La vie est belle women’s fragrance has been a game-changer for Lancôme.

“What really made Lancôme a three-axes-strong powerhouse was the success of La vie est belle,” said Cyril Chapuy, global president of L’Oréal Luxe, of the 2012 launch. “Before that, Lancôme was strong in skin care and makeup, but was very regional in fragrances.”

The scent, whose name translates into “life is beautiful,” became a global sensation and success. It ranked number one in Europe in 2024 for the 11th consecutive year, and is among the top five worldwide and first in France.

“It’s a major icon,” Chapuy said. “This is one of the key milestones of Lancôme.”

Rewind 13 years to delve into the behind-the-scenes making of La vie est belle, when Lancôme was angling for another iconic fragrance like Trésor, which was relaunched in 1990. While there were other scents in its stable, such as Ô de Lancôme and Miracle, none had achieved blockbuster status.

The scent was supposed to be a declaration of the brand and define a point of view on the world, as well as give a taste of its future.

After broad fragrance trends — the 1980s perfumes were broadly about a quest for power; the 1990s, about gender-bending and minimalism, and the 2000s about victory of materialism — La vie est belle was meant to channel the subtle triumph of being not tied to possessions and appearances, and the personal fulfillment and self-realization that ushers in.

Lancôme saw women as paving their own pathways of happiness in new directions and the scent as embracing the “less but better” philosophy. Chiming with that, the fragrance created by IFF perfumers Olivier Polge, Dominque Ropion and Anne Flipo, included just 63 ingredients, rather than the hundreds typically found in perfumes. 

Olfactively, La vie est belle was billed as the first tasty iris scent. It has noble ingredients, such as iris, absolutes of sambac jasmine and Tunisian orange blossom, and fractionated Indonesian patchouli essence. It also includes a gourmand accord, including vanilla, tonka bean, praline, black currant and pear. 

For the bottle, Lancôme’s design team mined the archives. In 1949, the brand’s then-artistic director Georges Delhomme created a miniature bottle only offered to VIP clients, since it was difficult to produce industrially. In the flacon’s square was an arced, smile shape. La vie est belle took that form, and around its neck has an organza ribbon with loose ends, to symbolize wings of freedom.

Julia Roberts was cherry-picked as the ambassador for her joyful femininity, sincerity and personal path of happiness.She remains its face to this day.

Director Tarsem Singh lensed the original campaign in which Roberts arrives at a party chock-a-block with beautiful people. She becomes increasingly ill-at-ease until she sees, reflected in a mirror, that no one acts on their own free will. People’s movements are being directed by diamond-studded strands attached to their wrists, like puppets. Her decision is to break those threads and go for the path of happiness.

Françoise Lehmann, who was Lancôme’s global brand president prior to stepping down in July, said La vie est belle sealed Lancôme’s sense of purpose: to be a brand of happiness. She explained the product’s secret sauce was “a great juice, a great bottle, an extraordinary brand and a wonderful icon. It still remains an unstoppable secret sauce.” Line extensions, such as La vie est belle Vanille Nude, Rose Extraordinaire and Iris Absolu, have helped keep the momentum going, as have campaign updates. 

“The recent launch under La vie est belle Elixir recruited a new consumer to the brand,” Lehmann said. The fragrance garnered a number of Fragrance Foundation awards, in both France and the U.S.

La vie est belle was pivotal for two reasons — one for Lancôme and the other as part of a divisional strategy, according to Nicolas Hieronimus, chief executive officer of L’Oréal, who was overseeing L’Oréal Luxe when it launched. Hieronimus noticed then that the division had strong positions in the men’s scent category, with Acqua di Giò from Armani Beauty and Polo from Ralph Lauren Fragrances, but that it was quite weak on feminine fragrances. 

“We made a very strategic and conscious decision to increase the percentage and the quality of naturals and of concentrates in the fragrances,” Hieronimus said. La vie est belle was the first, followed with Sì by Armani, and Libre and Black Opium from Yves Saint Laurent Beauté.

Today, L’Oréal Luxe has a better share in feminine fragrances than in masculine scents. “So it was a step up in quality — quality in juices, in also the bottle,” said Hieronimus. “It was, of course, a great scent, but it was also a very important move for Lancôme because it made a statement about [its] level of luxury,” he continued. “In the end, fragrance is what defines how aspirational you can be. It was also the embodiment of the positioning of Lancôme as this brand that provides happiness.”

In 2022, Lancôme feted La vie est belle’s 10th anniversary with a party held in Paris’ Petit Palais museum, which was bathed in pink light. At the time, Lehmann said: “The notion of La vie est belle has changed. But it’s still a notion that appeals very much to women, and they take it seriously. It’s something that speaks to women in an authentic way. That’s the magic of this name — it touches everyone.”