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Here are the notes for White Diamonds:
Top notes: Aldehydes, bergamot, neroli, orange and lily--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Heart notes: Violet, rose, jasmine, ylang-ylang, Egyptian tuberose and narcissus
Base notes: Oak moss, patchouli, musk, sandalwood and amber
Sophisticated perfumes are showing up at drug stores for half or a third their value. As I've written before, it is a good way to get reacquainted with these scents since our 21st century tastes seem to prefer soapy fragrances (sold at exorbitant prices, nonetheless), mostly "created" by some insipid celebrity or other. Yet, there is something sad about Elizabeth Arden's superior 5th Avenue going for mere dollars (I recently saw Arden's Sunflower for $8.99). And now the perfumes in Elizabeth Taylor's surprisingly sophisticated White Diamonds series (which includes White Diamonds, Diamonds and Emeralds, Diamonds and Rubies and Diamonds and Sapphire) are going for $19.99 each.
Elizabeth Taylor may be a celebrity, but she is from a different era. Her "Diamonds" perfume collection is clearly a labor of love and taste. But, in Taylor's time, celebrities didn't run around in embarrassing outfits confessing all kinds of unmentionable things to callous magazine interviewers who have to take things (gossip and ugliness) up a notch in order to sell their stories. Despite their clearly difficult lives (Elizabeth Taylor was married eight times), there still was an aura of mystique and mystery around these celebrities. This provided them with the shelter to continue with their creative energies. And it gave Taylor room to create her perfumes.
Many perfume blogs write that the original White Diamonds was a collaboration between Elizabeth Taylor and Elizabeth Arden. That really says it all. I wonder if Elizabeth Arden would ever collaborate with, say, Paris Hilton or Britney Spears? The aggressive Jennifer Lopez managed to convince the prestigious Coty perfumers to help her with Glow, but what Coty gave her, perhaps to simply get rid of her, is a soapy mediocrity.
Below is the commercial for White Diamonds, which features a confident, mature Elizabeth Taylor. The setting reminds me of the film Casanova. White Diamonds is described as Chyre/Floral by Fragrantica, giving it an exotic flair. Perhaps that is the reason the commercial director used images similar to that Moroccan backdrop. Here is what Wikipedia says about chypre:
The term chypre is French for Cyprus, and goes back to François Coty who created in 1917 a perfume of the same name from fragrance materials that came predominantly from Mediterranean countries...The chypre concept is characterized by the contrast between the fresh citrus accord and the woody-oakmoss fond [base].
A fresh, Mediterranean scent is what Elizabeth Taylor is giving us now. Perhaps to lighten her mood. She was recently admitted into hospital (yet again) to treat congestive heart failure. This doesn't appear to be life threatening. I couldn't find any videos or photos of her latest visit to the hospital, as there have been in several previous occasions. The various news channels keep showing us one of her in a wheelchair, which I think was filmed around 2009. Even for such a trip, she puts on her best clothes, and best face.
She recently collaborated with Elizabeth Arden, once again, to launch another perfume, Violet Eyes, which came out in 2010. Her famous eyes, which are really a deep blue color, appear violet under some light conditions. The advertisement for Violet Eyes, with her deep turquoise eyes which are convincingly tinted a thin veneer of purple in this ad, could surely become her signature look.
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latest perfume Violet Eyes