Nips

objets trouvés

While sorting through samples (big grab-bag giveaways coming up, by the way) Tania found a little box of nips, those wonderful samples of the 1940s and 50s. These are slender plastic tubes sealed at both ends, with a touch of colored varnish to allow identification. Break off both ends and you get a little slug of perfume. The good news is a nip is sealed, and unless exposed to light it will still smell good. The bad news is that, once opened, it’s gone. We haven’t worked up the nerve to crack open the Emeraude, and when we do I’ll put it on strips inside those amazing glassine envelopes to make it last a few weeks.

The list of brands is interesting. Coty, still there but utterly trashed; D’Orsay recently revived; Schiaparelli couture only; Bourjois cosmetics only; Mary Chess gone so far as I know. I had to look up Angelique, Anjou, Lanier and Countess Maritza. There is a new Angélique out there, likely no relation. Anjou seems to have operated from 1940 to 1960. Lanier is another ‘50s firm about which I know nothing, and I’m not sure whether one of the nips is in fact Folie de Minuit.

As for Countess Maritza, I’ve learned my lesson. As a callow youth I was making fun of Prince Matchabelli, to my mind clearly a made-up name intended to sound Italian. In fact he was the real thing, a nobleman from Georgia (the country, not the state), diplomat, chemist, perfumer, entrepreneur and composer of the excellent Wind Song. Once bitten, twice shy. Despite the fact that there is a famous operetta of the same name, I will give the Countess the benefit of the doubt.

STOP PRESS: by complete coincidence, a source “familiar with the matter” just told me Schiaparelli’s Shocking is coming back! No info about fidelity to the original.