Welcome to my boudoir — the most beautiful perfume bottles

Times

2 days ago

Elsa Schiaparelli, who will be the subject of an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2026, was ahead of her time. In 1927 the avant-garde, Rome-born couturier founded a fashion house defined by bold, surrealist-inspired creations that are reflected in the house's recent revival under Daniel Roseberry.
Schiaparelli also pioneered the idea of the artist-designer collab, enlisting a number of her friends in the surrealist art scene to work on elements of her designs — from the writer, artist and film-maker Jean Cocteau's line drawings rendered in sumptuous embroidery to Salvador Dalí's input on the iconic lobster dress and shoe hat. Schiaparelli also engaged her artist friends to collaborate on different perfume bottles. In 1947 Dalí produced a design that recalls a golden monstrance-style altar piece for Schiaparelli's Le Roy Soleil perfume — created in crystal in a limited run of 2,000 by Baccarat, and presented in a large, gilded, satin-lined metal shell. On receiving the perfume, the Duchess of Windsor declared it 'the most beautiful bottle ever made… It has displaced the duke's photograph on the coiffeuse!'
• This article contains affiliate links that will earn us revenue
The earliest-surviving perfume bottles date from ancient Egypt in the 2nd millennium BC and would have contained any of the many perfumed oils that the Egyptians used both in religious rites and beauty regimes. The trend spread throughout the ancient world and beyond, with perfumed waters, oils and distillations stored in a variety of shaped vessels made not only from glass but also terracotta, porcelain and metal. The most luxurious examples were highly decorated with enamel, elaborate filigree work or even gemstones. This trend continued in the 18th century — the highest end of the market saw whole bottles carved from the most expensive stones such as lapis lazuli or made from ever-thinner glass — and the 19th, with glass etched or painted with playful scenes, or heavy crystal bottles made by firms such as Baccarat. By the 20th century these leading glass and crystal manufacturers were working on both mass-market perfume containers and limited-edition runs.
The modern era has taken such bottles to new heights — with the most expensive perfumes yet sold being as much about the bottle as about the scent. Shumukh by The Spirit of Dubai, presented in a 3-litre bottle adorned with over 3,500 diamonds, topaz, pearls and gold, holds the record at about £1.3 million. Limited editions of mass-market fragrances can also fetch impressive sums. A 2016 reissue of Dior's J'adore was topped with a 'bow' featuring 30 round-cut diamonds and 10 pear-cut diamonds —at a cost of £50,000. Viktor & Rolf celebrated the 15th anniversary of its celebrated Flowerbomb scent in 2020 with a 10-piece run of a special bottle 3D-printed in gold, costing more than £2,000 each. In 2011 a one-of-a-kind bottle of DKNY's Golden Delicious was designed by the jeweller Martin Katz and studded with 2,909 precious stones, including 2,700 white diamonds, 183 yellow sapphires, a 7.18-carat oval Cabochon sapphire from Sri Lanka, a 1.6-carat turquoise Paraiba tourmaline from Brazil, a 3.07-carat oval-cut ruby, a 4.03-carat pear-shaped rose-cut diamond and a 2.43-carat flawless, yellow Canary diamond that featured on the cap. These were meticulously hand-set into a golden Big Apple-inspired silhouette over the course of 1,500 hours. The bottle was priced at $1 million (or over £600,000), with proceeds going to the charity Action Against Hunger.
Artistic collaborations have also endured. Before Schiaparelli partnered with the surrealists, many artists who were then unknown but would go on to achieve greatness designed perfume bottles. Kazimir Malevich, the radical Russian painter, designed a graphic, glacial perfume bottle for the Severny fragrance for Brocard, featuring a polar bear atop an elongated iceberg. In the 1910s René Lalique, the founder of the eponymous crystal company, partnered with the perfumer François Coty, for whom he made a series of perfume bottles. A century later the architect Zaha Hadid worked with Donna Karan to create a monumental design for the bottle of Donna Karan Woman. Dalí himself designed more perfume bottles, both for other brands and, later, under his own name. In 1983 he designed the Baccarat-crafted bottle for his eponymous fragrance, released in a limited run of 1,500 bottles each priced at £2,500. The bottle, shaped like a nose and lips, was inspired by the artist's rendering of a classical statue, the Aphrodite of Knidos, in his 1981 painting of the subject.
Carrying on the surrealist theme is a launch from Lalique inspired by the Belgian artist René Magritte's 1950 work La valse hésitation. Known for his pipes, bowler hats and apples, Magritte's work is always wry and dreamlike. La valse hésitation (alluding to a type of waltz that sees participants pause momentarily) is no exception. It depicts two green apples — the only signs of life in a flat, arid, barren landscape — wearing carnival masks. The latest of Lalique's art and fragrance pairings interprets this as a symbol of hidden realities, producing a single masked apple that mixes transparency and satin finish, light and texture, clear glass and coloured (£2,100). Available in a numbered edition of only 250 pieces, each bottle is handcrafted at Lalique's workshops in Alsace and filled with an extrait de parfum, by the perfumer Véronique Nyberg, with notes of pink pepper, ginger, shiso, jasmine absolute and musk.
If you're looking to add a little artistic flair to your dressing table, here are four more of the prettiest perfume bottles to buy now:
This limited-edition bottle of the Spanish fashion house's Agua fragrance has a cap in the shape of a handcrafted porcelain flower, hand-painted in blue, with a pale green calyx. Inspired by sunlight sparkling on water, the fragrance itself carries notes of Spanish rockrose, bergamot and orange flower. £800, perfumesloewe.com
The feminist contemporary artist Judy Chicago has created an exquisite mini trunk that pays homage to Catherine Dior, Christian Dior's sister and a member of the French Resistance in the Second World War. The velvet interior of the trunk is decorated with quotes by Catherine Dior, and it is covered in a delicate blue floral print. The trunk holds a bottle of the Miss Dior scent in a lively iteration by the perfumer Francis Kurkdjian. £12,600, dior.com
Gucci's recently launched The Alchemist's Garden range is inspired by both the history of Florence and the practice of alchemy. Suitably, therefore, the bottles evoke apothecary's flacons. This version, in clear white, decorated with a golden drawing of a dragonfly, is built around a floral bouquet to mix freshness and earthiness. £265, gucci.com
This classic cuboid flacon is all about restrained elegance, until you reach the cap with its decadent purple stones. The perfume itself features notes of bergamot, ginger and ylang ylang. £2,500, harrods.com