Lancôme

Lancôme has embodied French elegance and femininity for more than 80 years now, with the rose, the symbol of the house, marking and adorning all of its perfumed creations.

Armand Petitjean, the visionary of Rue Saint-Honoré and creator of Lancôme

Armand Petitjean worked in close collaboration with François Coty, who nicknamed him the “Napoleon of twentieth-century luxury perfumery.” Upon Coty’s death, Petitjean decided to create his own house in order to counter the great American perfume houses. He therefore left Coty to establish his own company with an already seasoned team made up of the d’Ornano brothers, marketing specialists, Georges Delhomme, the bottle designer, and Pierre Vélon, the chemist.

In 1935, the house of Lancosme opened, its name evoking a château in central France. However, although the spelling was very French, as Armand Petitjean wished, it was soon changed to Lancôme, both for ease and for a desire to stand out with an “ô” of such elegance! A few months after opening, Lancôme was already at the head of five original and opulent perfumed creations presented at the 1935 Exposition Universelle under the names Tropiques, Tendres Nuits, Kypre, Bocages and Conquête. Then, starting in 1936, Lancôme’s fabulous and talented team created an innovative and powerful anti-wrinkle cream, Nutrix, which would bring the house great success.

The great perfumes and great names of the house of Lancôme

The first great success of the house of Lancôme in perfumery is of course the famous “Ô”, born in 1969. Like a refreshing cascade, “Ô” offered a green and floral citrus fragrance, at once delicate and powerful, a true revolution for a feminine perfume at a time when freshness had until then been considered masculine...

Then in 1978, the house of Lancôme presented a powerful oriental elixir that would become legendary, “Magie Noire”. A magnificent woody floral refreshed by a fruity touch of blackcurrant bud, it became the favorite of the aspiring business woman of the 1980s.

A few years later, the choice of Isabella Rossellini, an icon of glamour and beauty, as the face of the house of Lancôme for the lovely “Trésor” in 1990, marked the house’s incredible success within the very exclusive sphere of the world’s great houses. Beyond the values of our house that she magnificently represents and of which she is the essence, Isabella embodies the idea of an accomplished beauty synonymous with well-being, Lancôme stated. This lovely, poetic and fragrant perfume, nicknamed “Reine des roses”, became one of the most emblematic perfumes of the house of Lancôme, almost entirely devoted to creating novel or innovative accords around its signature rose, so dear to its creator Armand Petitjean.

The sparkling and radiant beauty icons that followed never ceased to promote the beautiful house and its distinguished successes, with lovely perfumes such as the floral cocktail “Poème” and its face of the campaign Juliette Binoche in 1995, the powdery floral “Miracle” worn by the sublime Uma Thurman in 2000, or the beautiful oriental, for once, “Hypnose” exhaled by the lovely Canadian Daria Werbowy in 2005, the same year that saw the release (actually the re-release) of “Climat”, the original green floral.

Proud of its undisputed and indisputable successes in perfumery for more than 80 years now, Lancôme signed in 2012 what is certainly still one of its greatest successes with the fabulous “La vie est belle”, a concentrate of floral and fruity happiness celebrated by a renowned face of the campaign, Julia Roberts. Present in 160 countries around the world and representing 9 % of the global perfume market’s share, Armand Petitjean’s venerable house of Lancôme has certainly not finished making headlines.