Lancôme
Lancôme
202 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The popcorn note is immediate and unmistakable—buttery, slightly salted, with caramel threading through in sticky-sweet ribbons. It's deliberately commercial, almost confrontationally so, the olfactive equivalent of neon signage. Within minutes, the first whispers of rose begin cutting through the gourmand haze, petals against toffee.
The roses bloom fully now, a lush centifolia-forward bouquet with the darker, more animalic undertones of Turkish damask adding complexity beneath. The caramel hasn't disappeared but has transformed, clinging to the roses' jammy facets like preserving sugar, creating an effect that's less "rose and caramel" and more "rose transformed by caramel." The synthetic quality becomes apparent here—everything feels smoothed, polished, almost too perfectly blended.
Bourbon vanilla takes the stage, warm and creamy but never cloying, its bean-like richness still carrying ghostly traces of rose and caramel. The composition becomes quieter, closer to skin, a soft gourmand whisper rather than the initial shout. What remains is pleasant if somewhat predictable—sweet skin musk with vanilla dominance, the memory of roses rather than their presence.
Idôle L'Eau de Parfum Nectar is a study in contrasts—a collision of cinema snack bar and haute parfumerie rose salon that somehow coheres into something entirely modern. Shyamala Maisondieu opens with an audacious salvo of buttery caramel and quite literally popcorn, that salty-sweet accord rendered with enough synthetic precision to feel almost Pop Art in its gleeful artifice. It's the sort of opening that polarises immediately: you're either grinning at the sheer brazenness or recoiling from what feels like an Instagram filter applied to perfumery.
Then the roses arrive—not demure tea roses, but a triumvirate of centifolia, Turkish damask, and damask absolute that brings gravitas and old-world richness. The interaction is remarkable: the caramel doesn't vanish so much as meld with the jammy, honeyed facets of the roses, creating something that reads as rose petal conserve rather than a simple floral study. There's enough natural depth from the absolutes to ground what could have been pure confection.
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3.6/5 (401)