Impressively dank for the Oud lovers. Has that multifaceted oud smell, and not a lot else to say, although I've no doubt the oil has been extended and complemented, because this still feels like a perfume rather than just oud oil. I didn't find it particularly animalic or stinky but the SA who sprayed it on a card for me, despite giving a pretty hard sell, was giving the game away with his body language, he was visibly repulsed by it. I think it's decent, just expensive but isn't everything now?

Instantly appealing tropical fruity scent. I can't really say more. Gentle floral amber support and musk. I do like a tropical fragrance as well but I like to go 'oooh Guava!' or Mango or whatever? Perhaps a clever combination with something unexpected like earthy accords or anything to elevate or create interest. This doesn't have the interest for me, but it's pleasant and although I'm largely saying the idea is a bit 'meh' it doesn't smell cheap, it's refined and long lasting so I guess if you really must then pay the FdB prices if you really want to? which I never looked at because I wasn't interested but I'm sure are reasonable....Naaaaht!!

Okay so I haven't worn Marc Antoine Bahwah's fragrances for ages (2020) but I instantly recognized the 'cosmic incense' accords and signature trickery in the form of Akigala wood a newish (it's actually been around a while now) molecule people seem to hate!!! I think as far as irritating, overused, structural perfume base materials it's pretty mild mannered but what do I know hey?? The opening is undoubtedly Ganymedesque and the 'bleu' association is kinda pushed because it is somewhat fresh and yeah blues, and turquoises okay. and jade greens and purples, then reds... well you know the colours you don't need me to list them, Orange!??!? A whole opalescent nebula of colours swirl about this thing. To counter that, I get this off, sort of cabbage schnapps (Kids? lol) sort of thing, but that doesn't persist thankfully. The whole modern moss and diffusive resinous spangle is just too tenacious to go away and what your left with is actually a much more mellow and wearable take on the whole Quentin Bisch vibe. Where I find it differs is a much more flat, driftwood hollow feeling on the skin, it's not as annoying as Ganymede or Bois Imperiale nd I like both those perfumes to a degree but I found wearing them something of a screechy ordeal! This is more subdued, but maybe even too much so and this would likely be a criticism from fans of the genre, perceiving Bleu Infini as a pale pretender, and they may also have a point. This is a bit of a curveball to what I was saying about the cohesion of the collection, it's in keeping with the resinous, spicy, spikes and such, maybe the toned downness of what I know this sort of perfume can be, not gonna lie though this is a bit of an outlier in the collection and sticks out a touch.

This is the other actually New, New one from Balmain. Bronze is immediately in a similar vein to Ebene and Sel d'ambre in that it's a spicy, woody, resinous driven perfume and I can only equate this to being a sort of thread the perfumer/perfumers who've jazzied up (who is that BTW?) this line have included to tie together some disparate vintage faves with new fangled releases. That's what impressed me about the core of this collection, not the individual fragrances themselves, or indeed the distinctive branding and definitely NOT the high price it's the collective cohesion I like. Anyway, Bronze to me has a dominant hay note which comes over as more than a little honied, heavy, woolen, waxy almost animalic, like some opaque honey you'd get direct from a beekeeper. Although we consider that sweet it's a great juxtapositon to the rest of the stuff here which again is a sort of peppery, cedarwood, spicy patchouli amalgam. I like this perfume to smell it, not especially to wear but I will update this review once I've worn it again, because I think it deserves more thought.

Wow is the opening of this perfume ever gorgeous? sheesh!!! Immediately the olibanum which persists and crudely, is the main theme of this perfume, but it's not all about that, I want to say a sweet but not saccharine accompaniment (could be the orris listed in the notes here?) but the quality and sparkle of the olibanum gives a really chic, classy feel. So the Olibanum is evident throughout and settles to more of that once the top notes fade, this can be a difficult balance, to not get that Avignon, Mark Birley...Etc... Frankincense sort of dominant thing, and I think this avoids it well. I can't quite figure out what's going on, it's not complicated and I think that's the charm here. The amber accord is warm but quite mineral like, modern, comparisons to Serge Lutens amber below I find a bit puzzling and the Sahara Noir comparisons might be valid, unfortunately I can't recall the smell, I remember loving that perfume though (foolishly not enough to buy it) so they might be on to something? Enjoyed this then, and it's in a lovely bottle, haven't mentioned that on my reviews of the 'new' Balmain collection so far but I think they are among the prettiest around. Still not worth retail but what is nowadays?

I like what Balmain(Estee Lauder) have done with this collection, a combination of revamped classics (Vent Vert, Ivoire), new stuff (Sel d'Ambre) and surprising Tweaks and switcheroo's (Ebene>Carbone) Let's hope they are in The EL discount store soon because the prices are a little too rich for my blood. This is not specifically a criticism of this collection but a reflection of the entire industry and this designer label BS of... can we get away with charging more? Well we charge £200-£300 for a pocket square or a beanie hat, why should the perfumes be any different? Gone are the days when perfume was the relatively, (I'm not rose tinting the whole thing) affordable, aspirational purchase, you know? You can't afford a Chanel bag or a Cartier watch but you can still have an entry level piece of the pie in the form of a luxurious perfume. Now it seems to be an arms race for who can charge the most and all it's doing is driving the clone markets, which have also increased in price. Anyway... Ebene has a lovely deep, sepia tinged opening of spicy woods and dark peppery incense, and that peculiar sweetness of myrrh. It settles fairly quickly but largely the description from the opening persists throughout into a modern, slightly tweaked, airy based version of something like a Gucci PHI or that Bentley (but this is a bit smoother and longer lasting) I feel a little vanillic rounding and aerated amber effect in the base. I don't think this is all the way Carbone de Balmain which was marketed towards Men in the 2010's maybe? But it's closer to that than I imagine the old Ebene (never smelled it, but judging by the comments of folks who have) and the new Carbone which is NOTHING like I remember. This is good outing, it's nothing special but what I like is the balance of these compositions not too intriguing, but not too flat or lacking in personality by the same token.

I tried this thinking it would smell like the original Carbone de Balmain and it’s NOTHING like it at all. Good news is that I’m a sucker for a musk fragrance and this is predominantly a massive hug in a bottle. The challenge or edge to this perfume comes in the shape of translucent, plastic opulence giving saffron/patchouli feel and a gentle rose undertone. I love it. I mean it’s a bit heavy, like being rear naked choked by a Care bear but it’s pretty wonderful. I don’t mean this is cutting edge perfumery or the best thing ever but as I said, I love how similar this is to something like The musc by Essential parfums but still different enough to own both. I think they switched Carbone and Ebene because the new Ebene smells much more like how I remember Carbone being.

Well... I liked the original Vanille Havane I thought it captured really enjoyable facets of both Vanilla (actually much more resinous and woody) and tobacco (actually smells like a tobacco absolute rather than the broad accords found in many tobacco fragrances) I found it to be reminiscent of some hand rolled cigarillos my friend brought me back from the Dominican Republic, and even the wooden box they came in. So I found it impressive but it was still quite a soupy, heavy sort of fragrance, quite artisan in that sense, while I could understand how the prospect of an additional oud material would be complementary, I was thinking it might just further weigh down an already pretty damn, dense fragrance. They've done something pretty miraculous here after a predicable opening of somewhat of the original, rich and sweet earthy tones, you get that heavy, chocolate, resinous, lightly fruity sensation of the oud and then in the drydown it's much more civilized and clearly has some aroma chemical fixation, giving it a lighter, more modern feel but you can still smell the oud which is all important. I think it succeeds in being a very good, very opulent fragrance, which takes the original material, incidentally this was sent along with my sample (a dilute oil, sort of Thai type, fruity oud) which was more animalic and had that slight funk to it which comes out in the opening but is slightly lost later on, which could be a critique from big oud fans. However, I'm a fan of perfumery and I think this perfume accentuates other facets of the material which is it's intent. The one thing I would say is that combining these perfumes you don't get Vanille Havane + Oud (well you do get that) I actually think the sweetness and overall feel of the perfume completely changes direction and feel, to the point die hard fans of the original might not understand this one. Price is prohibitive however the materials are not in question here and perfume price points are mental at the moment for stuff with zero transparency regarding expensive naturals used, so at least here you know what you're getting. Still it's a lot of money and as much as I'm loving wearing this today It's not interesting enough to get me onboard. The example being when I smelled the oud, it's very good but there's many oud oils like this with the more mellow, sweeter facets. I'd like to have seen the rarer weirder shit, like some Chinese oud which smells more like vetiver oil or Indian stuff which is plain animalic, blue cheese, farmyard shit!

Absolutely staggered by this perfume. I'd tried a vintage sample of this years ago and my recollection was 'very nice, rose dominant, Guerlainesque' and this was all I had in my mind but it's sooooooooo sooooooo good. So another great pal sent me a vintage sample recently and I'm blown away by a key element of this perfume, the rose as a fleeting top note. Well it's not fleeting it remains present probably but not in the way I've experienced in any other perfume, it's like a wave of the most beautiful, faceted, sweet but not too sweet, almost cool (temperature wise), perfect rose absolute washes over you and then retreats right the way back so this exotic, powdery, floral mixture with warm vanillic amber tones and inherent, classy, gorgeousness can come to the forefront. It basically flips from fresh, vibrant, rose dominant opening (and super intact fruity pitchy topnotes for the age of this bottle BTW) to all of a sudden a sort of exotic infused, white floral, Lilly of the valley but with a really resinous warm, vanillic (in a good way) ambery base. It's an absolute revelation!!! It's not pungent or commanding in that way old, seen as stuffy, "WOMEN'S" florals can be. I'm absolutely enamoured and looking at the notes list here, rose in the top notes (and it's in the heart too but I'm gonna give Fragrantica some credit here) is really accurate because it's there, then it's basically gone. Working with rose, understanding and experiencing rose perfumes, I've never witnessed this effect, and Jean Paul Guerlain did that. I think it's creative genius and we've not even really got into the base which is one of the most nose nuzzling drydown's I recall experiencing. Listed here is peru balm and I'll go along with that as I've read that used correctly in an amber accord of sorts it creates a playful powdery sort of effect, even though when you smell the raw material or use in heavier doses and you get a spicy, cinnamon/clove/anise inflected heavy balasmic resin effect. Everything about this screams quality to me and has come at a time I maybe needed it as I'm feeling slightly disillusioned with everything at the moment and Nahema has done a great job of lifting my spirits. Fantastic!!! Now comes the hard part... keeping myself away from eBay, Etsy and the like because a vintage bottle of this is likely to set me back a few quid.

Okay to give this some context, I sprayed this again after paying very little attention to it for years and in direct comparison with YSL newer fragrances Y & Myself and LNDLM parfum shined with a new kind of clarity and brilliance, like a Diamond, no actually… an uncut piece of semi precious stone among some dog turds. I like how this formulation veers more into the soft warm territory than the edt, making them quite different but clearly related fragrances. Sometimes I don’t think perfumers get credit for when they remake or reimagine fragrances, cleverly mimicking accords and playing around with structure. It’s tempting to say… “ I prefer the original” or not to fully appreciate why certain decisions have been made.