Poême

Lancôme launched Poême in 1995 under a watchword: “Say it all without a word.” The house presents it as a fragrance of seduction and declaration, made to express what cannot be said. Jacques Cavallier, who now signs as Cavallier-Belletrud, composed it.

Two opposing flowers

Poême rests on a contrast. On one side is the datura flower, which the house describes as opulent and carnal, a desert flower of troubling luminosity; on the other, the Himalayan blue poppy, which pricks it with stars of frost. Warmth answers cold, yellow answers blue.

Around this duo, Lancôme brings in a chorus of tender flowers, white and yellow: mimosa, jonquil, freesia, rose, and vanilla flower. It speaks of a score in white and yellow that evokes a summer garden bathed in sunlight, and of an oriental fragrance of shadow and light.

The face of Juliette Binoche

Juliette Binoche embodied Poême from 1995 to 2000. Richard Avedon photographed the print campaigns, and Anthony Minghella, who directed the actress in The English Patient, made a film for television. Thirteen years after Poême, Lancôme called her back as ambassador for its Rénergie skincare.

Poême today

The house still sells Poême in France in 2026, as a 100 ml eau de parfum. It speaks of it as a fragrance in which every word is a flower and every flower a poem, and in which the notes, frosty or sunlit, blue or yellow, form a poetic figure.