Tokyo Milk is a small company with a delightfully inventive (and surprisingly affordable) line of fragrances called “Parfumarie Curiosite” [sic], as well as complementary perfumed soaps. Although I enjoyed reading the descriptions of all the scents in the line, the floral-lover in me was most drawn to Waltz Parfum 14 (formulation not specified, but probably an Eau de Parfum, shown above left) and Waltz Perfumed Soap (scented, somewhat confusingly, with a fragrance blend called “Minuet 14”, shown above right).

Photos don’t really do justice to the sweet packaging of these two products, especially their sepia-toned illustration of mid-nineteenth century dancers promenading in pairs along the length of a ballroom. The label of the perfume bottle is applied to the back of the bottle, so that the picture appears through the liquid of the fragrance itself, and the soap’s wrapper is highlighted with fine, iridescent glitter.

A historical note: when the waltz first gained popularity in genteel European society in late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, it was considered daring and even immoral…

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