The exclusive parfums of Salvador Dalí

Salvador Dalí, as well as being a great painter, is and will be known for his versatile and prolific personality in nearly all fields of Art. The artist is also well known in other fields as diverse as architecture, fashion, jewellery, cinema, advertising, literature and perfumes, among others.

Today we wish to tell you about his perfumes and the design of these bottles that contain remarkable fragrances.

What was Dalí's take on perfumes?

For him it was an artistic form of expression whereby art and fashion are equally blended

Salvador Dalí's relationship with the world of perfume goes far back. His first attempts were carried out in the 1940's by an Italian fashion designer and friend Elsa Schiaparelli.

In 1943, Schiaparelli's line of perfumes ''Shocking Radiance" consisted of four special oils for holistic wellbeing. Dalí designed its boxes and labels with an extraordinary drawing entitled "The Sirens".

Collaboration with Elsa Schiaparelli continued with the creation of the perfume "Roy Soleil" in 1947, designed to celebrate the end of World War II. This time the Figueran genius went even further and created a unique bottle which represents a seascape with the sun above and in its centre are birds illustrating a face.

This spectacular bottle came in a unique seashell case.

It was a limited edition of only 2,000 copies of Baccarat crystal. One of these exclusive bottles can be admired at the Perfume Museum in Barcelona.

In 1997, the company Parfums Salvador Dalí launched a new version though not as sophisticated as the perfume "Roy Soleil", it unfortunately also ceased to be produced.

In 1957, the prestigious French firm Marquay also commissioned Salvador Dalí to create

their advertising and packaging designs of the new fragrance for women called "Rock'n'Roll" (marketed in the US and there known as "Coup de Feu").

He was also in contact with Pierre Dinand, a famous perfume bottle designer, who had worked frr big brands like Rochas, Yves St Laurent, Valentino, Calvin Klein, Dolce and Gavanna and others more.

In an interview with John-Paul Pryor for Phaidon, Dinand claimed that he spent a great three years conversing with Dalí in the making of a perfume bottle which unfortunately never came to exist.

Indeed, from that very experience fun memories and anecdotes have been recorded and aptly reveal the quirky and endearing personality of the famous painter and his wife, Gala, as well as their meetings together in New York and even Dinand's visit to Catalonia.

It is not known what has happened to Salvador Dalí's drawings for the perfume bottle, yet we do know that, as Dinand said, it was impossible to carry out such a project taking into account the complexity of the design for the exclusive bottle of perfume combined with the limited versatility of the glass and the chosen material.

Indeed, the world of fragrances is a surrealist and olfactory adventure in itself and we currently have available the perfume range from the Parisien company "Les Parfums Salvador Dalí" which is now on the market and we are privileged to be able to offer it at our store.

We can find high quality male and female fragrances in this range which are characterized by an intense and sensual aroma as well as by the dramatic architectural design of its bottles.

In order to portray the artist’s happiness and his desire to immortalize Gala, the love of his life, the famous Dalí Eau de parfum was created. It is an intense feminine perfume, with a strong jasmine and rose essence, the latter being Gala's favourite flower.

The bottle designed by Salvador Dalí in the collection Aphrodite displays the famous mouth and nose of the Goddess. This bottle is a work of art, a sculpture and perfume which represents the voluptuous lips and classical nose of the Goddess Aphrodite who Dalí painted in "Apparition of the Visage of Aphrodite of Cnidos in a Landscape"(1981).

There are six fragrances in this collection and they depict pure Dalian-style perfume bottles. Of these, two are for men and the rest for women. The other perfumes are different versions of this original design and their fragrances are very varied. You can find all of these perfumes here: (link to website)

Our latest acquisition is the Fabulous collection featuring Salvador Dalí's most emblematic bottles, four luxurious goldplated ones. These perfumes are highly concentrated because of the high quality of the raw material used. These exotic and intensely sensual fragrances have been created by perfumers Michel Almairac(Fabulous 1 and 4), Dorothea Piot(Fabulous 2) and Philippe Bousseton(Fabulous 3).

They were created in 2011, following the spirit of the first edition of Salvador Dalí's perfumes.