Sure, quality sells fragrance, but I believe emotion is a more powerful marketing tool, especially among non-perfumistas. For example, take the vintage drugstore perfume set. You’ve probably seen them gathering dust in thrift shops or in the back of linen closets at estate sales. They’re usually a set of small bottles by a perfume house you’ve never heard of, and they’re packaged in a box that reeks of downmarket glamour — something that might be advertised in the back of True Romance magazine or sold at a Wichita bus station gift shop during the Truman administration.
In short, I adore them. This week at The Needle, one of my favorite thrift stores, I scored Les Grands Parfums Quartette, a boxed set of four fragrances: Charles V Cheval Bleu, Charles V 1800, Elizabeth Hartley Cordon d’Or, and Elizabeth Hartley Cordon d’Argent. They all boast “parfum” on their labels, as well as “dist. New York,” which I’m interpreting to read as “manufactured in New Jersey.” The stylish and friendly Myrna, who works at The Needle, also passed along two empty vintage drugstore minis that stoke the same perfume lust: “Irresistible” out of Jersey City, featuring the silhouette of a smooching couple; and the noble-looking No. 3 by Park & Tilford, adorned with a gold foil label.
Admittedly, the perfume in Les Grands Parfums Quartette is old and smells it, but I’m confident that its fragrance is not what sold the box. My guess is it was the romance.
First, let’s take the perfume houses in the box, Charles V and Elizabeth Hartley (listed as part of Charles V in the online Perfume Intelligence, one of the few references to Charles V I found). Charles V sounds classy, doesn’t it? “Charles” is obviously a king, and the “V” sounds so much better than “the fifth.” It’s almost as good as Prince Matchabelli. Never mind that Charles V was a 16th century Holy Roman Emperor and probably didn’t have the eco-sanitize cycle on his washing machine or access to roll-on antiperspirant. As for Elizabeth Hartley, she must have been a proper lady, too — not old, not young, but really just about anyone who knew her way around a fish fork. Perfect for a perfume house name.
Now, we’ll move on to the box’s art. It’s a drawing of Paris, the long-respected home of great perfume. You see Sacré Coeur and two cafes, La Bohème and Café de Montmartre. (In the upper right corner, I barely make out “Paris ’64.”) In purchasing this box, you’re taking home the good taste and culture of a country steeped in the good life.
Then we come to the names of the fragrances themselves: Cheval Bleu, 1800, Cordon d'Or and Cordon d'Argent. Cheval Bleu might be the name of a fancy wine or five-star hotel and connotes good taste. Its English translation, “Blue Horse,” doesn’t cut it for a perfume, especially a ho-hum orange flower with a touch of amber. 1800 screams “history.” Surely Napoleon might have worn it? He might as well have worn Cheval Bleu, since it smells so similar, if a bit less green. Cordon d’Or and Cordon d’Argent sound like prizes awarded in a grand contest. Despite its name, Cordon d’Argent is virulently green and might be a mash-up of Cheval Bleu and 1800. Cordon d’Or is the gold ribbon winner in my opinion, as a bright floral that would make Elizabeth Hartley proud.
Perfume marketing today works to the same effect, but in a slightly different way. Instead of Irresistible’s couple kissing under a red arch, we have videos of a bronzed 17-year-old dressed in Gucci at a nightclub. Instead of references to European kings and Paris, we have full-page magazine ads of Majorca villas, bikini-clad models and radiant starlets.
I already know that as much perfume as I’ve bought, I’m not the modern perfume industry’s target market. A big perfume house can make more money selling tens of thousands of bottles of La Vie est Belle to people who buy one or two bottles of perfume a year than to the relatively few of us who have actual furniture dedicated to storing our fragrance but who demand a beautifully crafted scent.
But for the marketing (but usually not the perfume!) give me the old drugstore boxed set.
I have a fond memory of a found-in-the-laundry room boxed set, including Bal a Versailles and other tres French-sounding perfumes in teeny bottles, sadly off but still so fun. And did I say it was French?
But that’s so sweet! Even for the bottles and the made-up stories about the person who originally bought them. And French! Even better!
Perhaps a child’s gift to mom or grandma one Mother’s Day. That’s how I think of those old, forgotten sets anyway.
I could see that, too. Only the 1800 and Cheval Bleu got any wear, as far as I could tell. But a loving grandma would have kept the box anyway!
Actual furniture dedicated to storing fragrance – check. Love that line
I’m surprised someone hasn’t actually built a cabinet made just for fragrance, to tell the truth! (Or maybe they have.)
I wouldn’t say the imagery and stories about France are dead. Hermes, Mugler, Jean Patou, Boucheron, Annick Goutal, Dior and YSL always have us connect and relay the perfumes to their French heritage when talking to the customers. Then again, this could be the way they train us for the Canadian market. They hate for us to talk about ingredients; best example we were told by the Mugler trainer from Paris was, when you go to a restaurant, you don’t know how they chopped off the head of the chicken, ripped out the feathers and that there was a lot of blood. You just want to enjoy your Cordon Bleu, with the hickory smoked ham, wild forest mushrooms and gooey melted cheese. All they want is us to talk about the stories. For example, you only talk about ingredients if they hold a special connection to the house; Hermes with Le Jardin Sur Le Toit, where all the ingredients in the fragrance can be found on the rooftop of the Hermes Boutique in Paris. Resulting in your own little urban escape in downtown Paris, making you feel like you carry around a little part Paris with you wherever you go. This is where it all depends on the sales associate to either have the passion for fragrances or they have a passion for only the commission sales.
Only problem as to why you might not be hearing about French inspired themes, stories and imagery is because there’s so many brands now from all over the place. If the houses revolve around the perfumer, the perfumer takes all the spotlight and the stories revolve around them instead.
It sounds like you have an insider’s view on fragrance marketing. I do know–and love–some of the stories I hear about fragrance: Marilyn Monroe’s famous quote about No. 5; how Samsara was inspired by a particular woman; things like that. I get your point that some perfume houses focus on the stories and less on the photographs of starlets in nightclubs, and I appreciate that!
This is an interesting post, Angela (as usual!).
I’ve bought a number of boxed sets similar to these, but more recent, from ebay. (I suspect many of the minis on ebay come from broken up boxed sets.) I have always associated them primarily with airport duty free shops, where I used to see them, and assumed they were also sold in tourist traps in Paris, but it makes more sense that a New York/New Jersey set would have been produced for sale in the U.S.
I can’t remember if I used to see the designer sets in department stores in the 1980s, too. Maybe.
Perfume minis seems to scratch the same itch as the old drugstore sets, but in a more modern way. (And they’re still a great way to get a small amount of real parfum for a good price sometimes–I love my minis of Opium, Bal a Versailles, and Casmir for that reason.)
I’ve eyed a Lucien Lelong one for a long (????) time with biggish bottles of Tailspin and Indiscret, I believe. Maybe I’ll buy it just to show the charming box off!
I’ve never smelled these LL’s but I do own some Sorocco (sp?) and it’s a lovely Shalimar-type oriental with a great gingerbread heart, as if someone tipped some Bois des Iles on the Guerlain counter.
I love your description of Scirocco (maybe I muffed the spelling too)! Lucien Lelong has such a great history. I wish I knew more about the perfumes.
If I talk myself into them I’d be happy to send you some samples.
I actually think I have samples of most of them around here somewhere! It’s time for me to sort through my sample box. But I appreciate the offer.!
Angela, my mom wore Park & Tilford!! I believe it was actually her FIRST perfume. Do you know anything about those scents? It may have been No.3, I will ask her tomorrow. Thank you for the lovely memory. She is going on her 90th birthday and we had a sweet talk not long ago about her perfume choices… you would love her list- many famous classics. It was such fun and a very special time together.
What a coincidence! If you’d like, I can email you a photo of the empty mini I have–or, heck, I could send you the empty bottle. The bottle has an unusual, graduated step shape with a gold label featuring “no. 3 Park & Tilford, distributor N.Y.C. Between “no.” and “3” is a small black silhouette of a nymph holding a long wreath above her head.
Angela, Wow, How kind of you to offer, and I thank you for your generosity, but I would feel terrible taking your new found treasure away from you!! Enjoy it!!
If you tire of it later, we can swap something.
Thank you again, I am touched!!
You’re welcome! It’s just a little, empty bottle, and I like thinking of it where it will spark memories.
I never see this sort of thing in Australia, but for what it’s worth, the Miniature Perfume Shoppe (Google will get you there) always has a selection of vintage sets for sale.
Love the graphic art on the box Angela. I’d take it home just for that.
I just browsed the site for a second and found a Sears box of “Perfumes of France” by the suspicious sounding “Riviera” and “L. Clavel” perfume houses. Charming!
Beautiful post, Angela, thanks.
I’m glad you enjoyed it!
This is off-topic but the image of these bottles reminded me that there is a scene in the new movie “Jackie” that shows Jackie looking into a mirror where there is a shelf of various perfumes. I tried to make out what they were as the bottles looked familiar but I couldn’t. At least one was a classic Guerlain, I’m pretty sure. Someone who knows more than I do could have fun trying to “read” the bottles in that scene! (Btw, I thought the movie was quite good, and not hagiographic as I had expected–it does not always show her in the best light. The cinematography is fabulous and Portman is astonishing in the role. Editing and other acting also very good.)
I’m glad to hear your review of the movie, because I admit I was skeptical–but I did want to see it. Now I’ll definitely see it. Although maybe I should wait until it’s out on DVD (I know, I’m old school) so I can freeze frame the perfume scene…..
“… the relatively few of us who have actual furniture dedicated to storing our fragrance…”
Yep. I’d never thought of us fumeheads being distinguishable in that way, but you are right!
I bought one of those “Le Grands Parfums de France” boxed sets on ebay – it’s pretty cool. Eight miniatures, I think, one of which was Weil Antilope (sadly, that one was empty), and then other recognizable names such as Fidji and Sortilege and L’Air du Temps. Also sadly, the Jolie Madame had leaked itself empty inside the inner box. I’d report all the names, but it’s packed away in my bedside cabinet (see how right you were!) and I don’t feel like digging right now.
I’m quite sure someone bought this one at a duty-free shop to bring home to mother/wife/aunt, and the only one she wound up liking was the Antilope. Still it’s pretty and brings to mind the days when air travel was glamorous…
Oh, you have one of the real French ones! I bet you’re right–it was from a Parisian gift shop or even duty free. I bet Arpege was part of the set, and maybe Indiscret?
Indiscret yes, but not Arpege.
Nice!
What wonderful reading with my a.m. cuppa! Thank you, Angela. These boxes sure are a time warp, aren’t they? And I’m old enough to remember seeing them at the drugstore!
Coincidentally on the name Blue Horse, The Blue Horses was the name of the Mary Oliver poetry book I just bought! Probably better for a book than for a perfume.
I’m with you–I like Blue Horse better for poetry. I love it that you read poetry, too! What a wonderful way to slow down and focus.
You might like the film Paterson. I saw it yesterday and loved the way it encapsulated the creative process of working on a poem.
I haven’t heard of that film, but it’s going on my “to watch” list right now. Thank you!
Near here where I live are the Park & Tilford Gardens, built where a distillery used to be. They are gorgeous to walk through in the spring and summer.
Back in Grade 2, I convinced my parents to buy me one of those mini bottle boxes. I took it to school and was busy playing with them, smelling them, pouring (?) them on a piece of red lining fabric which ended up staining the desk’s wood until it was probably broken up for firewood many years later! So obviously I got my start with perfume obsession early.
Oh, so Park & Tilford are real people! Or a real business, at least.
I love that one of your earliest memories is perfume-related. It’s a good story.