Lancôme: A French Story of Beauty and Happiness, Told Through Perfume

Contents

Essential Information
The Founder and the Origins of the Brand
What Matters to the Brand
By the Way…

Essential Information

Founded: 1935
Founder: Armand Petitjean, who established the company with Guillaume d’Ornano and others
Place of founding: Paris, France
Group: Part of the L’Oréal group since 1964
Official website: Lancôme Japan official website
Japanese name: This article uses “ランコム,” the brand’s official spelling in Japan.

The Founder and the Origins of the Brand

An Appreciation of French Beauty, Nurtured Under Coty

Armand Petitjean was born in 1884 in Saint-Loup-sur-Semouse, eastern France. His father distilled fruit spirits, and the family distillery adjoined his birthplace.

After studying commercial engineering, he established an import-export business in Chile with his brothers. He subsequently learned perfumery under François Coty and pursued the ambition of bringing French beauty to the world.

After Coty died in 1934, Petitjean chose to create a new house. In 1935, Lancôme was born through his work with a group of colleagues.

His Colleagues and the Name “Lancôme”

Those involved in the founding included colleagues responsible for the commercial side, such as Guillaume d’Ornano; chemist Pierre Velon; and Georges Delhomme, who designed the bottles. Fragrance, science, form and business: these different areas of expertise came together to shape the new brand.

The name was inspired by the Château de Lancosme in France. Petitjean and his colleagues, looking for a name with a French sound and a sense of elegance, chose this one.

The silent “s” was removed from Lancosme and a circumflex accent added, creating Lancôme. The name itself was entrusted with expressing a French sense of beauty.

The 1935 Brussels World’s Fair: Five Perfumes for the World

In 1935, Lancôme unveiled five perfumes at the Brussels World’s Fair: Tropiques, Conquête, Kypre, Tendres Nuits and Bocages. Rather than making a single fragrance carry the whole identity of the brand, it began with a group of creations, each with its own character.

In contrast to the simple, geometric designs of the period, the early bottles had a rich visual presence, with flowers, gold ornamentation and elaborate forms. Delhomme’s designs presented the world of fragrance as an object one could hold.

Petitjean considered how women’s tastes differed according to their country and way of life. To reach the world, he offered several different ways into fragrance. This international outlook was present from the earliest days of Lancôme, a house born in perfumery.

From Perfume to Skincare and Makeup

Nutrix cream followed in 1936, developed with chemists, and rose-scented Rose de France lipstick in 1938. The perfume house expanded into skincare and makeup.

Training People to Communicate Beauty, Even in Wartime

During the war, École Lancôme trained women in beauty knowledge and techniques, preparing them to introduce the products around the world.

Magie and Trésor: Fragrance Classics of the 1950s

Magie was introduced in 1950. Its twisted-looking crystal bottle is known as a notable example of Delhomme’s design. Here, too, one sees the approach of treating scent and container as a single creation.

The original Trésor appeared in 1952. Its launch at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris is said to have featured ballet by Serge Lifar and music by Henri Sauguet. It was a lavish presentation celebrating the birth of a perfume through the performing arts.

After management difficulties and a generational transition, Lancôme became part of L’Oréal in 1964. Petitjean died in 1970 at the age of 86. His vision of bringing French beauty to the world was passed on to the brand that followed.

What Matters to the Brand

Connecting Beauty and Happiness

Themes such as love, joy and living in one’s own way recur in Lancôme’s perfumes. Making oneself beautiful is connected not only to a change in appearance, but also to a change in feeling. This idea, present since the early years, flows through the house’s contemporary fragrances.

Trésor evokes memories of love; La Vie Est Belle, happiness chosen for oneself; and Idôle, confidence in oneself. Although the way these creations tell their stories changes with the times, they share a desire to accompany the lives of the people who wear them.

The Rose: Both an Ingredient and a Brand Symbol

Petitjean loved roses and had a rose garden at his home in Ville-d’Avray, near Paris. Appearing on perfume labels from the house’s founding, the rose eventually became the flower that symbolized the brand.

In 1974, rose breeder Georges Delbard created the vivid fuchsia Lancôme rose. The existence of an actual rose bearing the brand’s name is another expression of the bond between the flower and the house.

Domaine de la Rose in Grasse also gives this relationship a physical form. The official 2023 report describes it as a site of approximately seven hectares devoted to organic cultivation. The house’s involvement in land that grows perfume ingredients supports its rose-centred world.

Bottles as Stories You Can Hold

Lancôme has shown a strong interest in the form of its perfume bottles from the beginning: the twisting shape of Magie, and the jewel-like container of the original Trésor. The vessel that holds a fragrance has also played a role in communicating its character.

The bottle of La Vie Est Belle was inspired by a container designed by Delhomme in 1949, its curves suggesting a smile. Industrial production was difficult at the time, and the shape was made as a miniature for special clients before being brought to life as the bottle of a new perfume in 2012. The ribbon at its neck carries the image of wings of freedom.

With Idôle, the expression shifts to a thin, flat, modern glass bottle. The ability to convey a world through a simple outline as well as through lavish decoration reveals how aesthetic sensibilities change with the times.

The Fragrance Lineup

Lancôme’s perfumes include families that have developed from a single signature fragrance, such as Trésor, La Vie Est Belle and Idôle, alongside collections in which several perfumers explore a shared subject. Absolue Les Parfums places the rose in encounters with nature; Les Ô connects plants grown in Grasse with different moods and moments of the day. Their starting points range from the house’s founding creations to new ways of interpreting a familiar flower.

The Five Founding Fragrances: Tropiques, Conquête, Kypre, Tendres Nuits and Bocages

The five creations introduced at the founding in 1935 form a historic lineup that recalls Lancôme’s origins in perfume. They pointed in different directions, including flowers, spices, cleanliness and depth, expressing an ambition to respond to diverse tastes around the world.

Magie: 1950

A signature creation from the founder’s era, in which fragrance and bottle form a unified whole. It is known for a composition incorporating woody notes and jasmine, and for a container that resembles twisted crystal. This discussion concerns the historic 1950 creation, distinguishing it from later products, including those bearing the same name.

Trésor: A Name from 1952, Reimagined in 1990

Trésor, French for “treasure,” was newly created in 1990 while carrying forward the name of the 1952 original. The fragrance now widely known was composed by perfumer Sophia Grojsman. A creation on the theme of love, it layers the radiance of peach and rose over a soft, lingering impression.

The memories of actress Isabella Rossellini are intertwined with this perfume. She took part in selecting the fragrance and particularly liked one of the candidates she tested without knowing its name. When she met the person who had composed the chosen scent, she discovered an unexpected connection.

According to Rossellini’s recollection, Grojsman had created the composition that became the basis of the perfume under the inspiration of the romance, adventure and mysterious atmosphere of Casablanca. The film’s leading actress, Ingrid Bergman, was Rossellini’s mother. A daughter chose a fragrance inspired by her mother’s film and became its face.

“I had a voice, an opinion.”
Isabella Rossellini

La Nuit Trésor takes the Trésor name into a different setting: the passion of the night. Amandine Clerc-Marie and Christophe Raynaud built its composition around the fruitiness of lychee, rose and the sweetness of vanilla orchid.

La Vie Est Belle: Happiness Through Iris and Sweetness

La Vie Est Belle, launched in 2012, has a French name that celebrates the beauty of life. Olivier Polge, Dominique Ropion and Anne Flipo were involved in its creation. Centred on iris, it combines floral radiance with gourmand sweetness.

Its development is also described as an attempt to balance richness and simplicity by narrowing the selection of ingredients. Iris, jasmine and orange blossom are layered with patchouli and sweetness suggesting vanilla and praline. Looking back on the brief, Flipo recalls that its first word was “delectable.” Iris has floral, woody and amber-like facets; vanilla and praline add a sweetness intended to express the joy of a first encounter. More than 5,000 trials preceded the finished fragrance.

“It was also the embodiment of the positioning of Lancôme as this brand that provides happiness.”
Nicolas Hieronimus

Julia Roberts was the face of the fragrance at its launch. The advertising depicted someone moving away from the constraints of conforming to others and towards her own happiness. Its commercial success was reflected in reports that, in 2024, it had held the number-one position in Europe for eleven consecutive years.

Within the family, Iris Absolu pairs iris with fig and blackcurrant accords and patchouli from Bali. Flipo and Ropion took inspiration from Mediterranean plants and the gardens of Domaine de la Rose. Green impressions of fig trees and wild grasses bring the garden’s fruit and leaves into the sweet iris composition.

For La Vie Est Belle L’Elixir, released in Japan as a limited-quantity edition under the name L’Extrait, Christophe Raynaud and Antoine Maisondieu reinterpreted the theme of happiness through raspberry, violet and cocoa butter. Bright fruit gives way to soft flowers and a warm trail with leather and cedar. Across the family, the central flower and the character of the sweetness change from one creation to another.

Idôle: Rose and a Clean Impression

Introduced in 2019, Idôle was jointly composed by three women perfumers: Shyamala Maisondieu, Adriana Medina and Nadège Le Garlantezec. Centred on rose and jasmine, it layers in an impression of clean musk. The idea of finding one’s own strength and beauty is reflected in the transparent fragrance and the silhouette of its thin bottle. Zendaya became the face of the launch campaign, representing a new generation of women.

The rose also connects the perfume to the people who grow it. Lancôme describes sourcing roses for Idôle from family-run farms in Isparta, Turkey, with initiatives to improve cultivation methods and the working conditions of those involved in the harvest.

Idôle Eau de Toilette develops the rose in a fresher direction, pairing bergamot with a green tea accord evoking newly harvested tea. Idôle Nectar instead adds a caramel popcorn accord and Bourbon vanilla to the rose. Listed among discontinued products on Lancôme’s US website at the time of the November 2026 review, Nectar remains an example of the family’s exploration of flowers and gourmand sweetness.

Maison Lancôme: The Art of Assemblage

Maison Lancôme’s Les Parfums Grands Crus entrusted perfumers and artists with compositions built around assemblage, the art of bringing materials together. Names such as jasmine, rose and oud identify a central material while suggesting how it will be presented.

Jasmins Marzipane combines sambac jasmine picked at dawn early in the harvest with grandiflorum jasmine gathered at the end of summer. The brightness of the former and the soft, leathery facets of the latter are wrapped in an almond-like woody scent. Figues & Agrumes turns to a Mediterranean orchard, combining green fig, citrus and jasmine.

Absolue Les Parfums: Rose in Rain, Moonlight and Heat

Absolue Les Parfums takes the centifolia rose grown at Domaine de la Rose in Grasse as its shared subject. The collection was presented as eleven fragrances in 2024, with further creations added later. Placing rose in scenes of rain, frost, heat and moonlight brings different facets of the same flower into focus.

Its shared design principle is called THE HALO. Rose sits at the centre, surrounded first by elements that support it and then by an outer layer suggesting a scene in nature. The image of a halo describes what the composition is built around, rather than dividing it into the top, heart and base notes of a fragrance pyramid.

In Storm & Roses, Fanny Bal imagined a summer storm. Blackcurrant bud absolute gives the rose a green, juicy and sharply accented character. Bal likens its effect to a flash of lightning. Earthy patchouli adds depth, extending the image beyond the flower to plants stirred by rain.

Rose on the Moon, by Fabrice Pellegrin, pairs rose with sandalwood, wrapping the flower in a rich woody texture and the warmth of vanilla. Pellegrin sought a relationship in which rose and sandalwood would blend into one another.

For the morning scene of 6AM Rose, Fanny Bal and Dominique Ropion combine centifolia rose with jasmine and a lily-of-the-valley accord, creating a brightness suggestive of dew. Other interpretations include Rose Or Die, with an impression of smoky black tea; Not Your Rose, with a frosty coolness; and Oud Bouquet, which brings oud together with sweetness.

For the later addition Forbidden Rose, Pellegrin paired centifolia and damask roses with a fig accord, green and milky-sweet in character. He also drew on the scent of fig jam from the Domaine, recreating that impression within the composition.

Hidden by a Rose, by Juliette Karagueuzoglou and Anne Flipo, takes sunset in the south of France as its subject, layering spicy rose, incense, myrrh and vanilla.

Les Ô: Plants from Grasse and Moods of the Day

Lancôme’s fresh fragrances have a history reaching back to Ô de Lancôme, introduced in 1969 with citrus and green impressions. Les Ô explores a different starting point, taking plants from Domaine de la Rose as the basis for fragrances themed around energy, joy and tranquillity.

In Ôver the Top, Carlos Benaïm combines a green accord evoking tomato leaves with jasmine from Grasse. Fresh leaves and rich flowers suggest an animated start to the day. For Ô Zenith, Dominique Ropion took a cue from the citrus brightness of cologne, using jasmine and the scent of monoi to suggest flowers in sunshine.

Ôff Now, by Fabrice Pellegrin, combines verbena grown at the Domaine with sandalwood, taking as its theme the calm of resting in the shade in the afternoon. In Ô Oui, centifolia rose and a lychee accord express the exhilaration of celebration.

Miracle and Hypnôse: Flowers with Spice or Vanilla

Miracle takes the beginning of a new day as its subject, combining dewy impressions of peony and lychee with the bite of pink pepper. Its clean-lined bottle draws on a design Lalique made for Lancôme in the 1930s. Hypnôse pairs passionflower with vanilla and vetiver. Where Miracle brings forward the freshness of flowers and fruit, Hypnôse centres on sweetness and woody depth.

By the Way…

A factory called the “Versailles of perfume”: Petitjean envisioned a large manufacturing complex in Chevilly-Larue, near Paris. The plan, with its grand architecture and gardens, expressed his desire to entrust the brand’s prestige to the place where its products were made as well. He even dreamed that “the last thing people leaving from Orly Airport see will be the Lancôme logo.”
From person to person, rather than through advertising: Petitjean is known for declaring that he would “never advertise,” placing emphasis on personal recommendations and demonstrations. However, advertisements from the early years and the 1950s survive, so this does not mean that the company literally never used advertising. His thinking is clearer when understood as placing particular importance on training people to communicate beauty.
Joining Comité Colbert: Lancôme joined Comité Colbert, an association of French luxury houses and other institutions, in 1992. It participates as a house that communicates French creativity and craftsmanship.

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