La Vie Est Belle Intensément

Lancome dates from 1935 and from Armand Petitjean, and for most of its existence it has been a house that sells optimism rather than mystery. La Vie Est Belle, launched in 2012 and widely credited to Olivier Polge, Dominique Ropion and Anne Flipo, is the purest expression of that: an iris and vanilla built to be legible from across a room, fronted by Julia Roberts in a campaign that has now run for well over a decade. Intensement, released in 2020, is the version for people who wanted the original to sit heavier and last longer.

Lancome publishes the pyramid itself. Bergamot oil, pink pepper oil and a raspberry accord open it; sambac jasmine absolute, orange flower absolute and a heliotrope accord form the heart; and the base is patchouli heart, iris concrete, benzoin resinoid and vanilla bean. The house describes it as carrying the first intense red-iris-and-vanilla accord created exclusively for Lancome by one of France's leading perfumers, without naming them. On skin, the raspberry and pink pepper give a short, bright, slightly fizzy opening before the fragrance drops into its real business: heliotrope and orange blossom make the middle almost edible in a marzipan way, while the iris underneath keeps it cool and powdery rather than sugary. The drydown is where Intensement earns its name, with benzoin and vanilla bean thickening the patchouli into something dense, resinous and rounded.

It is an evening fragrance and a cool-weather one. A Cape winter suits it; in real heat the vanilla and benzoin can turn heavy by mid-afternoon. It is a strong choice for anyone who already likes the original and finds it fades too politely.

Performance is the main reason to choose this over the standard eau de parfum: eight to ten hours is typical, with wide projection for the first three and a warm skin scent well past that. Two sprays are usually the ceiling. It sits within a very large La Vie Est Belle family, so make sure the box says Intensement rather than L'Eau, L'Absolu or one of the limited editions, because those are different compositions.