Cuba Material collection · Colección Cuba Material
Powered by CatalogIt · Gestionada con CatalogIt
Catalog
"Cirene" Aceite de Belleza (beauty oil) — bottle with original carton
Object/Artifact
Bottle: colorless glass bottle of skittle/bowling-pin form — tall rounded-shoulder body tapering to a narrow waist above a wide flared foot — nearly full of yellow oil and closed by a white ribbed plastic screw cap. An oval celadon-green front label carries a classical female profile head in a roundel flanked by laurel sprigs, lettered "CIRENE / ACEITE DE BELLEZA / Suchel / HECHO EN CUBA." Carton: tall, narrow paperboard box covered in celadon-green printed paper repeating the same laurel-wreathed classical cameo over "CIRENE," with "ACEITE DE BELLEZA" below and a field of small repeating gold/cream stylized (trident-like) motifs. Heavily foxed and stained, with one torn top corner.
2025.1.275
Belonged to Gertrudis Caraballo Gálvez. Unused.
"Cirene" (Cyrene, the classical nymph-huntress of Greek myth, hence the cameo and laurel) was a Suchel skincare/beauty line in revolutionary-era Cuba — documented with companion products such as Cirene cold cream, crema nutritiva, and astringent/refreshing lotions. "Aceite de belleza" is a cosmetic beauty oil from that line. Produced by the state Empresa de Perfumería y Jabonería Suchel, it is a domestic Cuban product whose classical-cameo branding projected an aspirational, timeless-beauty image.
The Cabrera Arús family collection
Gertrudis Caraballo Gálvez collecition
2025.1
Suchel
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
Brand/line: Cirene; product: "Aceite de Belleza."
Date: circa 1960s–1970s (tentative). Terminus post quem ~1961 for nationalized state perfumery (Suchel identity from the mid-1960s); the classical-cameo design and the product's place within the Cuban beauty glossary in Más belleza para ti (Isabel de Amado Blanco) point to the 1960s–70s. No date on the object.
Label
bottle
CIRENE ACEITE DE BELLEZA Suchel HECHO EN CUBA
Spanish
CIRENE BEAUTY OIL Suchel MADE IN CUBA
Inscription
box
CIRENE ACEITE DE BELLEZA
Spanish
CIRENE BEAUTY OIL
Bottle label: "CIRENE / ACEITE DE BELLEZA / Suchel / HECHO EN CUBA," with a classical female profile in a laurel-flanked roundel. Carton: "CIRENE / ACEITE DE BELLEZA," same cameo, with a repeating gold stylized (trident-like) motif.
14 cm
5 cm
5 cm
Bottle: glass bottle; screw cap. Carton: single tuck/folding paperboard box (one top corner torn).
Instruction manual
Glass
Cardboard
Bottle: colorless glass; white plastic screw cap; lithographed paper label; yellow cosmetic oil (contents present). Carton: paperboard with lithographed paper covering.
Poor
Gertrudis Caraballo Gálvez
owner
Suchel
producer
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
production, ownership