Lancôme was created in 1935 by visionary perfumer Armand Petitjean. For 85 years, the brand has strived to make women happy .
A family of distillers
It was in 1935 that Mr Armand Petitjean launched one of the finest industrial adventures. The creation of French beauty. Armand Petitjean was in his time a true visionary. Born into a family of distillers in 1884, he escaped the trenches of the First World War. After the war he collaborated with the perfumer François Coty. He launched a range of 5 luxury perfumes : Tropiques, Tendres Nuits, Kypre, Bocages and Conquête. The creator continued in 1936 with the marketing of a care cream aimed at prolonging youth and gave it the name of Nutrix. He continued his inventions with the manufacture, in 1955, of a line of products enriched with trace elements and seaweed, called Océane.
Bought by L’Oréal
In 1964, Lancôme was bought by L’Oréal, seduced by the luxury and audacity of the brand. This integration allowed Lancôme to explore other worlds and create multiple products both in the field of perfume and make-up. Lancôme foundation, Lancôme mascara, Lancôme génifique serum: creativity and excellence quickly made Lancôme one of the biggest make-up and perfumery brands in the world. Over the years, the brand has launched many products and treatments at the forefront of scientific innovation, treatments that have become must-haves, such as Advanced Génifique or Absolue L’Extrait. Maison Lancôme perpetuates a certain idea of French luxury.
Beautiful ambassadors
The brand has been able to surround itself for many decades with the most beautiful ambassadors of Lancôme. Women with assumed beauty, singular and always free. Women who mark their time, whether it’s Isabella Rosselini, the founding myth of Lancôme femininity for generations of women and until today, but also Penélope Cruz, Kate Winslet, Julia Roberts, Lupita Nyong’o or Lily Collins and Alma Jodorowsky who make the brand shine around the world. Close, free, committed women, who cultivate their happiness as an art of living, with seriousness and lightness, as inspired as they are inspiring. In 2014, “La vie est belle” was the best-selling perfume for women in France (5.3% market share) and thus dethroned J’Adore by Dior, the leading perfume in France until then.
