The Pink Bedroom was created by Marissa Zappas for Portia Munson’s The Pink Bedroom, an art exhibition currently on view at the Museum of Sex in New York City.
The fragrance instantly piqued my interest, first, because I love Marissa’s work and, second, because I have a soft spot for fragrances that smell like places and evoke the moods and atmospheres of those locations. The Pink Bedroom’s innocent side taps into my childhood, bringing back memories of my England days at ages 7 through 10 when I loved Barbie, My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, and Care Bears, scented pens and stationery, my eraser collection (still going strong), glitters, Poochie rubber stamps, stickers, and the first novels I was starting to passionately get into.
Just after this period, at about age 11, I became intrigued by makeup and started to wear scented lip glosses at home. My favorites were the roll-on lip glosses by the Italian brand, Debby. The Pink Bedroom’s opening reminds me of this lip gloss and surely has that playful and addictive makeup side I can’t resist. The icing on the cake is that The Pink Bedroom’s roll-on bottle also reminds me of the Debby lip glosses!
Despite my evident girly side, I have always been attracted to the dark, the spooky, and the transgressive, which is why The Pink Room speaks to me: under the doll-like powder, fruity lip gloss, and carefree surface lies something more sensual and a little unsettling I can’t quite identify. Interestingly, when my friend smelled this on me, she mentioned it made her think of something evoking the mood of Todd Haynes’s “Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story”.
In The Pink Bedroom, Marissa showcases the feminine and the coquettish with the daring and the subversive, a theme she explores in other fragrances too. If you know and enjoy Annabel’s Cake (an airy gourmand with a touch of latex), you will also love this creation.
I thought The Pink Bedroom could be a good fragrance to wear while watching the Barbie movie. Both fragrance and movie evoke the atmospheres and moods of my childhood, but also reveal a more subversive side. The Pink Bedroom is fuchsia, whimsical, and glossy, but over time shows a faintly musty and unnerving side. In line with this idea, Barbie lives in a pastel, plastic, and disco-loving world, but later discovers the layers and shadows of the real world.
The Pink Bedroom is a limited-edition fragrance oil available in 10 ml roll-on vials. It can be purchased on the Marissa Zappas online store or at the Museum of Sex in New York City. Marissa is a poet and independent perfumer who lives in New York City. Classically trained in perfumery by Olivier Gillotin, perfumer at Givaudan, she now offers a bespoke service as well as her own fragrance collection. Her collaborations with artists and work for exhibitions and events are what initially drew my attention to her work and her fragrances don’t disappoint. They stimulate my cultural and artistic curiosity while still being accessible and wearable.
Fragrance notes: Cassis, heliotrope, rose de Mai, orris resinoid, strawberry, and musk.
This is a 10 ml perfume oil that can be purchased at the NYC Museum of Sex or Marissa’s online store.
Discover more about Marissa Zappas collections on the official website.
The featured bottle was purchased by me. Pictures were taken by me.
Great read, dear Damiana! Love this more subversive side of pink.
Thank you for reading! I enjoy the dichotomy of playful and dark too. 🙂
Wow this sounds brilliant.
You friend’s reference to Todd Haynes’s “Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story”
along with your description completely has me intrigued. Setting the stage, for I can imagine so many scent memories for many people. I growing up in that area so many of us would have those scented gifts as we went off to school or for me I have fun memories when being sick, my mom, adding scented lip balm to care packages and always a rainbow of flavors around the house from any holiday. To be a young person, it seemed inescapable these odors, remember doll hair being scented scratch and sniff’s plastic seemed imbibed with Heliotrope, tonka powdery rose odors.
It will be fun to get my nose on this to sure. Thank you for such a wonderful impression for Marissa’s perfume that by your vivid writing has alighted faraway fun colorful scent memories.
I am so happy to hear you were intrigued and inspired by this, Kait! The memories it brought back are especially meaningful. Thank you for reading!