BEHIND THE PERFUME: MADAME MOUSTACHE

This is part of a series of posts on the historical figures that are the inspiration for Immortal Perfumes. For more historical figures, check out the rest of the series.

Frontier life was no picnic – especially not for women. In the Old West, if a woman was to survive she had to have a certain level of luck, charm, and resourcefulness. Enter Eleonore Alphonsine Dumont; also known as Madame Moustache.

Originally born in France (or so she claimed), Dumont was a notorious gambler who made her mark during the California Gold Rush. She hustled from town to town dealing cards and running brothels from Tombstone, Arizona to Nevada City, California. At the time, it was rare for a woman to deal and the novelty of her profession, not to mention her beauty and charm, drew in miners from all around.

In Carson City, Nevada she bought herself a ranch and fell in love with a man of high charm but little substance. Jack McKnight conned her out of her considerable gambling fortune and Dumont was left destitute. She gave up the ranch and with dogged determination she returned to the gambling circuit, traveling around and rebuilding her fortune.

Dumont eventually founded her own gambling house, “Vingt-et-un” (21), for stylish, well-kept men - no ladies save herself allowed. When her beauty began to fade and the attention of the miners waned, she became known as Madame Moustache owing to the line of dark hair above her upper lip - which she wore with pride.

To capture the scent of a well kept lady from the Old West, the Madame Moustache perfume oil has notes of fire, vanilla, tobacco, and (vegan) Egyptian Musk. The tobacco and fire symbolize the dirt and grit of a hard life on the frontier while the vanilla and musk soften it up for a rich, feminine scent.