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The Art of Perfume Ads: Estée Lauder Pleasures
If you’ve opened a fashion magazine over the past fifteen years or so, you’ve probably seen an advertisement for Estée Lauder Pleasures. The “face” of pleasures has changed from time to time: actress...
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The Art of Perfume Ads: Lady Gaga Fame
Fame, the first fragrance to bear Lady Gaga’s name, will be released in September. First disclaimer: I haven’t tried it yet, so this isn’t a review. Instead, I’m taking a lighthearted look at the...
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The Art of Perfume Ads: Jennifer Aniston
I don’t usually say or think much about Jennifer Aniston, because she and her acting career and her romantic travails generally don’t interest me. However, when her début fragrance was released in...
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The Art of Perfume Ads: Houbigant Chantilly (1960s)
In 1941 the classic French perfume house of Houbigant released Chantilly, an Oriental fragrance with notes of bergamot, lemon, neroli, jasmine, rose, ylang-ylang, carnation, orris, sandalwood,...
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The Art of Perfume Ads: Houbigant Chantilly (1990s)
A while ago, I wrote about a Houbigant Chantilly perfume advertisement from the 1960s and its unlikely visual source (an altarpiece painting by Raphael!). The good people at Houbigant seem to have...
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The Art of Perfume Ads: Anna Sui Live Your Dream
In honor of New York Fashion week, here’s a look at a perfume advertisement from Anna Sui, my favorite living designer. (Not to offend her by qualifying that statement with “living,” but I do love...
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The Art of Perfume Ads: Écusson by Jean d’Albert
One of my favorite beauty-fashion-fragrance blogs is The Non-Blonde; I read it every day. Gaia, the stylish and smart brunette behind the site, is always discerning and articulate in her product...
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5 on 5: Perfume Ads That Never Should Have Happened
I’m constantly gathering images for my posts about art history and perfume advertising, and I’ve come across many beautiful examples from the past century. I’ve also encountered some ads that have not...
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The Art of Perfume Ads: Maxfield Parrish for Cashmere Bouquet and Djer-Kiss
When I saw this vintage magazine advertisement for Cashmere Bouquet (circa 1899-1900), I immediately knew that it had to be the work of artist Maxfield Parrish. The hyper-realism of the light and...
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The Art of Perfume Ads: Houbigant (1946)
The French fragrance house of Houbigant seems to have turned to the history of art even more than other houses of the mid-twentieth century. I’ve already written three posts about advertisements for...
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The Art of Perfume Ads: Fabergé Organdi (1973)
I don’t know much about Fabergé Organdi, except that it was available in the early 1970s and it seems to have been a line of body products—bubble bath, dusting powder, and body mist—rather than a...
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The Art of Perfume Ads: Worth Requête (1947)
Sometimes, a perfume advertisement’s sources of inspiration are reworked in some way that makes them feel like hidden message waiting to be decoded. At other times, the source is identified right...
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Quick Reads: Houbigant, Mucha, and La Rose France
I came across this beautiful advertisement from 1909, in which Houbigant used an illustration by Alfonse Mucha to promote a fragrance named La Rose France, and wondered how it came to be. Then I found...
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Vintage Advertisement: Crown Perfumery Violet
In my art historical research, I occasionally come across perfume and cosmetics advertisements in old periodicals. I really should share some of my favorites here, since I know you’ll appreciate them!...
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The Art of Perfume Ads: Estee Lauder Modern Muse, Isaac Mizrahi Fabulous, and...
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...
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The Art of Perfume Ads: An Ongoing Series…
I’ve been writing a series of posts on art historical references in perfume ads, past and present… you can read them all via this link, or under “Art and Perfume Advertising” in the Categories menu to...
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The Art of Perfume Ads: Saks Fifth Avenue Paradis
I love the big department stores of Midtown Manhattan; I started visiting them at a very young age, when my mother would bring me to see the holiday windows, and I still shop at some of the remaining...
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The Art of Perfume Ads: Jean Cocteau and Elizabeth Arden My Love (1950s)
Fragrance aficionados don’t give much recognition 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...
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The Art of Perfume Ads: A Modern Take on Bourjois Evening in Paris (1961)
I hope that your Christmas, if you were celebrating, was very Merry! In the spirit of opened gifts and fulfilled wishes, here is a Christmas advertisement for Bourjois Evening in Paris, dated 1961....
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The Art of Perfume Advertising: Princess Isabelle (1980s) and Monet
This is such a perfectly summery perfume advertisement that I had to post it. I don’t know anything about Princesse Isabelle, or about this fragrance, other than that it seems to be a romantic floral...
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