Her Scent of Mystery

Jas Brooks & Tammy Burnstock

August 14 to September 20 2025

Opening Reception on Thursday August 14 from 5pm to 8pm

Olfactory Art Keller is honored to present Her Scent of Mystery, an exhibition centered on the rediscovery and reimagining of Scent of Mystery, a long-lost perfume originally created for the 1960 Smell-O-Vision film of the same name, co-curated by scent historians Jas Brooks and Tammy Burnstock. Crafted not just for the screen but for Elizabeth Taylor’s elusive character Sally Kennedy, the perfume played a pivotal role in the film’s plot, guiding viewers by scent to distinguish Taylor’s character from her decoy. Though trademarked and teased for commercial release, the fragrance was never brought to market.

Brooks and Burnstock partnered with acclaimed perfumer Marissa Zappas to reconstruct the scent using archival research, chemical analysis, and creative interpretation. Inspired by a surviving sample of Raoul Pantaleoni’s 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 used in 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. Her belief in the emotional power of fragrance would reemerge decades later with her own perfume line.

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.

Fragrance: Marissa Zappas, inspired by Raoul Pantaleoni’s original “Scent of Mystery”

Glasswork: Mark Eliott

Illustrations: Nadia Roden

Perfume Box: Luke Schepers

Special Thanks to: Susan Todd & Carmen Laube