Miss Balmain

3 Reviews

1. 

   pridefulPorpoise1

   Reply

   P.U., should be the name for this stink . . . a.k.a. scent. For those not seeking to leave a lingering stench of smoke or hides, try a clean, refined, fragrance for your classic woodiness . . . Cinnabar or Knowing by Estee. P.S. and by the way, I’ve had great experience with Scentiments.com for years on High-end “tester” bottles – only one bottle defective in 6 years, and c/s gladly replaced quickly.

2. 

   decimalTermite2

   Reply

   Okay, if there was ever a “party girl” fragrance this is it. But I’m not talking about the fruity floral sugar-dipped little hotties prancing around nowadays. No, I’m talking about serious hardcore late-sixties (1968 to be precise) party girls, who had to wear something powerfully strong in order to hide the penetrating reek of pot smoke from their parents. And boy howdy this stuff would do the trick! I imagine these old-school party girls would be utterly inured to the (to me) intensely strong note of ashtray in this perfume, having been born into a world where cigarette smoke was an omnipresent fact of life. The herbal and opiate flower background incorporates the hippie zeitgeist into an elegantly wasted aldehydic city vibe, a city like New York in the ’60’s — exciting, vibrant, filthy, scary, and teetering on the edge of infrastructural collapse. This is a perfume ON THE EDGE. Honestly, it’s borderline repulsive and so very very out-of-sweet-fruity-floral style it’s downright fascinating, so 4 stars. I mean, I sniffed this like two times and, ever since, it’s conjured about five olfactory hallucinations that have hit me at various innocently idling points in my day. I’ve never smelled a perfume that conjured such a strong image: a young woman wearing a Pucci minidress, tripping down a busy Manhattan street, high on speed: Edie Sedgewick! Spritz a little of this on and rent “Ciao, Manhattan!” or “Factory Girl” and see what I mean.

3. 

   pluckyTacos5

   Reply

   I also have noticed the tobacco-like qualities of MISS B., and do not necessarily consider that a fault.

   MISS BALMAIN indeed does a juggling act between the intense narcotic white flowers head/heart… and the very strongly animalic/leather of the base.

   I wouldn’t go so far as to call MISS B. “masculine”… but its similarity to ARAMIS and AZUREE (which had also come out in the mid-60’s) is unmistakeable. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the same nose had concocted all three.

   A luxuriously soapy quality blends the crisp head and cedar/oakmoss/animalic base. I love the way patchouly is “everywhere and yet nowhere” in this fragrance! The nose has used patchouly not as an identifiable note— but as a “mixer” or “blender”, if you will.

   I don’t see the leather in MISS B. as any kind of “naughty” or “S&M” leather (I’ll leave that to other fragrances like BANDIT and SL MKK); to me the leather smells outdoorsy. I picture a very outdoorsy teenaged girl wearing this, not a matron.

   Other noses have pointed out that Revlon JONTUE (debuted 1974 or so), which I like very much, certainly has a kinship with MISS BALMAIN. I love JONTUE and actually feel she can hold her own against MISS B., though her component oils are not as conspicuously luxurious.

   N.B. Dascha mentions Edie Sedgwick. Bingo! 60’s wild-girl vibe. I was also thinking Sharon Tate, Stefanie Powers, and Natalie Wood in her 1965 kleptomaniac movie…