Lancôme
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The rose erupts with alarming sharpness, almost metallic in its synthetic sheen, immediately swamped by a wall of candied sweetness that feels simultaneously powdery and plasticky. Your first instinct is "Is this a real rose or a fragrance molecule?" as the artificial quality dominates entirely.
The orchid emerges tentatively around the ninety-minute mark, adding a waxy, slightly soapy dimension that softens the rose's harshness, whilst the vanilla begins its steady creep upwards. The fruity notes materialise here—a brief, fleeting sweetness—before being absorbed into the mounting vanilla base, leaving a predominantly sweet-powdery floral that smells increasingly like scented talc.
By the fourth hour, assuming any performance remains, you're left with mostly vanilla and powder, the florals reduced to theoretical ghosts. This final phase is barely perceptible, a skin scent that requires proximity to detect—more psychological comfort than olfactory presence.
Idôle Now arrives as a peculiarly synthetic rose—not the dewy, green-stemmed variety, but something decidedly manufactured, almost plasticky in its initial presentation. Shyamala Maisondieu has constructed this as fundamentally a sweet floral, yet there's an unsettling disconnect between its 76% synthetic accord and its supposedly natural rose-orchid framework. The fragrance reads as aggressively sweet rather than delicately floral; the vanilla base doesn't nestle beneath the florals so much as eclipse them, transforming what could have been a sophisticated rose-orchid composition into something closer to a scented body lotion.
The powdery accord (52%) adds a dusty, almost talc-like quality that sits uneasily with the fruity sweetness, creating a composition that feels caught between competing identities. There's a faint fruity whisper—perhaps peach or lychee—but it's suffocated by the vanilla's cloying weight and the rose's artificial sheen. This is a fragrance for those drawn to the *idea* of floral sweetness rather than its execution; someone seeking an approachable, inoffensive daily wear that prioritises comfort over complexity.
Add fragrances to your collection and unlock your personalised scent DNA, note map, and shareable identity card.
3.1/5 (189)