Bombshell Scents
I bought a new women's fragrance on impulse today: the 15ml perfume spray,
as the scent is untested. It's "Marem," remastered from the 1914 original
designed for Alla Nazimova, the silent film star known as "The Star of a
Thousand Moods." This fragrance tells her story, with rose and red currant
notes that hint at her Eastern European roots (Alla Nazimova was born in
Yalta, in the Crimea). A glamourous vamp, Nazimova lived on Sunset
Boulevard in a mansion she called "The Garden of Alla," which she later
converted into a hotel by building 25 villas on the property. Nazimova was
a friend of Nancy Reagan's mother Edith Luckett, and was the aunt of
American film producer Val Lewton.
Fragrance main accords are: citrus, rose, amber, woody. Caswell-Massey
created the scent for Nazimova around 1914, when she was a young actress
on Broadway, and remastered it for 2018. Included with the fragrance oil
(manufactured with solar power!) is a randomly selected Nazimova collector
card. Until now, Caswell-Massey had not released this fragrance
commercially.
I am a sucker for Bombshell perfumes, the 1910s-1920s fragrances from
parfumeries that silver screen goddesses wore. I'd eyed (har)
Guerlain's "Vol De Nuit," "L'Heure Bleue," Caron's "Nuit de Noel" and
"Narcisse Noir," but their prices are out of my reach, a 30ml bottle
selling for 224 Euros--aiyee! "Marem" is a bespoke fragrance, with few
reviews[0]. The New York Times says it's as close as I can get to smelling
like pie filling. I don't mind. I don't wear perfume as a skunky "keep
away from me" statement.
[0]
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/02/style/summer-perfumes-fruit.html
Tue Aug 28 18:26:56 UTC 2018
