Julia Roberts for Lancôme La Vie Est Belle.
Lancome La Vie Est Belle ~ perfume review
Day to day, week to week, there are fragrance launches, and then there are fragrance launches. Lancôme‘s La Vie Est Belle is one of the major launches of pre-fall 2012, complete with big-name perfumers, Julia Roberts as its “ambassadress,” a gala celebration in the south of France, a soon-to-be-unveiled commercial directed by Tarsem Singh, and more. Lancôme is promoting La Vie Est Belle as its next “iconic” fragrance, hoping it will match Trésor in popularity and longevity as a pillar of the brand’s fragrance collection, and no expense or effort has been spared in this campaign.
The fragrance, whose name translates as “life is beautiful,” was developed by perfumers Olivier Polge, Dominique Ropion and Anne Flipo. Its composition includes notes of Florentine Iris pallida, iris aldehyde, jasmine sambac, Tunisian orange blossom, Indonesian patchouli, and a “gourmand accord” of vanilla, tonka bean, praline, black currant and pear. According to Lancôme, La Vie Est Belle represents “a new era” and “the choice to live one’s life and fill it with beauty.” (You can find more information on the fragrance’s philosophy at the Lancôme website.)
I was immediately skeptical about Lancôme’s assertion that La Vie Est Belle is “the first ever iris gourmand”…
Lancome La Vie Est Belle ~ new perfume
Lancôme will launch La Vie Est Belle, a new fragrance for women, later this year. La Vie Est Belle aims to capture happiness in a bottle, and will be fronted by actress Julia Roberts…
Lancome Tresor Midnight Rose ~ fragrance review
Lancôme has released a few limited edition flankers to Trésor over the years, but it didn’t really court a new generation of perfume-wearers until 2010, when it offered Trésor In Love as a “fresher” interpretation of the 1990s classic. Trésor In Love has just been joined by a second flanker, Trésor Midnight Rose, which is billed as “Charming. Mischievous. Desirable” and seems to be directed at a similarly young audience.
Lancôme names Trésor Midnight Rose’s notes as raspberry, black currant bud absolute, rose absolute, jasmine, vanilla, and musk. (An earlier list also included pink pepper, peony, and cedar.) The fragrance was developed by perfumer Anne Flipo and it is packaged in a purple ombré version of the Trésor In Love bottle. The actress Emma Watson is the “face” of Midnight Rose, and I found the commercial in which she strides along the streets of Paris and beguiles a young bookshop clerk to be charming, indeed. (Two asides: the bookstore appears to be Shakespeare & Company; and, I once saw Emma Watson stepping into a boutique on New York’s Madison Avenue. She was quite petite and pretty, and still very young-looking!)
Trésor Midnight Rose bears little similarity to the well-groomed peachy rose of the original Trésor…
Another Miracle
Actress Diane Kruger for Lancôme Miracle. Kruger replaced Uma Thurman as the face of the fragrance in 2004 (see yesterday’s Two for Miracle).
Below the jump, le making of.