26 Sunday May 2019
Posted in Advertising and Scent
Headed out of town this weekend?
On May 27, 1910, an ad for the Rosenbaum Company store in a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania newspaper made some suggestions for toiletries that its customers might want to pack for their Memorial Day outings. These items (on sale!) included facial cream, hydrogen peroxide, “Lusterite” emery boards, and tinted face powder (and “powder leaves,” which do sound useful for travel, if they’re similar to the “papier poudre” blotting papers still available today)…
13 Monday May 2019
Posted in Advertising and Scent
Emporio Armani, the diffusion line from Giorgio Armani, released this duo of his-and-her fragrances in 2017. Are they still around? I haven’t even bothered to check. The scents themselves were pretty run-of-the-mill. Their promotional image is the only reason I remember their launch, since it seems to be a nod to an iconic New York City photograph…
29 Monday Apr 2019
Posted in Advertising and Scent
It’s amazing how many different fragrance brands exist or have existed, even in the not-so-distant past. For example, this ad caught my eye when I was browsing the results of some random image search, but I’m not familiar with the name “Marta Harff.” I looked her up and learned that she’s an Argentinian entrepreneur who has run several fragrance/toiletry brands, including a namesake line of “Aguas Florales” (“flower waters”). This one is “Manzanilla.” (Chamomile?)
What really interested me in this ad (which seems to date to the 1990s) was the image it used on the bottle label and in the background…
20 Saturday Apr 2019
Posted in Advertising and Scent, Perfume Bottles
“I could write a sonnet about your Easter bonnet…” — Irving Berlin (1933)
via Worthpoint
Whether you’re celebrating Easter this weekend or just getting in the mood to enjoy your spring wardrobe, here’s a vintage perfume presentation for you.
15 Monday Apr 2019
Posted in Advertising and Scent
Édouard Baldus, Facade of Notre-Dame de Paris, between 1851 and 1870. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Since France has been the center of Western perfumery for several centuries, and so many major fragrance houses have been based in Paris, it’s no surprise that Paris landmarks — including the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris — make cameo appearances in so many perfume advertisements.
Earlier today, Notre-Dame was engulfed in flames. The cause of the fire hasn’t been established yet. While we’re reflecting on this event, let’s take a break from the news footage of the conflagration and look back at a few images of Notre-Dame in fragrance ads…
28 Thursday Mar 2019
Posted in Advertising and Scent, Art and Scent
Fragrance aficionados don’t pay much attention to Elizabeth Arden’s fragrance line these days, and I can’t really blame them (us)—the brand’s perfumes, and even their marketing, aren’t too memorable…
11 Monday Mar 2019
Posted in Advertising and Scent
One of the major mainstream fragrance releases for autumn 2013 was Estée Lauder’s Modern Muse, with the tagline “Be An Inspiration” and an advertising campaign featuring the model Arizona Muse.
In the initial advertising for this fragrance, Muse (the person, with the perfume!) made an appearance at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.
In the print ads, including the one above, she poses inside the Guggenheim, which is immediately identifiable by its spiral ramp and its circular skylight…
25 Monday Feb 2019
Posted in Advertising and Scent
Tags
chloe, karl lagerfeld, perfume, Perfume Bottles, worth, ybry
Lagerfeld in 1985, with a bottle of KL fragrance.
Karl Lagerfeld died last week, on February 19, 2019, at the age of 85. Lagerfeld was probably one of the first fashion designers I knew by name, thanks to the prominent ads for Chloé that appeared in my mother’s copies of W magazine—favorite reading material for pre-teen me.
There are plenty of obituaries and features that give a comprehensive overview of his life and work. This post, however, is just a look at five perfume-related moments of his career…
14 Thursday Feb 2019
Posted in Advertising and Scent
This advertisement was published in The Daily Messenger (Canandaigua, New York) on February 2, 1950. “So very much more than just a card for your Valentine” — the house of Lenthéric was offering minis of two best-selling fragrances, Tweed and Repartée, in lacy greeting-card presentations. So sweet.
Wishing you a happy Valentine’s Day, however you choose to celebrate it!
