Heaven Sent

I love this vintage ad for Helena Rubenstein’s Heaven Sent perfume. It ran in Seventeen for years. The sweet and now quaint copy is ostensibly the words of the fetching model, telling us who she is and why she is the kind of creature who wears Heaven Sent. She likes French accents, poems that don’t rhyme, and oh yes…her brother’s best friend.

There was another version of the ad with a slightly different copy that included “I like girls who are my height”. I loved that one too but I couldn’t locate it – they are both enchanting. As I read through it again, it is almost a poem itself…I like boys that are shy, girls who aren’t, fathers with a sense of humor, and oh yes, my brother’s best friend. It conjures up a different type of teenage-hood than today. Perhaps with a father like Robert Young in Father Knows Best or Spencer Tracy in Father of the Bride. Maybe Dad even called her Kitten or Toots. It made me think of homework, music, books, and um…oh yes, my brother’s best friend.

Helena Rubenstein commissioned a few of these types of portraits during the late ’60’s and early ’70’s. The photos were taken by a woman photographer, Marie Cosindas, who trained under Ansel Adams. She often used polaroids and softening lenses. It certainly made for a romantic picture here.

Heaven Sent was a fragrance that was in nearly every local drugstore and relatively inexpensive. I recall it having a gentle powdery scent. I also love the model’s black velvet mini dress with the beautiful lace cuffs. And the baby’s breath added to the bouquet of pink roses lends even more softened loveliness.

Still, it’s the copy that really touches me. Ads from this time told us it was ok to be the fairer sex, to want to be female, and to enjoy being a girl. It was ok to like long nightgowns, small babies, your middle name and, well you know – your brother’s best friend.