Eva Longoria On That Iconic White Diamonds Perfume Ad, And Why Her Preferred Scent Is Poultry-Related

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Last night, Eva Longoria pushed pause on her role as L'Oréal ambassador to play for the Elizabeth Arden team. Dressed as a human white diamond, Longoria toasted to the 25th anniversary of Elizabeth Taylor White Diamonds perfume.

Turns out Longoria's best memory of the fragrance is the ad from its 1991 launch (as it should be). It's the ad that gave us this immortal Elizabeth Taylor line: "NOT SO FAST, VON RYAN. These have always brought me luck." *Throws down diamond earrings, the man snatches them, she does a hand-to-the-chest gasp as the camera cuts to a close-up* It's the nonsense celebrity fragrance commercial that became the standard-bearer for every nonsense fragrance commercial thereafter.

"[Elizabeth Taylor] taking off the earrings and throwing them down. I was like, 'Ah! I want to be her,'" Longoria remembers.

After 25 years in existence and five years after the icon's death, the fragrance remains one of the best-selling celebrity perfumes. Even during a prolonged slump in the category last year, WWD cited it has been a steady seller. Longoria, who has her own fragrance, explains why she thinks White Diamonds has so much staying power: "In a market that's saturated with celebrity fragrances, it has to be the juice," she says. "You can buy a fragrance because you like who [made it], but what keeps you buying it is you actually like how it smells."

"We're at a peak in celebrity fragrances," she continues. "It's like, 'Who has her own celebrity fragrance?' When there's a lull, you see which ones are the most successful."

Longoria's preferred scents, which she suggests you change up like you would accessories, are a little more unconventional. She likes the freshly-showered smell, a feminine night musk, and chicken. To wit: "I was getting ready for a red carpet event one time and I was roasting a chicken, so I had to keep getting out of hair and makeup, and go and do something with the chicken and sit back down. When I was at the event, this reporter was like, 'You smell like...chicken?' He reiterated it wasn't a bad thing."