Revlon / Charles Revson
American mass-market fragrance since 1932.
Revlon was founded in 1932 by brothers Charles and Joseph Revson and chemist Charles Lachman — the L in Revlon standing for Lachman — beginning as a nail enamel company that expanded into lipstick and subsequently the full range of mass-market cosmetics and fragrance. Charles Revson built the company on bold marketing, television advertising, and the conviction that mass-market beauty could carry genuine glamour. Revlon's fragrance history includes Charlie — launched in 1973 and one of the most successful American fragrance launches of the twentieth century — as well as Fire & Ice, Ciara, and Jontue, all significant mass-market scents that shaped American fragrance culture. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2022 and restructured, emerging with its fragrance catalogue intact under new ownership. Current Revlon fragrances occupy the accessible mass-market tier, sold through drugstore and grocery channels at everyday pricing. The brand's historical significance in American beauty and fragrance is substantial: for several decades, Revlon defined what accessible glamour smelled like to millions of American women.
DNA over time
Each column is an era. Each colored band shows that family’s share of accord weight across every perfume the house released in that window. Bigger band = the house leaned harder on that family.
