Museo della Cipria

"The powder, perennial ally of seduction"

The powder? Are Italians that invented and exported in Paris at the beginning of the sixteenth century. It was reddish or yellowish but served to give shades of gold to the hair and especially to wigs. Derived from starch or fava flour was slightly fragrant and French hand, during the Regency, became white and disappeared under the Empire. With the recovery of the female make-up, in the second half of the nineteenth century, the powder reappears, slightly colored to soften the heavy blush dedicated to the face and formed by the talc powder with addition of bismuth nitrate or zinc oxide to increase the homogeneity and the adhesion to the skin. The research pharmacists perfected the formula and thus was born what was called the "Poudre de Riz" or simply Poudre, an impalpable veil offered in dozens of shades to match to the various occasions of day and night and in different consistencies according to the seasons . And so here are the shades for brunettes and blondes, here is reflective powders that under artificial light give a special emphasis to the face concealing imperfections. Curiously the last century the powder was also used by men as an aftershave, to turn off the razor burn.

"Precious poudrier collectors"

So evanescent the powder, the enduring its packaging, its boîte, become a space of strong artistic exercises and graphics as well as collector's items. The Museum of powders, opened in Turin and Florence at Olfattorio, proposes an exhibition of one hundred and twenty historical items that vary with time drawing on the great collection assembled with passion by Cithera that matter for Italy the prestigious powders and makeup of T. LeClerc, rich in hundreds of valuable pieces. An avant-garde space, a huge black box with dichroic lights that illuminate the individual pieces making them almost incandescent: This is the "chambre de poudres" the hushed and mysterious cubic invented by Olfattorio where you come alone or in small groups to better savor the installation preciousness. "The powder is a thin and volatile mystery, extraordinarily capable of creating charm and hide minor imperfections with unrivaled lightness that you do not want to reveal. Was it right to treat it with the same, elusive, delicate mystery, "says John Gaidano who designed this space hovering between day and night with the elusive delicacy of a butterfly. Among the specimens currently on display: Poudre Dermophile Stérilisée T.LeClerc (France 1881), La Poudre c'est moi Guerlain (France 1920), Aurea L.T. Piver (France 1900), etc ...