Tag Archives: lucien lelong

Someone’s Watching Me (1978)

11 Mar 2025 Born Unicorn Leave a comment

When we first see TV director Leigh Michael’s bathroom, we can notice some very famous fragrances on the marble counter.

From the left to the right there are:

A balloon bottle by Lucien Lelong. Impossible to tell what fragrance it contained, because the same bottle was used to house several fragrances.

The unmistakable blue, black and silver bottle belongs to Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, a floral aldehyde fragrance created by Michel Hy and launched in 1971.

Another 1970s staple is Revlon Jean Naté after-bath splash in the distinctive tall bottle with black round stopper.

Last but not least, a legend from that decade – the hugely popular Charlie by Revlon. This white floral aldehyde fragrance was launched in 1973.

Later in the film, we can see a different selection of fragrances on the counter. The Lelong balloon bottle and Charlie are gone, but Jean Naté and Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche (two bottles of it!) are still there.

The jar sitting on the same counter is a Max Factor skincare product – Moisture Essence night cream.

Thanks to Nehir for submitting this post, and to Daniel Roldán for the Max Factor id.

perfumes in movies

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

2 May 2021 Born Unicorn 6 Comments

While perfume lovers and professionals still believe the urban legend according to which a bottle of Caron Narcisse Noir appears on Norma Desmond’s vanity (it doesn’t), no one has ever taken the time to see what’s actually on that table.

Well, I have and I love what I’ve found – three Lucien Lelong bottles!

Right under the round standing mirror on Norma’s left there’s a short bottle with bow-like stopper: it’s Jabot, launched in 1939.

If we move to the left side of the table, there’s a tall balloon bottle containing Balakaïka eau de cologne, launched in 1939.

When Norma stands up, we can see a golden bottle of Orgueil on a small table on the far left. This Jean Carles fragrance was launched in 1946.

I don’t think my passion for Lelong perfumes is a mystery: I’ve written about them many times and I find their bottle designs very distinctive and original. Seeing some of them on such an iconic dressing table really makes sense: it shows us that Norma Desmond is a fragrance lover and supposedly uses more than one fragrance, as shown by the several bottles sitting on the table (I haven’t been able to identify them all).

Now another question pops up: if we assume she is wearing a Lucien Lelong perfume in this famous scene, what perfume is it? Where does the infamous tuberose come from? It could be from Orgueil, which, according to Basenotes, includes tuberose in its heart notes, along with carnation, iris, jasmine, rose, clove and nutmeg.

perfumes in tv shows

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour S01E12 (Hangover)

3 Apr 2021 Born Unicorn Leave a comment

Jayne Mansfield starred in this episode as Marion, a girl the protagonist (advertising man Hadley Purvis) has taken home with him. He doesn’t remember anything about it because he is an alcoholic, so he has to reconstruct the events of the night before.

Mansfield, sporting a short hairstyle, posed for some on-set pictures in a bathroom. There are two intriguing bottles on the marble shelf behind her.

The tall ribbed bottle is Lanvin Eau de Lanvin. The prop masters replaced the original black bakelite stopper with an ordinary one.

The other bottle is by Lucien Lelong. Since the label usually wrapping the bottle neck is missing, we can make an assumption from the stopper: I think it contained Opening Night cologne.

Picture source.

perfumes in movies

The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961)

18 Jul 2018 Born Unicorn Leave a comment

There’s a beautiful selection of perfumes on Karen’s vanity. Among them (from left to right):

A Lubin fragrance: judging from the colour of the liquid in the bottle, it was probably Nuit de Longchamp (launched in 1934). Idole had the same bottle, but it was launched in 1962, one year after the release of the film.

There’s also Lancôme Magie: created in 1949 by Georges Lepieux, it has one of the most beautiful perfume bottles ever designed – a torsade by Georges Delhomme. The same design was used in 2005 for Hypnose.

We can see a bottle of Jean Patou Joy, one of the most famous white florals created by Henri Almeras in 1930. Not coincidentally, this was Vivien Leigh’s signature scent.

lucienlelong_tailspincologne_bornunicorn

The tall bottle is Lucien Lelong Tailspin: also known as Passionement, it was created by Jean Carles in 1940. I’m not really sure of this id, though: this tall bottle was used for many Lelong scents, only the caps were different. In this case, the colourful cap was replaced by a glass stopper, so giving a certain identity to the bottle is quite hard.

There’s also a stunning Baccarat amphore bottle of Christian Dior Miss Dior, created by Paul Vacher and launched in 1947. As described by Yakimour, this bottle is made of cased crystal white cut to clear and has gilt details.

The bottle next to Miss Dior could be a Penhaligon’s perfume (the grey ribbon screams Blenheim Bouquet, in my opinion), but it’s just a guess.

Screencap and id source.

perfumes in movies

Yield to the Night (1956)

3 Jan 2017 Born Unicorn 2 Comments

Mary Price Hilton (Diana Dors) works as a sales assistant at a perfume shop. There she meets Jim Lancaster (Michael Craig), the man she’ll desperately fall in love with. When they first meet, he’s looking for a fragrance, but asks Mary what she is wearing.

There are several bottles on the glass counter, among which Shalimar by Guerlain.

The spectacular giant chauve souris bottle gets a beautiful shot in the same scene.

On the bottom shelf of the counter there’s a set of Lucien Lelong mini bottles (see the ball-shaped stoppers) and what looks like Gardénia by the same brand. The bottle – designed by René Lalique and called Sea Star – was actually used for other perfumes by Lelong (Lilac, for example), but the white box trimmed in a contrasting colour could confirm it was Gardenia.

Another shot shows a flacon bouchon coeur and a flacon montre by Guerlain. Reading the labels is impossible, so I can’t tell what they contained. The same can be said for the trademark tall bottle by Lucien Lelong, which was used for different fragrances.