Movie aromas: perfumes in cinema

The art of perfumes and the art of cinema are two arts that have united on a multitude of occasions. Also, both of these artistic angles are within the reach of the vast majority of people, so they invite you to dream with fantasy stories, or to wrap yourself in fragrances which transport you to a certain moment or to a key scene from the seventh art. An aroma can even submerse us in the specific world of a certain cinema character. These are dreams and sensations that without a doubt are worth experiencing and which can pass right through the big screen to us.

Such is the case with the aroma that the beautiful, capricious and seductive Scarlett O’Hara used in Gone with the Wind (1939). In one of the scenes from the mythical film, she appears with a perfume.

It was Murray & Lanman Florida Water, by the brand Cheautard’s, which is still sold today, and which the actress acknowledged as her favourite in real life. Created more than 200 years ago, it is a unisex eau de cologne which is made up of a mix of citrus and floral notes.

Another of the most emblematic perfumes of the cinema is Shalimar, by Guerlain. It was the aroma used by Sigourney Weaver in Working Girl (1988), to seduce Harrison Ford.

It also has appeared in many other films, such as: Gentlemen Prefer Blonds, Death on the Nile (1978), and Jackie (2016)

In Sanskrit, Shalimar means “temple of love,” and is an aroma created by Jacques Guerlain in 1925, inspired by the amorous meetings between Shah Jahan, the great emperor of India, and his favourite wife.

In Me Before You (2016), when Louisa (Emilia Clarke) and Will (Sam Claflin) visit Paris, Louisa pauses to enjoy the marvellous display window of L’Artisan Parfumeur, the French perfume company created in 1979 by the chemist Jean Laporte. This perfume brand also appears in The Joneses (2009) and Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009).

 In more recent films we can see, for example, in the Oscar-winning Parasite (2019), one of the main characters, Yeon-gyo (Cho Yeo-jeong), a rich woman with a luxurious and minimalistic style, who uses Orange Blossom, by the luxurious English perfume company Penhaligon’s, created at the end of the 19^th century.

The list of perfumes in cinema is very long, and without a doubt is one of the favourite themes of perfume lovers. We’ll keep filling out the list!.