In honor of St. Patrick’s Day and “the Emerald Isle,” here’s a 1949 advertisement for Coty’s Emeraude — French for “emerald.”

Emeraude was released in 1921. It’s an “oriental” composition of orange, bergamot, tarragon, jasmine, ylang ylang, rose, rosewood, amber, sandalwood, patchouli, opoponax, benzoin, and vanilla; it has frequently been compared to Guerlain Shalimar, released four years later.

This illustration by René Jeandot represents Emeraude as a siren-like woman wearing a one-shouldered deep green gown, a bottle of perfume held lightly between her fingertips as she turns her face to the wind…

I also like this Emeraude magazine ad from 1982, with a woman swathed in palest green wending her way along a path between verdant hills. The copy reads,

In every woman there’s a place where life and vision interlace.
Where you look back to see how far you’ve come and you know the best has just begun.
This is the place. This is the Emeraude of your life.

Although there’s never any reference to a specific location in Emeraude ads—Emeraude is a state of mind!—I think these green grasses are appropriate for today’s post.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day.