An Evening in Paris....

.....found during an afternoon in Brussels.

Postcard of 1950's ad for Bourjois Soir de Paris

Wandering about in Dille & Kamille, a cute home-wares store just off Avenue Louise, I stumbled across a card rack and saw this gorgeous little postcard featuring a vintage ad for Bourjois Soir de Paris perfume.
I adore these kinds of goodies so I bought the postcard and tucked it away somewhere to be framed at a later date in a vintage-style photo frame on my dressing table (that is, when I actually have a proper house with complete with walk-in wardrobe and a glorious vanity unit).... ah, to dream.....

Originally created in 1928,  Soir de Paris is apparently "amber, floral & spicy". I've never seen it around to actually have sniffed it myself, but for some reason I have it in my head as smelling a bit like Estee Lauder's Youth Dew. I'm sure if any of you have come across it you could enlighten me.

Interestingly, Bourjois have a lovely website with a cute voyage through their history complete with adorable pictures of their products in their vintage incarnations. In case you were wondering, those little round pot blushers have been around for a very long time! You can check it out here.

It appears that  you can still buy Soir de Paris. It's online here at Lloyds Pharmacy priced at £16.95.

What do you think an evening in Paris smells like?

Vintage Platinum Chanel - A little treasured memory

So, remember when we were back in 1999 and everyone was going crazy for the huge meltdown the year 2000 would bring? What an anticlimax that turned out to be.... when Big Ben chimed it's last bell of 1999 we all stood there with baited breath waiting for something to explode, for the aliens to arrive, or simply for the TV to go a bit fuzzy.

But nothing happened. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

The year 2000 was basically 1999 one year older. Somehow with a 2 in front of the number it felt like we should all be living in spaceships by then and commuting to work via hoverboards or flying jet bikes or something.

11 years later and still no flying jet bikes (boohoo), and the new millenium is starting to look vintage and quaint. I read somewhere that something vintage is something ten years or older. So, technically I can call my Chanel Lumiere Platine 2000 vintage.

The millenium was a marvellous excuse for cosmetics companies to bring out special limited editions and Chanel was right up there with the best.

Boxed in black with silver edges and encased in a silver mesh pouch with the words "Star Product" instead of the usual black velvet, this little compact hides a sparkling silver powder.

The compact itself inside is very much like the Joues Contraste blushers except it is all silver, very space age and futuristic in homage to the new millenium. In fact I remember that most of the millenium limited editions had something metallic and space-y about them. Quite hilarious when you think about it now.

The USP of this Chanel powder was that it contained real platinum and that it would imbue your face with a fine platinum silver glow as an all-over highlighter.

A heavy-ish swatch of Chanel Lumiere Platine 2000 - obviously it's meant to be used with a light touch! 

I was in love from the word go. I can't even remember why I wanted this so much as to be honest at that time I didn't have the knowledge I have now in order to have made it work. But still, those were my early days of Chanelophilia.... I was a novice at this game.

I didn't actually buy this myself. I tried. Everywhere I went was sold out, so I had resigned myself to the fact that it would never be mine. That is, until a very good friend tracked it down and ordered it from Paris for me as a surprise for my birthday. I was rapturous with gratitude and practically worshiped the ground he walked on ever since. I will never forget the lengths he went to in order to find this compact.

That's what this really means to me. It's more than just a pretty silver shimmery powder. It holds the memory of someone who liked me enough to go out of their way to find it for me to make me happy.
And that is something that makes it worth it's weight in platinum.

Thrilled to the Max

Out of all my USA purchases, here's the thing I'm most excited about finding.

On a visit to Pike Place Market in Seattle we saw a plethora of fascinating little shops and stands. It was only when I stepped into what seemed like a regular poster shop did I realise it was much more than that. This place was called Old Seattle Paperworks and inside were original posters and adverts and magazines from bygone eras. The stand of original Playboy magazines going back at least 40 years was the first sight  that greeted us. Apparently it's popular to give someone (ahem, I'm thinking a guy rather than a girl) an original Playboy magazine from the month and year of their birth as a birthday gift.... Mr Pandora (if you're reading this) you're not getting one.

There were original posters and advertisements for everything from cigarettes, cars, tights, toothpaste, travel, and of course, beauty products. So you can guess where I migrated to.

There were so many beautiful images, I wanted them all. Date wise they varied from the 1930's to 1970's, but my favourites were the 40s and 50s. It struck me how many companies used famous actresses to endorse their products, in fact, most big brand cosmetics seemed to be endorsed by a stunner from the silver screen. Things really haven't changed, and it just proves the marketing power a big name can have. Women used to  wish to emulate these huge stars more than we perhaps want to today, so if Lana Turner was seen to be 'using' a certain face powder then it was more or less guaranteed to be a big seller.

The posters were on sale for $15 each or 3 for $40, so I went for 3 Max Factor Pan Cake Adverts from 1941/2. 

They feature (from the top down) Joan Crawford, Rita Hayworth, and Lana Turner, but I believe there are others out there featuring different actresses. I adore the imagery and I particularly love the way these women do not look directly into the camera lens but are pictured staring at something else in the distance. It's all so melodramatic! Although there are no colours, you just know that their lips are painted deep shades of red, and will you look at those brows? So breathtakingly beautiful.

For your amusement I've enlarged the captions from each poster:

You'll always look attractive because it stays on for hours without repowdering....

Love it!