Poeme

I have never loved a perfume as much as this one. Wow. After learning Poeme was discontinued, I immediately bought another sealed one. The profile on this one is personally a masterful combination. I think I get as many compliments on this one as I do when I wear Guerlain. My mind equates it to liquid gold in a bottle. And it’s definitely a bombshell— I’ve had encounters where others have asked what I’m wearing when I’m several feet from them. Others have admitted they’re ‘obsessed with whatever I’ve been wearing’. I don’t blame them. I, too, am obsessed with this blasted perfume. True to notes listed, especially the amber. Every part of it is my favorite. (The first spritz is by far the best, but smelling my wrist or my arms is also wonderful after a few hours.) It still amazes me how good of a blind buy this was. On my first sniff, I wasn't expecting Poeme to smell so 'golden'. It was like being transcended. That afternoon was warm and sunny, along with my room, and it might have elevated the experience: Ironically, I remember the first opening being almost offensive, since I hadn't smelled that combination before. In hindsight, it might have been the Himalayan Poppy note, as it was new for me at the time. A 'pronounced clean', one I suspected would end up becoming astringent. I was half-worried the purchase would be a flop. But within seconds, I quickly reconsidered. The opening went from 'offensive' to mesmerizing-- then deepened, as a really long hug would. Every middle note is either one I already like or love, and the combination of them was the reason I originally made the blind buy. To this day, I’m thoroughly impressed and intoxicated by the balance of floral, sweet, clean and warm this scent gives. For the base, I was already a fan of the majority of notes. I will admit I don't detect any orange blossom, however. If it's a small amount, it's easily overpowered by the amber and musk. Poeme is warm and romantic, but something about it is incredibly vivacious and bold-- and is in every way deserving of its title. After more than a year, I still wear it with the same passion I had after the first application. I find that astounding. I feel I can't argue its longevity. In a perfect world, I would be smelling it forever, haha. In reality, I would say it lasts until mid-afternoon, which is lovely. Around that time, I usually layer on a travel perfume after lunch, so it works out. But gosh, if it would just stay, I would be quite a happy girl. As with any perfume, I find it changes every season, and my reason for loving it depends on the morning I apply. There has yet to be a day where I’ve grown tired of it. I always feel elegant, confident and assertive when I wear Poeme. I also feel like it’s a perfect chord-- one of those scents you can wear at any time. In the day, its composition is joyful. In the evening, its silage is powerful, yet remains feminine. It makes such a statement without needing spicier or stronger notes. Not to sound doting (as if I haven't already done so), but even the decanter is admirable. Its simplistic design and gold finish complete the scent holistically. All said, I’m heartbroken this one is discontinued. Still, as all things do knowingly come to an end, I feel at heart, this is part of the masterpiece itself. In that light, I'm so glad I’ve had the chance to experience it. A true poem-- one I will continue enjoying it until I can no longer find authentic bottles of it. Update 2026: I know I posted this awhile back, but I wanted to express how overjoyed I am to learn this fragrance has returned. Thank you so much, Lancôme. It truly is my forever fragrance, and I'm sure others who love it will be equally pleased.

First test of a brand new bottle of the newest formulation purchased directly from a major US authorized distributor - This is gorgeous. I'd keep it in my collection forever if I could. It's rich and smells expensive. I basically read it as "purely floral." Yes, there are many other notes, but it's predominantly floral with a sweet floral slightly clean musky base. Maybe a small touch of woods. It's realistic. It's yellow. It does remind me of Amarige by Givenchy, which was more "white floral" leaning but has some similar yellow facets as Poeme. Also get tiny doses of Fracas occasionally. I'm a tuberose junkie and collect every realistic tuberose-y white floral I can afford. This is probably the most gorgeous yellow floral I've ever smelled. I'd keep it in the same category as my tuberose perfumes, even though I this isn't a tuberose scent. It's just so fresh, realistic, and beautiful. Update: after subsequent wearings I’m afraid I need to agree with the other reviewers that the newest formulations have very little lasting power or projection. They open heavily but begin rapidly fading after 20 minutes. I need to heavily spray all over and keep spraying to get this to last. I let my bottle settle for a month. No improvement yet. I sprayed 20 sprays into my cotton sweater that holds fragrance forever, then changed my mind about the days plans and took it off and showered. 3 hours after applying, I pulled the sweater out of the hamper and can only smell Poeme when I shove my nose in the sweater and sniff hard. I can barely detect it, only maybe 2 notes remain... I have no issue smelling my other perfumes on my other dirty clothes that were worn days up to a week ago. Wow, honestly shocking how poor the longevity is. Honestly considering returning this. I can’t seem to find any reasonably priced vintage full bottles left. I mostly find eBay sellers claiming their bottle is vintage but batch code shows it was made 6 -8 years ago. What a pity. I will still enjoy this bottle, but it makes me sad now where when I first tested it made me so happy. My opinion of Lancôme has dropped even lower now. I have tried many of their current scents on the market and only really like 2, and only like 1 enough to own. The others are obviously dead from reformulation with expensive prices and no lasting power, or just blends that I’m really not into for one reason or another. I’m a sucker for perfume and will generally like most scents I try. Something needs to be drowning in off putting notes, more expensive than a mortgage payment, or have zero ability to perform for me to dislike it. It’s rare that I LOVE something. I LOVE the way Poeme smells. I hate the way it performs now. I guess it doesn’t matter as she’s being cancelled, probably due to poor sales of the newest short-lived formulation & corporate sales goals assuming this scent wasn’t selling enough, failing to foresee the upcoming trend of Gen Z and Millenials who are starting to seek out more vintage classic scents. Poeme is such a better scent than everything else Lancôme makes, how could they do this to her? 😩

Poeme was a calculated blind buy, and I'm loving it more all the time. I'm continually impressed by how it changes by season. When I first got a mini (7.5ml spray) at the beginning of this spring, I smelled narcissus and artificial grape (many florals do; I'm not sure which was doing that in this case). My second mini (4ml splash) smelled of narcissus, vanilla, and tuberose. The 30ml partial bottle I got, halfway through this spring, showed the mimosa and vanilla; at which point, the tuberose and narcissus became harder to perceive. Today, with near record setting highs for my area (about 109F/43C), I smell the linden blossom. I wore Dame Perfumery's Soliflore Linden Blossom oil rollerball earlier today and I kept thinking I was smelling Poeme. (Sniffing from the bottles, Poeme is more symphonic and complex, and SLB is more plasticky, but after a couple hours on the skin, those differences are far less pronounced.) Poeme has many of my problematic notes: orange blossom, ylang ylang, peach and tonka, but they're blended well enough that I can't specifically identify any of them. I guess they're present to add even more white florals and yellow tones. Thankfully, this perfume is old enough that when musk and cedar are listed, the perfume usually isn't a harsh aromachemical mess, and this one is no exception. It smells as if it were made with more than 90% real natural ingredients, and does not come across as synthetic at all. To me, Poeme contains nothing dark or dangerous or skanky or poisonous, as some people describe. I don't know exactly what datura smells like. Poeme just smells like a beam of sunlight on a bright spring day. It is neither old fashioned nor sexy, but just classic and beautiful, and never out of style. It is a really straightforward daytime perfume that is so well-blended that it feels like a simple perfume. I can only detect one or two notes at a time. Three, if you count the vanilla, which seems like its only purpose is just to underscore the sweetness of the florals. It doesn't add much sweetness of its own here. In cool and warm weather, I felt like Poeme had great sillage for an hour or so, but that it would soon "burn itself out" and ultimately not last long on my skin. I'd always bring it with me and refresh every few hours. In the hot weather, be careful not to overspray (and I say this as a massive oversprayer!!!) because I did this the other day after it started getting hot. I was afraid I'd ruined myself of one of my favorite perfumes. Thankfully, I still love it tonight. I sprayed only 2 sprays about 45 minutes ago, and on my wrists only, and I'm happy to report that it is no longer cloying. It can be found with a bit of patience, for reasonable prices on ebay.

Well, as a true classic, there's very little i could say that has not been said before about Poeme. This is a wonderful greeny, powdery yellow floral. I mainly get narcissus, mimosa, ylang and greenery. Can't make out any of the fruit nor vanilla really. Timeless, elegant, but not pretentious. The newer formulations are kind of trash though, I have victoria's secret body mists that last longer. I had the opportunity to spray on the tester several times at my old retail job just by batting my lashes at my lancome coworker. Fabulous, but couldn't smell it after an hour. The current status of this perfume is very confusing. Lancome themselves issued a statement saying it had been discontinued from production in 2021. Yet in my country important retailers and department stores still carry it, as a matter of fact I just went into my country's official Lancome website and there it is, added it to my cart just to test and all green lights... Not really sure what's up with that. With the rather vocal social media outcry for them to bring it back and not discontinue it i would assume that even older batches would be gone from these channels, right? Perhaps they listened to these people back in 2021 and they started to produce them again, without making much of an announcement? At any rate you're better off safari hunting for a vintage piece. I will confess that while i've owned the real deal, what I currently have as "Poeme" is an inspiration, which smells virtually the same but lasts SO much longer that my pal's modern tester at the store. This is the kind of perfume that a lot of starbucks-fueled, platinum-highlights-on-brown-hair hunnies that are pushing 40 will call "old lady smell", "granny smell", etc, without realizing the mysogynistic, ageist, and frankly weird connotations that has. You can chalk all of those comments to being brought up on pink sugar, dkny be delicious and kayali though, this is a solid, yellow floral gem that has no age. I was born in 1998 and I love it. I think this sentiment is adscribed to any perfume that's sufficiently heady; and yellow and white florals are thus often caught in that fire. Poeme is heady alright. In a somewhat similar vein to Paloma Piccasso's eponymous, but replace the hyacinth there for narcissus, and not nearly as boozy. I personally don't find any other perfume from Lancome as tantalizing as Poeme. La vie est belle and most flankers make me dizzy with this raisiny, dry fruit or figgy element I get. La nuit tresor charmed me when i first smelled it, but i took a u-turn as soon as i actually wore it. hypnose, Ö, forgettable to me, frankly... Many people will hate Poeme, Luca Turin hates Poeme, I hear. I will wear it either way.

Pôeme is one of the most beautiful things I've ever put my nose to. I have a vintage bottle so I can't speak for the reformulated modern version, and I should gatekeep but this is too good, I need the world to know how much I love it lol Inside the box is a poem in French: 'tu es le grand soleil qui me monte à la tête tu es comme la mer tu berces les étoiles' - 'You are the great sun that rises to my head You are like the sea, you rock the stars' I keep going back in disbelief, how can it smell THIS good?? How do I even describe this bonified treasure? Well first of all, I'll be buying another vintage bottle for backup. It has a fantastic sillage, a very respectable scent bubble, and it smells like something a day care attendant would wear, someone who's Serene and has a beautiful face, and her playful and patient behavior is etched into someones memory from when they were a child. They wish they could go back, and then they smell this and it takes them there. To the side of their 90's childhood that's rarely represented. Pôeme is giving Whimsigoth core. It's giving a warm gust filled with the petals from the flowers that bloom towards the end of Spring and at the precipice of summer. It's Yellow florals done right. It's spiritual in the way that someone who knows nothing about religion would be spiritual, talking to the moon and stars at night on a walk in the park down the street from their safe and cute suburban neighborhood where everyone goes big on decorations for the holidays. It's a floral for an adult, but by no means is it a Vieja Cuchi, this isn't and older woman's scent, it's a woman in her 30's or 40's who hasn't lost touch with her inner child. It's sweet in the way flowers or fruits are sweet, it feels natural, bright, cheerful, playful, all of that in a mature but youthful way, if you can imagine that paradox. I can't get over just how special this is, there's nothing else quite like it. It's signature scent worthy 100%. I feel more sure of this as a signature more than anything else. The problem is that I don't know how it compares to the modern version. I'll have to get a modern bottle to see. I hear that it's much less rich and 3 dimensional now, post-reformulation. Also the juice is super dark and would definitely stain whites so you have to wear colors with it which is kinda cool actually. And if I could attribute an astrological sign to it, it'd be Cancer for sure. Like a Cancer sun, Aquarius moon, and Pisces rising. Gorgeous scent, I can't praise it enough, this was such a good purchase 😁