French Scents

Aren’t these vintage perfume ads for Lancôme simply gorgeous? I tore them from a Greek magazine many years ago. Unfortunately I can’t make scents of it at all, (it’s all Greek to me, teehee!) – and there does not seem to be any indication of dates alongside the images. From the style I am guessing that these were created in the 1930s and 40s. 

… the name ‘Lancôme’ was inspired by the ruins of a castle …

The beauty brand was founded by Armand Petitjean in Paris in 1935. According to Wikipedia, the name ‘Lancôme’ was inspired by the ruins of a castle, le Château de Lancosme, while the roses in the area inspired the company’s symbol of the single golden rose. These early ads don’t carry a logo at all however.

They sure don’t design ads the way they used to though, do they? How much more evocative are these than the style of today’s beauty advertisements, with their brash typography and endless array of airbrushed Hollywood actresses? It’s the age-old argument of illustration versus photography, and I for one am happy to see illustration returning a little to the fore in magazines these days. Variety is the spice of life after all.