Top Perfume Picks – Lancôme
Top Perfume Picks – Lancôme
“We love perume and we love the way it can attract ones senses and opposite sex. We have put together our own perspectives and personal choices when it comes to smelling good.”
Magnifique is the latest fragrance for women from Lancôme, and it launches this month under the tag line “You are unique; you are Magnifique”. The celebrity spokesperson is Anne Hathaway; the perfumers are Olivier Cresp and Jacques Cavallier; the spicy woody scent is intended as “an olfactive interpretation of red”.
I will start by admitting that I’m not a huge fan of the Lancôme fragrance line. Offhand, I can’t think of a single scent in their current range that I’ve any interest in wearing other than the lovely Mille et Une Roses, and I’m not even sure that is still being sold. Hypnôse, their last major launch for women, did not appeal to me at all. The name Magnifique — am I the only one who thinks of mascara or a hair care product when I hear Magnifique? And who finds “You are unique; you are Magnifique” downright cheesy?
Still, anything that continues the current “woods for women” trend is welcome, and the notes (saffron essence, cumin, Bulgarian rose, Mai de Grasse rose, jasmine, sandalwood, nagarmota and vetiver) sounded intriguing. A quick sniff on a card a few weeks ago was interesting, and impressed me much more than the Ralph Lauren Notorious which I was trying at the same time.
Magnifique starts with your standard sharp citrus opening, and the spices take a few minutes to warm up. When they do, they’re nicely dirty — the cumin is not overdone, but it adds a bit of an edgy undertone to the rose-y floral notes. The dry down adds more dirt, quite literally: it smells like warm earth* and spiced ambery-musky woods. The whole thing is wrapped in a gauzy veil of vanilla sweetness, again, not overdone, with just the tiniest hint of powder. It doesn’t smell candied, and it’s somewhat dark; I’d think it would wear better in fall or winter than in the heat of summer.
It isn’t skanky, exactly, and niche-hound perfumistas might not be impressed, but to my nose it is pretty daring for a mainstream department store cosmetic brand, and considerably more so than other feminine wood scents we’ve seen lately, like Estee Lauder’s Sensuous.
Lancôme Magnifique is available in 30, 50 and 75 ml Eau de Parfum and in matching body products.
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