Balenciaga Paris

Balenciaga Paris EDP notes listed by Fragrantica are incomplete. Missing notes are Labdanum and Vetiver. I get a bright citrus opening without Violet attributed to the Bergamot. Never do I sense Violet in the way of most perfumes. Rather the Violet imparts a very powdery note completely to the dry down. What I am more interested in with this fragrance is the use of Violet Leaf. Violet Leaf extract is one of the costliest perfume ingredients and is very concentrated and tenacious. Many comment on how Paris EDP is not strong or powerful enough for their tastes compared to other perfumes. Allow me to share some wisdom about Violet Leaf which might explain the logic behind its composition. As far as scent, Violet Leaf is soft earthy, woody and green and will fade in the dry down. What is most interesting is that Violet Leaf has been used dating back to 900 AD by Persians for overcoming fear, developing trust and for trauma to overcome the desire to retreat. My view: a perfect fragrance for these “post”COVID-19 times! Get your vaccine and some Balenciaga Paris as your perfect antidote. If you are afraid of getting your COVID-19 vaccine then I suggest you begin with Balenciaga Paris EDP to overcome your anxiety. So we know this fragrance is not designed to attract attention. It has a higher purpose and will give a confidence and calmness and sense of assurance. Plus it smells very expensive and classy. Finally the other note Fragrantica fails to list: Galbanum. Galbanum is the sweet balsamic extraction from the white Cistus flower/plant (commonly known as Rock Rose) used exclusively for perfumery and a staple of chypre fragrances, which Paris EDP is one of. (Cistus extract is the less potent steam distilled version suitable for aromatherapy.) Galbanum is responsible for the honeyed and persistent Amber note in this lovely fragrance. Galbanum is used as a substitute for Ambergris. Combined with the powdery Violet Flower scent that trails all the way thru, it adds a sweet and balsamic ending. So calming. Vetiver and Patchouli as base notes are definitely softened and sweetened by the Galbanum.

"Every kind of love, or at least my kind of love, must be an imaginary love to start with." This refrain from a beautiful Rufus Wainwright song describes something akin to what happened to me upon encountering Balenciaga Paris back in 2010. It was a blind buy a friend of mine brought me from Italy and, in a noisy café, when I first inhaled its radiant violet scent, rich with both flower and leaf, I knew I had found the perfume I'd always been waiting for...the one I'd yearned for but could only imagine in a nebulous, imprecise way. The search was guided by (inner) voices :) I intuited that this emotionally resonant perfume existed. Upon inaugural sniff the fragrance immediately connected with my subconscious memory: it was a totally new scent but - like an ancient philosophical theory which one discovers, amazed at its perennial pertinence - I feel countless others have lived through this perfume long before me (if that makes any sense). Years on, its vintage air provokes the same mix of nostalgia and happiness every single time i wear it: habit seems to have no effect on this creation from Olivier Polge! Balenciaga Paris speaks to our deepest self (and maybe a past life or two) through the most primitive - and thusly most evocative - sense: smell. This beautiful alchemy between eternal violet, carnation, cedar and patchouli fulfills a certain longing for old-school substance in these virtual times. You could call it time travel in a bottle, although its far-from-dense quality lends it a modern feel. I'm heartbroken that it's been discontinued but hope anyone lucky enough to come across this romantic - in the Novalis sense - fragrance will not pass up the chance to try a genuine olfactive poem :)

This scent is somehow sophisticated and laid-back, warm and cold, fleeting and long-lasting, urban and forest, dewy and dry, metallic and velvety, and feminine and masculine. This is a shapeshifting scent, much like the violet itself. In and out it goes from your senses, and when you think you grasp it, it's gone again (it's long-lasting though, it's just a scent that doesn't slap you in the face). The spicy vegetal carnation note keeps it from being powdery and in my brain, makes it smell like a "cold" spicy. I worked around floral refrigerators for a while, and carnations being the beautifully versatile flowers that they are, were abundant, and gave off that indescribable cold spicy smell (similar to the vibe in Florabotanica and can totally see how they're in the same house). This is, to my nose, an unmistakably violet-based perfume, though, and is balanced out by that carnation, keeping this scent from being powdery. I feel that it's suited for every type of person and for every type of season. Young, old, male, female, hot, humid, frigid...I can see this working well with all. It may be confusing, but this scent is also simultaneously uplifting and melancholy. It is very long-lasting and I can smell it on me and my clothes the following day when I wear it. Happy to have blind-bought a bottle a few months ago and I love it way more than I like Florabotanica or Rosabotanica, which are both "really" likes. From what people wrote on here, and due to my love of violet, violet leaf, carnation, and patchouli notes, I had to know what it smelt like. I wouldn't have been able to guess this, and I love that. Gorgeous.

Balenciaga Paris and Balenciaga L'Essence are similar scents and I love them both, but I must say that my taste has changed and when I initially smelled both upon their release several years ago, I dismissed them too quickly. I can confidently say that I now will be repurchasing Paris for life. I started off revisiting L'Essence because it was easier to wear and lighter to my nose than the original. I loved it in the Spring and Summer because in the warm humid air, the scent of green mossiness and violets in a woodland forest came alive on my skin. There is a trace of vetiver in both scents that I realize I love and is in a lot of the perfumes I love. The remarkable truth lies in the way Balenciaga Paris makes me feel, emotionally, which is so special- there is this odd familiarity bringing me back to memories spent at our lakehouse as a child, amid the moss, ferns and clover plants that would grow in the shade near the water. I spent so much time outside, drinking in the Spring and Summer air of our cozy lakehouse in Northern Massachusetts. The strong memory of violets/moss/greenness permeating the air of all those humid Summers of my youth, is a scent that I now find extremely comforting. I feel so "at home" and at peace while wearing Paris and L'essence because wearing this scent becomes an experience of living in the moment, not just a 'subconscious scent for the day'. Not to mention the imagery present in the advertisements is so fitting and Charlotte Gainsbourg is so beautiful.

Starts off very floral with a hint of wood-y bitterness. It smells almost like church flowers...almost. It never quite tips over into that territory like white flowers do. Very lithe. Almost easily overpowered by other scents. There's supposed to be powderiness here but I'm not getting it yet. I can smell pencil shavings in the background - similar to the pencil shaving scent that is supposed to stand in for "leather" in Bottega Veneta EDP, Eau de Velours and in Hermès' Kelly Caleche. An hour in, it seems to have actually gotten stronger/denser. I can smell the powderiness now. It is not an offensive level of powder like in Chanel's No. 5 or Guerlain's L'Homme Ideal. The powder level here reminds me of Hermès' Eau de Merveilles in that it is right behind the main note (violet here, orange in Eau de Merveilles) and is only there to give the star of the show some extra dimension. The powder doesn't overpower the rest of the composition like in the aforementioned Chanel and Guerlain where the powder is so strong it's almost like there's a screen of powder between you and everything else. This immediately makes Balenciaga Paris a younger person's scent - someone in their 40's. Someone with money. 2hr 30 mins in, the powder has subsided. The violet flower has become sweeter. Other flowers seem to be making their entrance as well. Not much change after 2hr 30 min mark. Sweet violets all the way through. Lasted about 7 hrs before I could no longer detect it.