
The most important ball of the year is about to start and Elektra (Dominique Jackson) retouches Blanca’s make-up by using Maybelline Great Lash mascara.

The most important ball of the year is about to start and Elektra (Dominique Jackson) retouches Blanca’s make-up by using Maybelline Great Lash mascara.

When Elektra Abundance (Dominique Jackson) visits the nail salon where Blanca (MJ Rodriguez) works, it’s clear she’s not interested in getting a manicure. She asks for a top coat on her already done nails, and she soon points out her likes and dislikes.


She likes Revlon and Max Factor nail polishes. In the adverts above (both from 1987), you can see the design these brands had for their nail varnish bottles.


She totally dislikes Yardley, the British brand founded in 1770 which was incredibly successful in the 1960s and 1970s, but lost its appeal in the 1980s.



She’s not done with Blanca: her former daughter should take better care of herself and her “ashy complexion” by using Pond’s cold cream.

In the screencap above we can see a jar of Barbicide disinfectant on Blanca’s working station.

In the meantime, Blanca is applying the top coat Elektra has asked for. It’s by Seche Vite, even if this product didn’t exist in 1987 (the brand was founded in 1991).

When Blanca puts away the top coat, we can see a display of OPI nail polishes. This is historically incorrect, since the American brand, founded in 1981, expanded its portfolio to nail lacquers in 1989, not in 1987.
When Damon (Ryan Jamaal Swain) first meets Ricky (Dyllon Burnside), he asks him if he took a bath in Kouros cologne.
This is a lovely namedrop, because it refers to the Yves Saint Laurent perfume that really defined a decade. Created by Pierre Bourdon and launched in 1981, it was unforgettable in its original formulation, heavy on civet, honey, leather and musk.




Elektra Abundance (Dominique Jackson) likes flaunting her luxurious lifestyle and when she goes to bail Blanca out of jail, she reinforces this attitude. She charms a police officer who’s interested in her perfume: she explains it’s Caron Poivre, a very expensive perfume that an ordinary police officer has obviously never smelt before.

This is an unusual choice: Poivre is not among the classic powerhouse fragrances which ruled the 1980s, so it tells a lot about Elektra’s lifestyle. Created by Michel Morsetti and launched in 1954, the fragrance is named after its dominant note (pepper). It was originally advertised as “the dream fragrance for furs” [1], so it sounds perfect for a woman like Elektra who often wears furs.
[1] Probably the most famous fragrances “for furs” were created in 1928 by Claude Fraysse for Parfums Weil – Chinchilla Royal, Hermine, Une Fleur pour Fourrure and Zibeline. As a matter of fact, the perfume house’s founder, Marcel Weil, owned a famous furs atelier, Fourrures Weil.
Angel (Indya Moore) finally gets her own apartment thanks to Stan. On Christmas Eve she goes through her beauty routine, waiting for her lover to pay her a visit.
The pink bottle on her vanity is Xi’a Xi’ang, a perfume launched in 1987 by Charles of the Ritz and later released under the Revlon name. Named after the Chinese word for “imagination”, it was discontinued in 1995.
Thanks to perfumes_marimichimoni on Instagram for the id.

When Angel (Indya Moore) goes to a perfume shop inside the Trump Tower for a job opportunity, a factice bottle of Chanel No. 5 can be seen in the background.

When the perfume counter is shown, some bottles of Yves Saint Laurent Mon Paris are shown. It’s a historically inaccurate choice, because this perfume (created by of Olivier Cresp, Harry Fremont and Dora Baghriche) was launched in 2016, thirty-one years after 1987, when the show is set.
I wonder why the prop masters didn’t select the original Paris, the hugely popular YSL fragrance by Sophia Grojsman launched in 1983.