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Indeed it is so.
The American actress Polly Bergen, best known for her role in the original Cape Fear movie, founded the Polly Bergen Company which sold cosmetics in 1965. The concept and catchy marketing pitch was the inclusion of turtle oil (the snail mucus of yesterday I assume). Hence the name Tor Tue (turtle in French, please note the parted writing which looks fetching on the actual product label) for her first perfume, introduced in 1973. The scent came in a tubular shaped spray perfume bottle with either a silver metal colored cap or a deepest brown one. The label was deep brown itself, lined in silver, to reflect a upmarket interpretation of the tortoise scheme, I presume.
There are also specimens of rounded bottles with a dark navy round cap, resembling the Lanvin Clair de Jour fragrance minis. Same glass manufacturer obviously, mass market mould.
There are also specimens of rounded bottles with a dark navy round cap, resembling the Lanvin Clair de Jour fragrance minis. Same glass manufacturer obviously, mass market mould.
The ambery color of the juice accurately reflects the heavyweight feeling of the scent, full bodied and not conceding to modernities of the times, even if not the fragrance family in which it technically falls. From what I recall from a tiny sample a fellow collector had once shared generously out of her own derelict little bottle, Tortue is a chypre fragrance with fresher top notes of hesperides which had unluckily degraded over time leaving a rather resinous feel (I seem to detect myrrh and vetiver in the mix). The mossier elements made it a classy perfume-y scent , something to wear with tweet suits or gabardine pants and a twin set, which lovers of vintage often hanker after.
Seeing as the prices on auction sites and collectors' sites are extremely friendly (due to low demand I wager) it's not a risk investing in a bottle or mini of TorTue by Polly Bergen.
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