Bottling Elizabeth Taylor

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Daisy Alioto interviews independent perfumer Marissa Zappas about her new scent. 

Back in February 2023, I began to research the impact that TikTok was having on independent perfume brands. One of the perfumers I reached out to was Marissa Zappas, and we talked about TikTok disrupting Fragrantica–which, despite being a decades-long incumbent for perfume reviews, lacks the speed and discoverability of short form video.

“It’s making people think about perfume differently and order perfumes they wouldn’t typically come across,” Zappas said of TikTok. “One of my favorite genres which I think has been lost is a genre of fan videos on YouTube where people would cut up movies and put them to really emotionally charged songs, I love that genre and I think a lot of these perfume review videos are kind of similar,” even and especially if the creator doesn’t have the expert language to describe them.

At the time, her number one seller was Annabel’s Birthday Cake, named after her friend (astrologist and writer) Annabel Gat. The scent, which boasts top-notes of balloons and mid notes of fresh-out-the-oven cake (among others) hit the high-femme, Y2K sweet spot for many young fragheads.

Zappas’ latest scent, Maggie the Cat is Alive, I’m Alive! (Maggie the Cat for short) inhabits a completely different universe. Named for a line spoken by Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) this sophisticated and seductive scent is also an ode to the actress. The full list of notes includes, “champagne, ambrette musk, peach, oakmoss, violet, orris, sheer amber, castoreum, patchouli, sunlight and sandalwood.”

The perfume launched last week with a party at New York City’s Center For Modern Psychoanalytic Studies featuring readings about Elizabeth Taylor from writer Alissa Bennett, actress Ruby McCollister, writer, performer and director Leah Hennessey and more. McCollister summed Taylor up perfectly: “Elizabeth Taylor was not of the people, but she was for the people.”

“It's difficult to talk about Elizabeth Taylor, because like the best smells, she had the most contradictions," says Zappas. “She was both Madonna-Whore, she was honest, she was a liar, she was beautiful, she was a hag. She was just all of this.”

I caught up with Zappas this week to pick up where we left off in February.

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