This incredibly empowering new perfume stands for everything we believe in and should be the one scent you invest in this summer
When a major global beauty brand launches a new perfume, there tends to be a basic cliché blueprint: it's targeted at a youth audience, is fronted by a super famous it-face, but has a pretty underwhelming scent.
The latest perfume launch of 2019 is Lancômes colossal new release, Idôle, and their first in seven years, so it's a big deal. On the surface, its a very lovely scent (tick) for young women (tick) and fronted by Zendaya (tick).
However, at GLAMOUR we like to explore all facets of sustainable beauty (to sniff out the greenwashing bullsh*t that masquerades as responsible), plus, we're always on the lookout for the feminist angle. That's why we know all too well that its not just about a nice smell; its the bigger picture and whether the bottle, packaging, ingredients, message, consumer stereotyping, campaign, and company ethos collectively build a positive and progressive product thats really worth your investment.
Advertisement
Lancôme Idôle, quite amazingly, hits the mark on so many of these points, proving there's actually a whole lot more substance to this fragrant story.
We've smelt over 500 fragrances to find the best perfumes of all time, here they are…
The scent
But first, before we delve a little deeper, lets talk about that smell. Idôle is a gentle, refreshing and rose-laced floral perfume. Its inoffensive, dewy and sparklingly light, with the type of rose thats wet and apple-crisp, snipped at sunrise and plunged into a tin bucket of ice. The perfumers (more on them later) created a Clean and Glow accord to evoke just-damp laundry drying in the morning sun. And theres a creamy jasmine note that anchors it down into your skins pores, which warms up throughout the day and seeps into your clothes, hair, partner. Combined, these aromas create a happy-splashy perfume thats soft, safe and easygoing. Which is confusing, because everything else about Idôle is punchy, powerful and disruptive. Heres why:
So not an average bottle
At just 15mm thick, it is the slimmest bottle in the world to date and doesnt actually stand up. Its designed to slip into your back pocket, or lay on your bedside table, or hold up to your ear if you need to pretend to take a call when you see a frenemy across the street. I made that last bit up. Designed by Algerian architect Chafik Gasmi, it is unnerving and genius, fragile and ballsy in equal doses.
Advertisement
The perfumers totally break the mould
Usually big brand epic scents like these are made by elegant French gentlemen who have practised perfumery for 40 years. There is nothing bad about this AT ALL – they are true artists and skilled beyond belief – but if youre going to make a socially-aware scent for young women then bring your project closer to home.
For Idôle, three women perfumers were commissioned to collaborate together: Malasian-born Shyamala Maisondieu, Nadege Le Garlantezec from Paris and Columbian-born Adriana Medina, who fused their cultures and passion for sustainable ingredients together into a universal and inclusive scent for all women.
Advertisement
The face is feminism reloaded
American actor, singer and model Zendaya has been fighting for womens rights, WOC inclusion, non-gender-stereotyping and media bullying since 2013, when she ripped apart the role Disney prescribed to her for K.C. Undercover. She insisted her character was socially awkward, smart and skilled in martial arts, instead of miraculously gifted in singing and dancing. She demanded to be a producer and changed the shows name (from Super Awesome Katy – cringe).
Since then, shes been a professional boundary-pusher: on style (hello, Met Gala cyber Cinderella), on stage (her speeches remind young people of their responsibility and power), on social (shes openly shamed publications that digitally slim down and manipulate her body) and on scre
