Red Vintage Lipstick Dreams: Terry de Gunzburg's Ombre Mercure

There is a perfume that takes me to a kiss from a vamp wearing heavy red lipstick and I found it, finally. There's no one better to understand the power of the vintage lipstick smell than the makeup artist Terry de Gunzburg. She started her own brand By Terry in 1998 as a makeup line with a concept of “haute-couleur.” From that to haute perfumery, it took her 14 years, launching the first fragrance collection in 2012. While she was working in makeup creation she was also responsible for one of the most succesfull products for Yves Saint Laurent: the Touche Éclat (she was the head of makeup design there). But she was also developing her own makeup signature, while thinking about perfume. Terry came from a family of fragrance lovers. Growing up in the Mediterranean region, she was familiar with the smell of the jasmine her mother used to boil or the lavender from which her father made refreshing colognes. So, entering the perfume making business was a natural step.by: Miguel Matos

Terry de Gunzberg

The close relation between Terry de Gunzburg and makeup certainly explains my reaction when I smelled for the first time one of the first perfumes in her collection:Ombre Mercure. I was getting to know the brand a bit better in Cannes at the TFWA exhibition and I had a very emotional encounter with this fragrance. It took me back decades, returning to my childhood. When I was little I already had a very intense relationship with smells. I remember smelling even bugs, bread, burnt matches, cold ashes, dirt and the insides of empty wine bottles. Everything interested me. And there were two things I really liked to smell: talcum powder and lipstick.

Especially lipstick, the cheap ones and the expensive ones (they were different and I think I prefered the cheap ones). That fat, greasy sweet smell of the lipstick from the 70s and 80s ... I even remember thinking that this smell should not come from the mouth of a woman! I was secretly going to my mother's closet to pick up the lipsticks and smell them. I even smudged them in my hands so I could have the smell with me ... And then, little by little, the lipsticks got more and more neutral, smell-wise. That powdery, fat, sweet smell was gone after some years. Even the ones that are scented nowadays, they don't smell like that anymore ... Sad thing.

Going forward 30 years to 2014, I sensed that gorgeous smell again recently and it is now one of my go-to scents. I was never convinced by those perfumes with violet and iris that claimed to smell like vintage makeup products. No, they didn't. They were only a close enough smell to evoke them, but the richness and thickness were not there. Until I smelled Ombre Mercure. I felt true hapiness and the rush of traveling through time almost put tears in my eyes. This was an unexpected encounter. The closer I had been to the smell of true vintage lipstick was with a very old bottle ofJean Patou's Eau de Joy, very dark and oxidated, very concentrated by evaporation. But now I am in powdery heaven and I can understand how and why Terry went from makeup to fragrance.

Ombre Mercure represents, to me, the end of the journey of searching for the perfect makeup scent and one of the best iris perfumes I have ever smelled. Again, there is something important I must tell you. It is not vintage-style but it has a vintage soul. I may have told you all of these memories from the past that were brought back because of it, but it doesn't smell like vintage perfume at all. It is hard for me to explain this. I guess it's more emotional than rational. First of all, Ombre Mercure is very elegant and rich. It is creamy, a bit woody and just sweet enough. Iris butter is the main thing I smell, but there's also a floral combination of rose, jasmine and ylang-ylang. Like the heart of Chanel Nº 5 drenched in heavy generous iris inside an old wooden box. It is a deep scent, going to the vanilla and patchouli undertone which makes it enter the oriental world. It envelops the wearer in a cloud of rosy mature powderiness. It is also a fat perfume with its very carnal aspect, but not really animalic and not a bit scary or heavy. So, vintage lovers, please don't pass this by. It is not a dated fragrance but it is right up the vintage lover's alley. Loose powder, red lipstick, sensual pleasures from the boudoir, flowers and a kiss from a diva in the dressing room.

Images: Vintage make-up ads by hprints.com