Fragrances

“I was always able to sell Elizabeth Taylor.” —Elizabeth Taylor

She wasn’t kidding. In January 1987, when Elizabeth’s friend, Malcolm Forbes, introduced her at a top-secret press conference in the Versailles Room at New York’s Helmsley Palace Hotel to announce a new business venture, the world would see just how true that was.

Other celebrities, such as Sophia Loren and Cher, had released fragrances, but they had come and gone. None before and few since have had the tremendous staying power of Elizabeth’s first fragrance, Elizabeth Taylor’s Passion, or especially that of its follow-up, White Diamonds. Released in 1991, White Diamonds would go on to become the top-selling celebrity fragrance of all time, a record that it still holds to this day.

Click each vintage ad below to learn more about Elizabeth’s fragrances and how they were unveiled to the world.