Jolie Madame, from Pierre Balmain was released in 1953. The perfumer behind this creation is Germaine Cellier. It has the top notes of Artemisia, Bergamot, Cloves, Coriander, Gardenia, Neroli, and Petitgrain, middle notes of Jasmine, Lilac, Narcissus, Orange Blossom, Orris Root, Rose, Tuberose, and Violet Leaf, and base notes of Cedarwood, Civet, Coconut, Leather, Musk, Oakmoss, Patchouli, Tobacco, and Vetiver.
I love the image of a surly Cellier with a gauloises hanging out of her mouth muttering French swears at an industry dominated by men. It’s through the interaction with Cellierphiles that I have this impression of her, could be inaccurate though. I mean I’m not the biggest fan of Bandit but I can appreciate it, I love another she did for Balmain Vent Vert and have a reasonably old 60’s vintage which is still fantastic and twangs with greenery. So I was told I should try this and was very kindly supplied with another pretty ancient vintage to try and boy oh boy this a brilliant perfume. It smells like the wafted beauty of violet, kindly powdery but definitely has colder qualities of violet leaf, which is a really strange smell in truth. A complex green, dry mixture of irone and ionone. This is all against a completely not pretty, not buttery and totally not elegant leather. It’s almost modern in a weird way and yet this perfume proabably smelled as dated today as it does when it came out. I mean dated in a good way, aged but not lacking a certain vibrancy. Yeah it’s a kind of powdery, enigmatic statement, warm, and just the right amount of everything going on for me, musks and all of a sudden all that dryness is some how epically punctuated by lush, floral Narcissus or more a purple feel, maybe bluebells or nearly to the point of hyacinth. I’m completely smitten with it. The topnotes which I could tell were citrus had lost a little of their lustre but when you’re in your twilight years you don’t expect everything to work perfectly right? Another thing that really prompted me to try this classic perfume was Miguel Matos and his tribute to Cellier, Germaine. Which I have to say smells very different to this. I still enjoyed Germaine and you could say Citrus, violet, violet leaf, leather how different could it be? Well quite different is the answer but a jolly good nod in the direction of this perfume. I completely adore Jolie Madame and it’s about as suitable for a man you could hope for, especially as a perfume with Madame in the title.