As we wrote back in 2007, there is a kind of celebrity fragrance on the rise, the dearly-departed kind. In 2015, Natasha Gregson Wagner is launching a perfume called Natalie, in memory of her famous mother Natalie Wood, who left all too soon...
The jus is said to be a modernized adaptation of an American classic which used to be Wood's signature perfume, Jungle Gardenia by Tuvache (1932). In the 1990s, Coty changed its formulation, so this is at some level an attempt at recapturing something of the impression of the original composition while knowingly twisting it to fit current times.
Natalie Wood and Barbara Stanwyck on the set of The Bride Wore Boots
You can never forget a first perfume-love: "Gee, you smell good!".
The back story to this signature sillage of Wood is that she discovered the perfume while a child actress on the set of "The Bride Wore Boots" (1946) smelling it on Barbara Stanwyck who wore it as her "sig". She fell in love with it and Stanwyck offered her a bottle of it in the end, which became her first in a long, life-long in fact, line of Jungle Gardenia flacons. She would in her turn offer it as a gift to people who became enamored with the perfume.
According to eldest daughter Gregson Wagner talking to Hollywood Reporter,
"But I have not re-created Jungle Gardenia. This is more modern; we introduced freesia, bigarade zest, orange flower, narcissus, jasmine and rose oil -- background notes include French vanilla and skin musk. It was an eight-month process. And the packaging has her signature in gold, because, after all, she was a star. I will never forget that we always knew when our mom was home -- because we could smell her!"
Top notes are Freesia, Neroli, Bigarde Zest and Rose Oil; Heart notes are: Natural gardenia wrapped with Orange Flower, Narcissus, Jasmine, and Hyacinth. Base notes are: Harmonies of Fresh Vanilla, Soft Woods, and Skin Musk.
Price: $85 for 50 ml. Available at nataliefragrance.com
