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"Realce" eye-shadow box (sombra para los ojos), empty
Object/Artifact
Empty square cardboard box for Realce pressed-powder eye shadow. The front is printed with two rows of color dots — brown, green, black, blue (and reversed below) — representing the shade range, flanking a central band with olive/gold stripes, "SOMBRA / PARA LOS OJOS," and the Realce wordmark in an elegant script beneath a gold sunburst emblem. The reverse carries application instructions, a die-cut circular window (here empty — no compact/product present), and, at the foot, the interlocked maker's monogram with "HECHO EN CUBA." The board is toned, soiled/foxed, and creased at the corners.
2025.1.366
Belonged to Gertrudis Caraballo Gálvez
"Sombra para los ojos" is eye shadow. Realce was a makeup line of Cuba's nationalized perfumery-cosmetics industry; Cuba Material's catalog lists Realce eye shadow in a pressed-powder format (9 non-iridescent shades) and a plastic-cased stick (7 shades). This is the outer box for the powder/compact format — the round window would have framed the eye-shadow cake (cf. the Fantasía "Azul" compact in this series). The dot motif advertises the shade palette; "Realce" means "enhancement/highlight," echoed by the sunburst emblem. Manufacture is marked "Hecho en Cuba" beneath the Suchel-line monogram.
The Cabrera Arús family collection
Gertrudis Caraballo Gálvez collecition
2025.1
MINIL
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
Realce
Manufacturer: Suchel — Empresa de Perfumería y Jabonería Suchel, Cuba — tentative as to the specific enterprise but well supported; "Hecho en Cuba" and the recurring monogram are on the box, and Realce is part of the Suchel catalog. Designer of the graphic not identified. Date: circa 1960s–1970s; tentative (mid-century-modern dot/script styling suggests the earlier end).
Inscription
box bottom
"SOMBRA PARA LOS OJOS Se aplica sobre los párpados con un pincel o una motica de algodón, esparciéndola hacia afuera para que se desvanezca (logotype) HECHO EN CUBA
Spanish
EYESHADOW FOR THE EYES It's applied on the eyelids with a brush or a cottton ball, spreading it outward till blended dp MADE IN CUBA
Inscription
box top
Sombra para los ojos REALCE
Spanish
REALCE eyeshadow
Front: "SOMBRA PARA LOS OJOS"; "Realce" (script) beneath a gold sunburst emblem. Back: "Se aplica sobre los párpados con un pincel o una motica de algodón, esparciéndola hacia afuera para que se desvanezca."; interlocked maker's monogram with "HECHO EN CUBA."
1.3 cm
4.9 cm
4.9 cm
Cardboard box (front and back panels) with die-cut circular window. No compact or product present.
Cardboard
Fair
Gertrudis Caraballo Gálvez
owner
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
use, acquisition