In one of my favorite reviews in Perfumes: The A-Z Guide, Luca Turin tells of seeing a busty woman on the London Underground wearing a tee shirt that read “All this and brains too.” He compares that “vulgar-but-wily combination” to Lancôme Trésor.
Trésor’s apricot-tinged rose is the pulchritude, and the vetiver is the intellect. I get it. But to me the rose is more Dinah Shore than Jayne Mansfield, and the vetiver doesn’t quite rate Mensa. That’s o.k. Trésor is entering its third decade not because it’s a sensual shock, but because it’s a crowd pleaser.
Perfumer Sophia Grojsman created Trésor. It launched in 1990. Lancôme’s website calls Trésor a floral oriental and lists its top notes as apricot blossom and rose; its heart as lilac, iris, and peach; and its base as amber, sandalwood, musk, and vanilla. Grojsman’s oeuvre is heavy with mouthwatering combinations of flowers and fruit, including Yves Saint Laurent Yvresse, Bill Blass Nude, and Prescriptives Calyx. Trésor fits right in.
Trésor is primarily a rose fragrance. Although it’s a peach-inflected rose, it isn’t the juicy, dizzying rose-peach of Guerlain Nahéma. It’s a drier, old fashioned rose dusted with chalky powder. Don’t think of the classic rose-violet combos, though. Trésor doesn’t smell like face powder or lipstick. Its amber and vanilla are reined in. Clean musk, a hint of jasmine, and rooty vetiver steer the fragrance away from Crabtree & Evelyn territory and give it a modern feel.
Not too modern, though. That’s Trésor’s beauty. Trésor feels familiar and comforting with its pale, fruity rose, yet too clean and vaporous to smell like drawer liner. Somehow I’d guess both Queen Victoria and Anne Hathaway might wear it happily. Trésor must be a magic ticket for thousands of people each holiday season as they search for a bottle of perfume appropriate for their grandma, aunt, girlfriend, mother-in-law, or pet sitter. It’s hard to imagine anyone not liking the fragrance — or, at least it’s hard to imagine anyone actively disliking it. The bottle is gorgeous, too.
The flip side is that it’s hard to imagine anyone struck with wild passion for Trésor. After wearing it for four days straight (o.k., I cheated a little on evenings), I have the same enthusiasm for it that I have for a pleasantly scented shampoo. It’s nice. But if I never wore it again, that would be all right, too.
Trésor Eau de Parfum has moderate sillage and lasts four or five hours on my skin. My samples were a mini that is at least three years old and a sample I made from a tester at Nordstrom this week, and I couldn’t discern a difference.
To twist an old saying: One girl’s meh is another’s Trésor. Are you passionate about Trésor one way or another? Maybe you love it — or hate it. Let us know.
Lancôme Trésor is available at most department stores and comes in Eau de Parfum (30 ml to 100 ml, $49 to $89), Eau de Toilette (not easily found in the US; 30 ml to 100 ml, 44€ to 90€) and Extrait de Parfum (7.5 ml, $87). You can also find body lotion, body crème and shower gel.
I have passed by this bottle a hundred times walking through the Macy’s cosmetics department. I never thought to try it thinking it would be too old fashioned for me (I’m in my late twenties). Now I think I will at least give it a spray next time I walk by. Thanks for the review, as always!
It’s such a stalwart, it really is worth trying just to know what it smells like.
Am I the only one? I loathe Tresor! On my skin there is a really sharp note that reminds me of sour canned fruit and floor cleaner. This note gradually becomes overpowering until I have run to wash it off and in the grand tradition of true scrubbers, water only makes it stronger!! This is banned from my collection. I gave my bottle to a friend who loves it and wears it well – but not around me…
I hate it, too. My late mother-in-law wore massive amounts of it, & I get queasy just thinking about it. There’s something really suffocating about it as well.
It didn’t smell overwhelming on me, but I admit I didn’t venture beyond a spritz or two from my sample vial.
Yikes! That sounds horrible! I hope it smells better on your friend.
I also hate Tresor. It has always been overwhelming and headache inducing fragrance for me. O do not get any rose in it, at least on my skin.. Just some kind of strange cocktail…
I have the same problems with Dior”s J’Adore, that a lot of people love…
It seems my assumption Tresor is pleasant but not passion-inducing is wrong! Lots of people really don’t like it.
I get that same disgusting sharp note from the current version of Tresor, but believe me: when it was first released, it was ravishing. Some reformulation along the way has done terrible things to it. I just can’t enjoy it any more.
That’s too bad! Now I wish I could have smelled the original version.
Same here — the current version of Tresor turns my stomach. It’s just wrong, both sharp and stale. (I once compared it to Echinacea cough drops.) I do like Jaipur, a rosy apricot also by Grojsman.
I haven’t smelled Jaipur for years, but now I really want to.
Trésor was the first ‘real’ perfume I ever owned. My grandmother who was the most glamourous lady in the world to me when I was a child wore it — seriously, this woman looked like strawberry blonde Hedy Lamarr in her youth & even to this day is lovely. I remember at age 14 buying a bottle of it for myself to wear to a Spring dance. My mum hated it, of course, as she did all perfume so I had to spray it on sparingly whenever I was home.
I haven’t worn Trésor in over a decade & probably wouldn’t as I don’t really fancy being suddenly transported back to 9th grade, but I did sniff it a year or so ago at Nordstrom & it was like being 14 again. It also made me think of my grandmother who I rarely see these days. Somehow, though, rose fragrances remind me of her as well even though I can’t recall her ever wearing a rose perfume. I think they remind me of her powder room, rather than any particular perfume.
Interestingly, my fiance’s grandmother wore Trésor, as well. So we both have that same association w/ the perfume.
I do love smelling it on others, but I just don’t think I’d ever be able to wear it again myself.
I know lots of those perfumes, too–perfumes I love smelling on others but don’t want to wear myself (or can’t wear well myself). It’s nice when fragrance reminds you of someone you love, though.
And then I realize that this is considered a rose perfume. Is it really? I never got any rose from it somehow. Oops. To me it was always peach, and only peach. Maybe I need to sniff it again and see if I can detect any rose.
To me it’s pretty rosy, with the peach only a secondary note, but maybe it doesn’t play the same way on everyone.
Admittedly, when I wear a rose it tends to be a full out rose fragrance like Rose Essentielle or my latest acquisition Lady Vengeance. I honestly never considered this a rose & in doing so completely missed any mention of it while reading the review and just saw peach, peach, peach! Might explain the rose association w/ my grandmother.
Somehow, roses and grandmas go together so nicely, anyway!
Tresor is not very modern fragrance, so my comment is a little out of place, but I never smell any rose in all the modern fragrances that claim to be “rose” fragrances – I only be able to smell something sweet in them, I can’t even say it’s a smell of flowers.. I don’t know, maybe I’m not good at recognizing notes despite all the “training”
Now, Sa Majeste la Rose IS rose…
Rose comes in a lot of different “flavors,” some less garden-rose than others, but Sa Majeste is indeed rose and then some!
It was my very first ‘proper’ perfume too. I was maybe 13 or 14 or so when I appropriated a miniature from my mother. I loved it and even though I haven’t smelled it in years I still think of it quite fondly. I might just re-visit to see how I feel about it now.
It would be so interesting to see how it affects you now: how you like it, if it brings back memories, etc. If you do try it again, please report back!
Yes, I think it will be interesting. I’m not expecting any Proustian moments but I am curious to see if 1- I’ll still like it, 2 – what my impressions will be now that I can judge it from a more educated perspective and 3 – how the current formula compares to from how it smelled back in the 90s
All worthy reasons to test it again.
I actually quite like Trésor, not for myself, but it is nice.
it reminds me of Chanel No5, it smells kind of similar I guess but not really, and it’s more likeable than No5.
am I right in saying this is Lancôme’s best known perfume?
like No5 is Chanel’s?
my grandma’s sister on my dad’s side (we just call her Aunty) doesn’t wear many other perfumes than Trésor. she absolutley adores it, and for good reasons, it smells great on her! she hardly wears anything else.
my mum got my grandma (my other Grandma) Trésor in love this year and she really likes that. though my mum sprayed a tester strip of original Trésor one time when we were shopping and my grandma said she liked that too. my mum said it would be a good idea to get my grandma it for Christmas. so I got her the 30ml gift set from Boots.
To me, Tresor is Lancome’s best known. It seems to get the most advertising, too. It sounds like Tresor is almost the family perfume for the women in your family. I hope your grandmother loves the gift you’re giving her! It sounds like she’ll be very happy.
You know, I agree with you – I find Tresor eminently likeable. But when I was working fragrance retail, there was a line of the usual suspects saying it was ‘too heavy.’ I think some associate with the last of the heady days of high sillage in the early 90s.
Personally, I find it likeable, but I’d almost certainly never buy a bottle – I don’t think I would for any of Lancome’s current line. Unless you count Cuir de Lancome, which I’d have to buy online unsniffed, but is kind of calling my name.
Cuir de Lancome is so darned cheap online, too. If you like softer leathers, it would be hard to go too wrong, even unsniffed.
2nd this.
I really think I have to do it. Light floral leather = a sweet spot. And it’s going for a song!
I will put it another vote for this unsniffed purchase (one of the BEST ones I ever went for)…I would bet you will love it and buy a back-up asap
I agree. Not a big leather fan, but I bought Cuir de Lancome unsniffed and then when it became apparent to me that I was going to go THROUGH that bottle (even with all the others I own), I bought another one as soon as I could find one. Love Cuir.
same here. the only perfume I bought FB unsniffed, and it was instant and permanent love, thanks God
Lucky you!
My mom once wore Tresor, I’m guessing around the mid-90s, after having worn Eternity (interestingly, another Grojsman composition). Mom generally sticks to one fragrance at a time; I think once she tired of Tresor she switched to Allure. (These days she eschews the department-store perfumes and wears either Body Shop White Musk or BBW Japanese Cherry Blossom.)
I think it was Susan Irvine’s Perfume Guide that described Tresor as a “hug me” fragrance, which seems apt. I like Tresor, but there are many fragrances I like better.
“Hug me” is a good description of Tresor! I feel the same way as you about it, it sounds like. It’s fine, but not something I’d ever swoon over.
I rarely magnify notes, but in Tresor, the peach grew and grew and grew until it resembled James and Giant Peach (nod to Roald Dahl). Since I’m not fond of peach, I’m not fond of Tresor for me, at least. It’s perfectly nice on other, non-peach-magnifiers.
Isn’t it amazing the things you learn about yourself when you wear perfume? Being a peach-magnifier, for instance. How many people know those kinds of things about themselves?
I have the same problem with fig. I love the taste of them, and I used to by fragrances with fig (Marc Jacobs for men, JM Wild Fig and Cassis), but I had to give them away. Fig seems to overpower my senses, and that note seems to get stronger over time.
I respect it, but can’t wear it.
A fig amplifier! I can make a drop of patchouli into a suffocating wave, so I know what you mean about notes that grow.
Me too. Years ago when I would try to wear Angel, which I had in a mini bottle, I would barely touch the tip of a Q-tip to the opening of the bottle and then barely graze my skin with the Q-tip once and it still became wildly strong!
As for Tresor I never got any rose from it, only peach. Must try again.
I still smell like the patchouli from yesterday’s application of Bottega Veneta, even though I covered it over with Tresor Live in Love a little while ago. (I like the BV better, by the way.)
..not “Live in Love” but simply “In Love.”
Tresor is too strong for me… A coworker used to wear it in the mid-90s.. not headache inducing but “stuffy rose” to me…
Now Tresor In Love… That is wonderful to my nose!
I picked up a sample of Tresor in Love and the new flanker, but I haven’t smelled them yet. I’ll go try Tresor in Love right now!
Yes, Tresor is a classic beauty that I admire:).
Tresor In Love is lovely..but the lasting power is very weak on me. So, it’s not worthy of the price tag to me.
Midnight Rose-Raspberry Bubblicicious bubble gum opening, ending with a strange musky scent. Not a fan.
I was afraid that might be true of the Midnight Rose. I just had that feeling, and thanks for confirming it before I got too carried away with the sample.
“But to me the rose is more Dinah Shore than Jayne Mansfield….”
I had to laugh at that because I found Tresor’s rose/peach to be more Dolly Parton – both the woman and the rose of the same name (a huge rose with matching sillage). Count me in the crowd that finds Tresor suffocating.
Great review as always though!
You got more of a punch of peach from it than I did. I love the Dolly comparison, though, even if it was less bodacious on me!
I absolutely adore it still,went through 2 bottle way back but it now brings back some memories that i would rather forget.
Oh, I know how that goes….
Hmm, I wonder how I missed Tresor as a twenty-something when it first came out? I was totally into the sillage monsters back then. I must have been too busy with Samsara and Tuscany per Donna. I think a trip to the dept. store perfume counter is in order to sample this. I love and own FB’s of all the other Grojsman frags mentioned in this article; YSL Yvresse, BB Nude and Calyx.
I love that you do reviews for older, mainstream frags that are still available, not just the latest and greatest, niche or rare and hard-to-find!
I was surprised we hadn’t done Tresor earlier, really. There are so, so many fragrances out there that it’s hard to keep up, let alone review the old favorites!
I love Trésor. I think I am on my 3rd bottle, since it came out. Mind you I don’t wear it often, but it fills an occasional need, somehow. I think it has been altered. The EDT is very different from the EDP, and even the EDP seems to have changed. My bottle is I think nearly 10 years old. I like more of Grojsman’s work. YSL Paris ( definitely reformulated), YSL Yvresse, Prescriptives Calyx and EL White Linen.
And thank you for the review!
Three bottles is a testament of love, in my opinion! Heck, if I use a full bottle of anything, it’s a miracle.
Well 3 in 16 years , and the third is still nearly full.
Till 2007 or so I would only have 2 maybe 3 bottles at a time, but yes I do really like it.
I must have used up at least 8 bottles of YSL Paris since I first started wearing it. Maybe even more. Now I doubt I will finish any of my more recently acquired bottles, they multiply at an amazing rate.
I see–I would have stood a much better chance of using up full bottles ten years ago, as well. You’ve done a great job at Paris, too!
I agree that Trésor may be a “magic ticket” item for the holiday gift buyer, but judging from the number of full (or near-full) bottles I spy in thrift stores or on flea market tables, the receiver might not be as enthusiastic. I’m not saying Trésor’s a bad perfume, I just think blind buys for gift-giving is a risky business. Better to give a gift certificate and let the fragrance wearer in your life choose a scent that’s to their own taste.
That’s for sure. People can’t seem to resist giving bottles of perfume, though. It’s so risky.
I wore Tresor for several years as a teen/young woman- I will have to sniff it sometime to see what my older nose thinks about it. It is funny to think of myself at that age- like a young person I KNOW but who is not me. Thanks for the post Angela.
What a great way to describe a feeling from smelling a fragrance you wore long ago!
Some of the gals on MUA’s fragrance board recomment Tresor body lotion. I’ve been meaning to try this. Thanks for the review!
I didn’t try the lotion. I’d be interested to see how different it is. Thanks for the tip!
I had some 10 years ago and really tried to wear it but it wasy always too sweet, too floral for work. I tried again a couple of weeks ago and found not only is it too sweet, but I really really don’t like it.
Must have a massive advertising budget
Money saved for you! Yes, I think it really does have a big budget. At least, I see Tresor ads all the time, it seems.
Thank you for the beautifully written review, Angela.
Tresor was my mother’s signature scent when I was younger. My father bought her many beautiful perfumes, but Tresor was by far my mother’s favorite. She had both the Eau de Parfum, and the Pure Parfum of it. She would let me wear some to family weddings. I have such fond memories of my mother’s perfume collection, especially Tresor.
It sounds like you need a little bit of the fragrance yourself, so you can smell it from time to time and relive happy memories and people you love.
It is funny you say that, because I have been considering buying a bottle of Tresor for that precise reason.
Perfect! I bet you could even get a mini if you were strapped for cash and just wanted to smell a hint of it from time to time.
I remember when this came out: instead of scent strips, there were silk rose petals scented with this in the duty free shops. At the time it was too powdery for me, but every now and then I search for a vintage bottle on ebay.
Speaking of Sophia Grojsman, a recent post mentioned that she was going to be doing a perfume with Frederic Malle – THAT should be fun! I’m looking forward, but I bet it will be STRONG.
I bet it will be amazing! She worked with Malle on Outrageous, too, I’m pretty sure.
Trésor became my signature scent as soon as it came out, I stopped wearing it when gained in popularity, maybe that was one of the first signs of a budding snobbish perfumista?
Anyway, I have the impression that it is no longer what it was, so I wouldn’t even want to try it again.
It would be so interesting to try it again, though! And it’s easy to find. All the same, there are plenty of other fragrances to try if you’re finished with this one.
I just guess my tastes have evolved, Trésor is far away in my past and not all memories of that time are good, so I don’t need a “madeleines de Proust” moment. Anyway, I no longer believe in signature scents and I need more time in the morning for deciding what scent to spray/dab on than in actual dressing
My signature scent days are long over, too. It’s a blessing and a curse (although more of a blessing, for sure).
I actually liked Tresor when I sampled it. I first came to know of it from a friend of mine who wore it back in her early teens and in those years most fragrances come from mothers’ perfume wardrobes. My curiosity to test Tresor arouse from her actually. It’s too strong upon first application but it’s beautiful at the same time. The notes that my nose picks the most are peach and rose and then slowly when it settled some more notes emerged but I couldn’t identify each separately, rather it was a combination on the whole.
It sounds like Tresor really works for you! It’s nice to like a perfume that is easy to test and buy.
Angela, if you find it difficult to imagine someone actively disliking it, try to imagine someone being anosmic to it.
That person is me.
The name Tresor was reverently whispered by a guy I had a hopeless crush on. It was the HG of his ex, whom he still adored. No wonder I was eager to try it, and when presented with one of those miniature collections sold in airports, the first flacon I opened was Tresor.
It did not, and it does not, to this day, smell much of anything. Something musty, a stale smell that does not project. Lovely Kate Winslet is peachy and feminine and a great choice with the flacon and the olfactive pyramid and the image. But she could have done better.
In the beginning one might say I wanted to dislike it because try as I might, my crush much preferred the shadow of a Tresor-fragrant woman who forgot he existed. But as years went buy, the crush faded, the perfumista emerged and I did want to do Tresor justice. To no avail.
The perfect peach oriental – alas, discontinued – is for me to this day my much beloved Mira Bai from Chopard. If anyone hears of a bottle anywhere, I beg you, let me know. No rose there, but then I have never been a rose person.
Love your review, Angela, as always
What a great story! (The writer in me is searching for the symbolism of the mysterious “other woman” whose fragrance you couldn’t smell.)
If I see any Mira Bal out there, you’ll be the first I let know.
I bought Trésor shortly after its release, perhaps hoping that wearing it would magically endow me with some measure of spokesmodel Isabella Rossellini’s striking beauty and lovable charm. Considering its popularity at the time, I think a lot of other women were thinking along those same lines.:)
My taste has changed greatly in the past 20 years, and Trésor now seems suffocating to me. About five years ago I had a co-worker who wore it as her signature and applied it with a generous hand, and although I remembered the scent fondly, being in her sillage made me feel a bit queasy.
Mercurygirl, I wore it then also. I always loved those commercials with Isabella in them. It was a ‘different scent’ when I wore it, and I loved standing out in a sea of Goirgio and Lauren.
Of course back then, most people swam in their fragrances (guilty! Gotta love the 80’s!) and well.. too much is simply too much.
I would always give it a sniff when I came across a bottle and put it back down. Then last year my Mom bought me a bottle and I fell in love all over again with it. And I enjoy it even more, not swimming in it
What a great story!
If Tresor could turn me into Isabella Rossellini, I’d be drinking it by the gallon! She’s so beautiful and has such an intelligence about her.
In the 90’s my best friend wore Tresor all the time. She was a tiny person, and that scent just didn’t seem to suit her, I could never tell her that I didn’t like it. My own favorite during those years was Jicky, introduced to me by a lady at Macy’s. Now it’s Eau de Merveilles just because I tried it after reading what you said about it. It is truly wonderful. Thanks!
Sadly, I bet Macy’s hasn’t carried Jicky for years, and if they did, the SA would be more likely to steer you toward the latest Beckham juice. (Here I spend a moment in silence for those days.) Eau de Merveilles is wonderful!
AHHHH… Tresor…. I remember smelling it oh so way back when in the Oct. 1991 issue of Vogue (with Madonna in Bell Bottoms and a Rugby Striped Sweater on the front… Ahhhhh…. Memories!) and falling for it. It truly helped shape and hone my taste in fragrance to this day with it’s Osmanthus-y Scent of Peach and Rose and Vetiver and Apricot… It is Beloved by my family because my Sister loved it and bought a Gift Set of it for my Mother one Christmas, subsequently, since my Sister’s passing it sits Mythically and Stoically on her Dressing table, spritzed only on the rare occasion because it does bring too many memories to bear, so for me, it is a fragrance that i truly do LOVE… it doesn’t hurt that it smells DYNAMITE on my mother as well, but i have promised her, so she doesn’t have to spritz the small bottle that my sis got her that I would Purchase her a new bottle and she can tuck that away and let it stay in the Stasis of memory and not waste the Precious Treasure that reminds her of her Departed Daughter….
I don’t really have any in depth critique, but just wanted to say that Tresor for me is truly a Treasure… Long Shall It Live! 
I’ve been amazed at how Tresor brings back wonderful memories for so many people! It seems almost everyone knows someone who wore Tresor, and a whiff of it brings the person back. I’m glad you have Tresor to remind you (and your mother) of your sister.
I find there is something sickening or cloying about this scent…sorry! But what annoys me more is the flacon design. If you look at it directly from above you will notice the bottle is diamond shaped, but the top is more square, which ruins the symmetry. And it is not an intentionally asymmetrical design either. It’s just….sort of mismatched. I would get a headache if I thought about it more. Pulchritude is an amazing word!
You sure are observant! I admit I’ve only seen the bottle in passing, but now I’m determined to have a closer look.
I keep going back to this perfume wanting desperately to like it, but I think it’s the peach which ultimately does me in. It just comes across as a very sour note. Strangely, I do get compliments when I wear it, but eventually I have to give it away as it just disturbs me too much.
The peach does give it more of a shampoo-like feel, I think. I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you–hopefully the person you give it to will have something nice to trade you for it.
I hate the smell when I first put it on, but after a while, I don’t mind it. It’s not something I plan on coming back to very often, but it looks nice on my dresser.
The bottle really is a classic. If you don’t like the fragrance, maybe you can use it to scent the water when you do your handwash?