Elizabeth Taylor Black Pearls Fragrance Bottle with Tahitian Pearls. Photograph by Gail Gross ©
I’ve at all times been an avowed and blissful introvert. The brand new keep at dwelling “regular”, that many discover so boring and tedious, is each acquainted and nice to me. It’s simple to seek out one thing to take pleasure in and greater than sufficient work to do. The opposite day, having cleaned and arranged a number of rooms and closets, I made a decision to tackle the perfumista’s final problem – sorting and ordering the gathering! For a number of years I’ve tried, however by no means managed, to finish this mission. Each time I begin, I’m rapidly distracted by the gorgeous scents and reminiscences which have languished for years in my stash of fragrances. I even discover myself “purchasing” for lengthy forgotten scents from my very own stock of classic beauties.
Tahitian Pearls. Photograph by Gail Gross ©
This spring, whereas rummaging by means of the chaos that’s “fragrance storage”, I as soon as once more encountered a surfeit of the unique formulation of Elizabeth Taylor Black Pearls, in varied concentrations. With pearls and pearl themed fragrances contemporary in my thoughts (see my evaluation of Mancera Pearl) I believed it will be enjoyable to proceed my nacreous adventures with a evaluation of Elizabeth Taylor Black Pearls, a stunning and distinctive classic magnificence.
Black Pearls Print advert – 1996.
The unique Elizabeth Taylor Black Pearls was distributed by the Elizabeth Arden division of Parfums Worldwide, the identical firm that put collectively Elizabeth Taylor White Diamonds, the perfume that’s arguably probably the greatest promoting “ celebuscents “ on the earth. The creation of Black Pearls, like most ventures related to Elizabeth Taylor, has a romantic back-story, that includes items (and thefts) of treasured gems. Elizabeth Taylor was a shopper of Salvador Assael, the flamboyant New York pearl vendor and advertising and marketing genius who, single handedly, remodeled what have been as soon as thought of “junk” pearls grown within the black lipped oyster into treasured Tahitian cultured pearls, making a multimillion-dollar pearl farming enterprise within the course of. It’s rumored that Assael was infatuated with Elizabeth Taylor and courted her with an ideal pair of very massive Tahitian pearl earrings. It is usually stated that he claimed to have impressed the Black Pearls. Along with Elizabeth Taylor, Assael’s shopper checklist included many different celebrities, politicos, industrialists, and their wives and mistresses, amongst them Margaret Thatcher, Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Rosalyn Carter and Evelyn Lauder. A number of of the ladies have been additionally recipients of treasured black pearl earrings.
Now to the fragrance. Elizabeth Taylor Black Pearls is a uniquely peachy, moist and powdery perfume, designed to enchantment to shoppers who adopted the 1990’s celeb scene and the glamorous excesses of Assael’s shoppers. Regardless of the try and simulate the wetness of contemporary peach (by way of notes of lotus and/or water lily), Black Pearls has little or no of the tart, juiciness that characterizes the newly picked fruit. As an alternative, the peach in Black Pearls is massive, squeezable, fuzzy, and over-ripe. The fruit is sliced, spiced, powdered and vanilla sugared, then battered, buttered and baked right into a cobbler drizzled with cream. This aromatic, mouthwatering dessert is got down to cool subsequent to an enormous bouquet of gardenias, lilacs, pale roses and osmanthus. Are you able to think about that!
Elizabeth Taylor as Velvet Brown in Nationwide Velvet 1945 (L) and as Martha within the movie model of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. collage by Gail
More often than not my pores and skin loves Black Pearls. The sweetness and heat are paying homage to the glow of a tremendous Tahitian pearl or of the tender younger voice of Elizabeth Taylor as Velvet Brown within the 1945 movie Nationwide Velvet. Generally, although, Black Pearls develops a musky, raspy, leather-based high quality, just like the sound of Elizabeth Taylor portraying the screeching, bitching Martha within the 1966 movie adaptation of Edward Albee’s play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. The cut up persona of this perfume – both center aged harridan with monster sillage or a candy, shy lady who stays near dwelling – makes Black Pearls a perfume I can put on for not less than two several types of events and functions. The issue is I can’t predict how Black Pearls will behave on my pores and skin from at some point to the following. I’ve come to grasp classic Elizabeth Taylor Black Pearls as a sort of olfactory “temper ring”, altering colours (and “notes”) in response to warmth, physique chemistry and the emotion of the day.
Notes: Peach, bergamot, gardenia, honeysuckle, water lily/lotus, amber, sandalwood, vanilla and musk.
Disclaimer: I wish to thank my youthful self for buying a number of bottles of Black Pearls. My perceptions of the fragrance are the identical now as they have been twenty-four years in the past – and my opinions are my very own.
Gail Gross – Senior Editor
Clockwise from the highest: Elizabeth Taylor White Diamonds, Diamonds and Rubies, Diamonds and Sapphires, Black Pearls and Diamonds and Emeralds. Photograph by Gail Gross ©
Elizabeth Taylor Black Pearls has been discontinued for someday, however the classic model by Parfums Worldwide may be discovered on E-bay and Etsy. To my information the far much less dramatic reformulation can be out there on eBay and from varied on-line low cost websites.
Have you ever tried Elizabeth Taylor Black Pearls or every other Elizabeth Taylor fragrances? Do you will have a favourite?
Please go away a remark… since you by no means know (wink, wink)
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