Fleming’s Bond washes his hair in the same ordinary way as everyone else, and he chooses the good bottle. After an ice-cold shower he reaches for Pinaud Elixir, which Fleming calls “that prince among shampoos”. The E.d. Pinaud Elixir Quinine Shampoo is no longer made, but the idea behind it travels well.
In the books
In Chapter 2 of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Bond uses the shampoo after a cold shower, part of the plain morning routine Fleming gives him. Shampoo rarely reaches the screen, so this one belongs to the books.
Finding one now
Clubman Online, which sells the Pinaud Clubman range, says the Elixir is no longer available except as vintage bottles and antiques. In 2007 the original, in vintage packaging including the carton, could still be bought at The Dutch Shaving Shop for €8; sizes were 200ml and 400ml. Today the realistic route is a collector’s bottle, so our link is an eBay search, and any bottle found is second-hand and decades old, to be displayed rather than used. For a shampoo in the same spirit, Clubman points to its own Country Club Shampoo, which it suggests for the modern Bond. A quinine shampoo from another maker is the other route, though we cannot say how close any of them is to the original.
Specifications
| Maker | E.d. Pinaud |
|---|---|
| Item | Elixir Quinine Shampoo (Shampoo concentré à la quinine) |
| Sizes | 200ml and 400ml |
| Status | Out of production; vintage bottles found second-hand |
| Current alternative named by Clubman | Pinaud Clubman Country Club Shampoo |
More from the stories is in our grooming and fragrance guide, and the Bonds shows who played Bond.
