Lancôme
Lancôme
1.6k votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
That pear-blackcurrant duo hits like spilled ribena—intensely sweet, almost candied, with a juicy tartness that feels synthetic in its precision. The iris appears quickly, cutting through the fruit with its powdery, makeup-counter quality, creating an oddly compelling contrast between sticky and dry.
The white florals finally assert themselves, though they're heavily sweetened versions of jasmine and orange blossom, more like floral syrups than actual petals. The praline note dominates here, turning the entire composition into an edible haze where the iris powder now reads like vanilla icing rather than roots and earth.
Pure comfort zone—tonka and vanilla create a skin-scent sweetness that's relentlessly pleasant, with just enough patchouli to prevent it becoming entirely two-dimensional. The powdery quality persists, leaving you smelling like expensive body lotion rather than an actual perfume with architecture and edges.
La Vie est Belle opens with a deceptive brightness—blackcurrant and pear create a jammy, almost syrupy sweetness that immediately announces this fragrance's gourmand intentions. But this isn't a simple fruity floral. Within minutes, the iris arrives with its peculiar, lipstick-like powderiness, creating an intriguing tension between the sticky fruit and that cool, almost root-like quality iris brings. The jasmine and orange blossom weave through the composition with remarkable restraint, providing just enough white floral lift to prevent the whole affair from collapsing into pure confection.
What makes this fragrance polarising is its unabashed commitment to sweetness. The praline note feels almost crystallised, like spun sugar at a French fair, whilst the tonka bean and vanilla form a creamy, enveloping base that some will find comforting and others cloying. The patchouli lurks underneath—not the hippie headshop variety, but a refined, chocolate-tinged version that adds depth without darkness. This is the olfactory equivalent of a pastel macaron tower: pretty, photogenic, unapologetically feminine in the most commercial sense.
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3.6/5 (476)