection oil (old packaging) and  Phyto Men Eau Vigoureuse body splash (now discontinued). The white jar – by L’Occitane – presumably contains a face cream or a mask.

caronpourunhomme_bornunicornOn the bottom shelf there are three Phyto Men products and another fragrance – Pour un Homme by Caron.

americanpsycho3_bornunicorn

ysl_pourhommedeodorant_bornunicornoscardelarentapourlui_bornunicornOn the top shelf there are two deodorants – Oscar de la Renta Pour Lui and Yves Saint Laurent Pour Homme. A bottle of Pour Lui eau de toilette can be seen on the far left side by of the screencap above.

americanpsycho4_bornunicornysl_pourhommeshowergel_bornunicorn.jpgloccitane_eaudecontadourshowergel_bornunicornWe are also given access to Patrick’s shower, so we can see he uses Yves Saint Laurent Pour Homme all-over shower gel and L’Occitane Eau de Contadour body and hair shower gel.

americanpsycho5_bornunicorn

loccitanemilkshowercream_bornunicornMore L’Occitane products are in the shower: there’s a bottle of milk shower cream (old packaging) and two shampoos – Shampooing Eclat and Shampooing Nourissant (now discontinued).

Picture source.