Her Scent of Mystery (2025)

A Forgotten Perfume, Rediscovered

In 1960, Scent of Mystery premiered as the first (and only) feature film presented in Hans Laube’s Smell-O-Vision, a system that released scents in sync with on-screen action. Central to the film was a perfume, Scent of Mystery, created by perfumer Raoul Pantaleoni the elusive fictional character Sally Kennedy (played by Elizabeth Taylor) in the film. Blurring the boundaries between cinema, perfumery, and publicity, the fragrance was as much a narrative device as it was intended to be a commercial product.

Over time, the perfume vanished from circulation, surviving only in oxidized form in a rare bottle. Her Scent of Mystery is an exhibition that brings this lost scent back to life. Drawing on the surviving sample, archival research, and contemporary perfumery, historians Jas Brooks and Tammy Burnstock in collaboration with acclaimed perfumer Marissa Zappas have reconstructed the fragrance, reimagining how it might have smelled in 1960. Inspired by a surviving sample of the lost 60-ingredient formulation, the revived perfume captures what the film’s novelization described as “the girl at the far end of the rainbow:” an unattainable ideal glimpsed only in passing. The reconstructed fragrance is presented in a custom handblown flacon by glass artist Mark Eliott, accompanied by a sample of the original oxidized perfume from the analysis.

The exhibition presents this reinterpretation alongside archival material that traces the perfume’s curious journey: from cinematic plot point to unrealized product. Highlights include illustrations by Nadia Roden showing the mechanics of the original Smell-O-Vision system, rare promotional items, and evidence suggesting the perfume may have been developed to be distributed by a major perfume house Schiaparelli. One original bottle, preserved by Susan Todd (daughter of producer Mike Todd Jr.), hints at a commercial vision that never came to be.

Her Scent of Mystery also illuminates Taylor’s connection to the original film. More than a cameo, she was a major financial backer of Scent of Mystery and its Smell-O-Vision technology, reportedly investing between $1.5 and $2 million in the production.

Decades before celebrity fragrances became mainstream, Scent of Mystery envisioned scent as both storytelling tool and brand extension. As Brooks and Burnstock suggest, this forgotten perfume marks a singular moment in cinematic history: when perfume, persona, and projection first collided on-screen.

Featured in the News:
New York Times (Style). “A Rare Smell on the Brink of Extinction” (August 2025) by Iva Dixit.
New York Times (Art & Design). “What to See in Galleries in September” (September 2025) by Travis Diehl.
The Cut. “How to Smell Like a 1960s Film Star” (September 2025) by April Long.
Deadline Hollywood. “Elizabeth Taylor Fragrance From 1961 ‘Smell-O-Vision’ Film ‘Scent of Mystery’ Recreated for Exhibition” (September 2025) by Robert Lang.

(Please note that this fragrance was not for Elizabeth Taylor, but instead the character she plays as a cameo in the film.)