There’s a Guerlain flacon bouchon coeur on Milly’s dressing table.
Reading the front label is impossible, but I guess the bottle contains Mitsouko, one of the most popular creations of the Parisian maison, released in 1919.
On the left side of the table there’s a tin bottle of Kerkoff Djer Kiss talcum.
Thanks to signorina_misteriosa11 for submitting this post and to Caroline Louise for the talcum id.
There are many generic perfume bottles on Lota’s dressing table, but there’s one which cannot be ignored.
It’s the wonderful 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).
All of them were already on the market when the film was made, but which one was so popular in the U.S.A. to appear as a prop in a controversial [1] science fiction horror film? I would personally go with Mitsouko.
The two atomisers on the left are by DeVilbiss.
[1] The film, violent and gruesome, was heavily censored for years.
Thanks to Ramón Jurado for submitting this post and to Caroline Louise for the DeVilbiss id.
This portrait of Ava Gardner was taken in the late 1940s in the bedroom of her Nichols Canyon cottage in Los Angeles. Besides the Degas print on the wall and some framed family photos, what has caught my attention are the perfume bottles on the dresser. I have identified three of them.
One of the first bottles from the left is Lanvin Arpège extrait, with the square bakelite stopper. This fragrance was created by Paul Vacher and Andre Fraysse and launched in 1927.
There’s also a flacon bouchon coeur by Guerlain. It has been used to house several fragrances but this one is likely to be Mitsouko, one of Gardner’s favourite scents. This chypre fruity fragrance was created by Jacques Guerlain and launched in 1919.
On the far right there’s Fleurs de Rocaille by Caron. Housed in a beautiful urn-shaped bottle designed by Félicie Vanpouille, this floral aldehyde fragrance was created by Ernest Daltroff and launched in 1934.
Thanks to Barbara Pfouts for submitting this post.
I’ve always loved bathrooms and I’ve seen many beautiful ones in my life, but very few of them can equal the poetic atmosphere in Kate Moss’ bathroom in her London house. The bespoke wallpaper with anemone pattern by de Gournay is its strongest point, but charming additions are the vintage crystal chandelier from James Worrall, a Drummonds claw-foot tub and framed black-and-white photographs.
On the marble washbasin there are several products – two bath oils, one perfume and a skincare item.
The bottles with colourful ribbons are Penhaligon’s bath oils. The one on the left is Victorian Posy, a chypre floral fragrance launched in 1979 and now sadly discontinued; the one on the right is Vanities, another discontinued fragrance.
The white jar is Cosme Decorté AQ Meliority repair cleansing cream.
The bottle with ball-shaped stopper is Balenciaga L’Essence eau de parfum, a green floral fragrance created by Olivier Polge and launched in 2011.
There are lots of bottles in the mirrored cabinets above the washbasin.
On the top shelf on the left there’s a factice bottle of Prada Infusion d’Iris eau de toilette, created by Daniela Andrier and launched in 2010.
On the middle shelf on the left there’s Fracas by Robert Piguet, created by Germaine Cellier and launched in 1948.
Lalique Songe is shown in a 2005 limited-edition bottle.
The bottle with peach pink ribbon is Penhaligon’s Ellenisia, another discontinued floral fragrance launched in 2005.
The massive green bottle in the mid shelf in the central section is Sommerso, a beautiful Murano glass creation.
On the bottom shelf in the central section there’s Christian Dior Dune, an amber woody fragrance created by Jean-Louis Sieuzac, Nejla Barbir and Dominique Ropion and launched in 1991.
On the same shelf there are a flacon bouchon coeur by Guerlain and two bottles of Chanel No. 5 eau de parfum.
On the middle shelf on the right there are some Etro bottles, possibly Heliotrope eau de cologne (old packaging), and two fragrances by Byredo.
Thanks to Anna for the Murano glass bottle id.
Kitty (Amy Beth Hayes) and Jessie (Sai Bennett) are collecting money for the Belgian Relief Fund, an international organization that supplied food to occupied Belgium and northern France during WWI.
Their counter is basically a display for Guerlain bottles.
Many of them are flacons abeilles, first used in 1828 to house the Eau de Cologne Impériale. The classic version of this bottle have the bees simply painted in gold enamel, while those with gold front label are the flacons abeilles dorées.
There are two flacons bouchon coeur, too. The choice is historically accurate because they first appeared in 1912; too bad one of these is a spray bottle, clearly not available at the time in which the tv show is set.
Last, there’s a flacon quadrilobe, another historically accurate choice because this bottle first appeared in 1908 to house the perfume Rue de la Paix, then used for the extraits of several fragrances.
One of the most interesting scenes of the episode sees Halston (Ewan McGregor) and Elsa Peretti (Rebecca Dayan) going to Bergdorf Goodman to check how the newly-launched fragrance is doing. The sales assistant explains that it’s sold out.
There’s a huge bottle on the counter, but the prop masters have done something weird here: they put the glass stopper of the original Halston perfume on a bottle of Halston Couture, a fragrance launched in 1988 (two years before the designer’s death). The original bottle was all made of glass, while the other had accents of silver, stopper included.
This scene is not all about Halston, though: if we look behind Elsa and Halston, we can see a couple of factice flacons bouchon coeur by Guerlain. It’s impossible to know what fragrance they contain. Maybe Mitsouko?
When Halston and Elsa leave the room, we can see on a glass table a factice bottle of Guerlain Chamade, created by Jean-Paul Guerlain and launched in 1969.
Next to Chamade there’s a flacon montre of Shalimar eau de cologne, a trademark prop in many Ryan Murphy shows. The gold stopper is historically accurate because it was used between 1972 and 1979.
This self portrait was taken by the American photographer Lee Miller around 1930 in Paris. The surface reflecting her image was the window of the Guerlain boutique.
The two bottles are flacons bouchon coeur, designed by Raymond Guerlain in the early 1910s to house three fragrances in their extrait version (L’Heure Bleue, Mitsouko and Fol Arôme). The front labels are not readable, so it’s impossible to know exactly what perfumes they contained. We can make some assumptions, though: all the three fragrances I’ve mentioned above are good candidates, because they were released well before the 1930s (L’Heure Bleue and Fol Arôme in 1912, Mitsouko in 1919). One may also include Shalimar as a possible candidate: launched in 1925 in the famous flacon chauve souris, somehow it was available in the flacon bouchon coeur, too, although it’s an anomaly, as beautifully explained by Dimitri Dimitriadis.
Another question that arises is about the location of the shop. Where was this picture taken? The French perfume house was founded in 1828 and had its first shop at 42, rue de Rivoli in Paris. In 1840 the flagship store was opened at 15, rue de la Paix. When Miller took this picture, the flagship store was at 68, Champs-Elysées, the same location it has today. That is where the beautiful picture above was taken and that is where Miller’s picture was taken as well.
Miller took other pictures outside the Guerlain store, and from them we can see the location was indeed the Champs-Elysées (see the characteristic arched windows).
Special mention to the shot Exploding Hand, which shows the scratches left by thousands of rings, worn by Guerlain customers, on the glass entrance door.
Picture source and source.
Thanks to my friend Rocco for sharing this photo with me.
There are two Guerlain perfumes in the bedroom Yasmin has in Beshraavi’s mansion.
One is the flacon chauve souris of Shalimar.
The other is a flacon bouchon coeur, but it’s hard to tell what perfume it contains, since the front sticker is not clearly visible.
Guerlain, Caron and Jean Patou perfumes are displayed at Selfridge’s beauty department.
From the far left: there are Guerlain Mitsouko (in the flacon bouchon coeur) and Vol de Nuit (in the flacon rayonnant) on a tray.
On the glass counter there are Jean Patou Colony (in the quirky pineapple bottle) and L’Heure Attendue.
While I appreciate the choice of displaying these beautiful bottles, there’s a problem: Colony, created by Henri Almeras, was launched in 1938, ten years after the time in which the 4th season is set (1928). The situation is even worse for L’Heure Attendue, another Almeras creation launched in 1946, 18 years later.
Last, there’s a bottle of Caron Tabac Blond in a glass cabinet on the far left. It’s a correct choice, because this innovative creation by Ernest Daltroff was launched in 1919.
Mame Carson (Jane Russell) is a millionairess with an oil empire and an unlucky love life. In the first part of the film she’s still engaged, though, and in the first musical act she’s getting ready to meet his fiancé. She likes wearing working clothes but her boudoir shows her love for furry rugs, velvet and satin furniture and perfumes! There’s an impressive display of bottles on her vanity.
The first bottle which appears in this scene is in the bathroom, where Mame’s maid, Clare (Theresa Harris) is spraying some fragrance.
On a marble counter behind Clare there’s a Guerlain flacon montre of Shalimar (see the orange red disk).
Mame takes a bubble bath, then gets changed behind the vanity mirror.
Starting from left bottom I’ve spotted a flacon quadrilobe by Guerlain, Lucien Lelong Sirocco and Bourjois Mais Oui.
On the second shelf there are Guerlain Shalimar in the flacon chauve souris and another Guerlain fragrance in the flacon bouchon coeur.
On the top shelf there are two unknown bottles, while the one in the middle is Guerlain Sous le Vent in the beautiful flacon tonnelet.
Last, there’s the unique pyramid-shape bottle of Lucien Lelong Opening Night on a shelf on the left.
World Wide Aura 
