RETRO - Max Factor Electrique Cologne

Electrique was Max Factor's first fragrance and a slightly spicy floral fragrance. According to the book Party Marketing, Salvador Dali was commissioned by Max Factor to create a name and a bottle for their first perfume. Dali accepted the commission but refused to follow any of the normal procedures. He refused to meet his client and showed no interest in developing an understanding of the product itself, its target audience, where it was to be sold or how it was to be marketed. His only stipulation was that he should be given four weeks and then a press conference would be held at the Astoria Hotel on Fifth Avenue where he would reveal his design. Dali arrived nearly an hour late with no perfume bottle. As he went up to the lectern, flashbulbs went off all around him. Just before he reached the lectern, he took a handkerchief out of his pocket and picked up a used, still warm flashbulb. He paused to allow it to cool and then held it up and announced, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Max Factor's Electrique!"

A 1950s magazine advertisement reads: "Dazzling excitement when the thrill of Electrique kindles the night with excitement. Brilliant enchantment."

Another 1950s ad reads: "Electrique...thrilling new essence whose clinging fragrance makes the very air around you glow with enchantment. To light up the night...and why not this night?"

Advertising from 1965 reads: "HYPNOTIQUE for the woman born to enchant men. PRIMITIF for the woman who is every inch a female. ELECTRIQUE as exciting as the first thrill of romance. JONQUILLE for the woman who wants the very best."

During the period of the mid 1950s to 1970, Max Factor was looking for a new way to draw a younger crowd to their line of perfumes. Their answer was the line of Sophisti-cat, Honey Bear and Poodle packaging. Hundreds of thousands of these were sold during that time and featured a purse sized version of Max Factor's different fragrances - Primitif, Golden Woods, Electrique, Aquarius, Jonquille, Exuberance and Hypnotique packaged with a flocked cardboard cat, honey bear or poodle with rhinestone eyes in various colors sitting inside a plastic dome. These were HUGE in the 1960s and you considered yourself lucky to have one of these!!

Electrique has been discontinued. 

This is the original cologne version of the fragrance.