Ivoire de Balmain

Ivoire is an herbal masterpiece! I first wore her between the time of it's release 1980 and through 1985. This here is a beautiful lush green chypre, the likes of which had not come before or after. Though there are chypres which outrank her in name: Chanel No. 19, Estee Lauder Aliage, Elizabeth Arden Bluegrass, and Pierre Balmain's own Vent Vert, for me truly Ivoire de Balmain takes the trophy for the all around greatest green chypre fragrance. I purchased the eau de toilette dab on bottles and later the sprays. The sprays are a bit too vinegary and rather too harsh especially that opening which can be so aldehydic as to induce a headache or to make your nose twitch (y'all know what I mean!) but the spray acts more like the parfum which is heavier and tougher on you. Try the EDT miniature dab on bottles instead. They're absolutely gorgeous. The fragrance is captivating. First of all it is a real perfume! By that I mean long lasting, comes with superior sillage and an aroma with more notes than fragrance industry churns out today, a throwback to 20 to 30 note formula of the days of Yves Saint Laurent Opium and Magie Noire by Lancôme. Although some reviewers have made comparisons to 80's fragrances I don't see it as a high powered 80's frag at all. In fact it's more like the 1970's green peace, green is good earthy grassy chypre fragrances. This cologne is a discreet soapy and powdery green floral. It's autumnal and contemplative. Some reviewers have called it melancholy or funereal but I'm not smelling what they're smelling. This is a dignified classy fragrance to wear in the winter or fall to special occasions. It matches up with formal wear especially black clothing: dresses or suits. I also do think it's unisex. The fragrance does not come off as all that feminine nor masculine. It has a dual nature and can smell like something a man can easily wear and a woman but both would have to be mature and experienced, older. Ultimately it's a classical chypre and boils down to green aromatic herbal scents of patchouli, vetiver, asafetida, artemisia, galbanum, woods, musk, and lots of oak moss. The aldehydes in the opening are brilliant and sparkling like golden champagne. It is also vaguely familiar with something that smells of hair gel or shoe polish, tea, vinegar and soap. It smells quite domestic. It makes me visualize an Amish lady in Pennsylvania who churns her own butter and wears drab dark dresses and bonnets. Conservative is the perfect word to describe this scent. Nothing about it is slutty or liberal. Artemisia and chamomile give it a green touch from the start along with asafetida. Spicy as hell. But sweet as well. Sweet mandarin and citrus notes are briefly there before it starts turning sweet and soapy with floral notes of violet, marigold, carnation, narcissus, and lily of the valley. These floral notes are not excessive and not as floral as most traditional floral fragrances for women so again a male can pull it off because it's just not that floral. Being a perfume that evokes the autumn, not the spring, it makes sense that it would not smell heavily of flowers. This fragrance is called "Ivory" but it does not smell "white" or "beige". Rather it has a grassy green, earthy green, pea green color mixed with a subdued pale yellow or a dark brown. It matches up with a conservative dress that your grandmother wore or something for Eleanor Roosevelt and ladies of the Great Depression. So understandably I can see why so many have stayed away from this fragrance and are not even bothering to wear it much less review it. It's not youthful and it's not sweet or airy. It's not flirty sexy or "hot". But it is BEAUTIFUL. I wondered why they named it Ivoire and I read the background story. Pierre Balmain the French fashion designer based in Paris was at the Opera and he caught sight of a beautiful and mysterious single lady in a white evening gown and white hat and gloves. She made an impression on him during the performance but she disappeared as soon as the concert was over. He was inspired to formulate a fragrance that captured the spirit of that woman or of the evening of classical music/opera. The scent does not smell like a theater nor is operatic and yet it is formal enough to be worn to such a venue. It has a wistful longing and symphonic beauty. Tchaikovsky's final symphony, the Pathetique, Mahler's Fifth, or Beethoven's Pastoral 6th. It is a poetic and artistic fragrance. An artistic person can wear it, whether male or female, in the right weather: wintery, cold, rainy, or a crisp autumn afternoon. It also smells of a sunset in a park. It's a respectable perfume. That lady that caught Balmain's eye must have been wearing a chypre that was equally as attention grabbing. It is a classic French chypre with all the glorious notes that make up such a perfume, notes which are unfortunately becoming extinct in perfumery today. Galbanum. Oak Moss. Oh when are these new modern noses going to bring back galbanum and oak moss. These notes are so beautiful and more than any other note it has such an emotional power and such heartbreaking beauty. In the dry down the scent becomes progressively more oily and more masculine and like a man's bar of soap. It is brown and the green is gone. This is smelling of spices. Pepper, nutmeg and cinnamon. It's equal parts vanilla although not a vanilla we are used to in today's fragrances. Not a gourmand yummy vanilla. A burnt Shalimar type of dark vanilla. It matches up with the amber and the sandalwood. The woods embrace balsam an incense. And yet despite all these heavy hitters: patchouli, sandalwood, vetiver, galbanum, oak moss, amber, musk, there is a sweetness that is left over from the aldehyde-citrus and the florals, and the strange raspberry tart. Yes raspberry! In this raspberry plus asafetida note it is similar to Magie Noire by Lancôme although that one is much more profound and really more intense and moody, witchy. Ivoire is calm and sweet, no nonsense. She is not a witch but a very proper English lady who went to the Opera. This is a very beautiful scent and I wish to God that more women would wear it. I love to wear it in the colder chillier months and it always brings me pleasure. I must say that my late husband never cared for this scent or Magie Noire but I wore them for my own pleasure and comfort. If you too wear fragrances as therapy for yourself, Ivoire de Balmain is a therapy session in fragrance.

Ivoire de Balmain or Balmain's Ivory is an absolute masterpiece of perfumery made before our horrible late stage capitalism which creates popular but slipshod fragrances purely for mass market appeal. I have some sprays and dab on bottle miniatures. Bought them on ebay from authentic sellers. Ivoire was created by 2 noses, Michel Hy and Francis Camail for designer Pierre Balmain, in the very last year of his life. This fragrance, therefore, was very meaningful and poignant. In fact wearing it for the first time made me cry! It's so beautiful. The opening is aldehydes, neroli and raspberry. It has an unusual start but the aldehydes make it very classic and soapy. This is a green soap bar. Lots of green notes and green things in it that smell green and keep it in a chypre: artemisia, galbanum, chamomile 'nobile', asafetida or Indian spice, lilies of the valley, oak moss, vetiver, and patchouli. So just about all the green notes in most other herbal green fragrances you can think of all in one perfume. So yes the color for this one is green. But it's a light green. It is like soft grass after a rain fall. The whole thing is subtle and doesn't come on as a strong green blast at all. The raspberry keeps it feminine and the white floral notes, i.e. jasmine, and the other floral notes of rose, ylang-ylang, iris, and violet. To me the lesser 'felt' flowers are rose and ylang ylang. This is more evocative of like a light mint green and white color scheme pattern in a 1960s type of flower power skirt. But the girl wearing it is not a devil may care go go dancer. She is serious minded, intellectual, artsy and even melancholy but not in a dark Goth way. In a feminine and beautiful way. She has downcast eyes and dreams her life away. She reads books, philosophical books Voltaire, Sartre, but also romance novels and period novels i.e. Jane Austen, Emily and Charlotte Bronte. The flowers are taking a backseat and are wet with rain like the grass. The vetiver note really stands out. Besides the florals and the green herbal vibes, there is also a touch of warm musk and smokiness via a soft little incense deep in the base. I can detect amber but a mild amber, a very tame very subtle vanilla and musk. The dry down can be described as earthy and musky. This has a very spiritual, peaceful Zen thing going on and again a kind of beautiful melancholia. There is also a therapeutic aroma therapy thing going on. It is very different to smell on someone today and hard to find a place to wear it. Smells perfect for fall and winter not spring because this thing is more warm and balsamic, oily than fresh and zesty. I wear it at home for my own pleasure when I am working on something at home. This suits someone who is more at home being at home than some social butterfly life of the party. She loves her quiet life at home, her garden, and her dogs. Audrey Hepburn, the beautiful classic actress, said in an interview that she was wearing this baby toward the end of her life when she was in her late fifties and early sixties. It is likely she wore it the privacy of her home in Switzerland, called La Paisibile in Tolochenaz, where she is buried. This fragrance is so dear to me. It hits a lot of like buttons for me. If you like chypres and green florals and artistic fragrances, vintages that have a lot going on and not just a gourmand sugary thing this is going to be your perfume! Some other classic perfumes this can be not compared to note for note but in the same 'group' include Vent Vert by Balmain, Chanel No. 19, Cristalle Eau Verte by Chanel, Y by Yves Saint Laurent, and Halston Classic original.

Many perfumes, especially 70’s and 80’s greens, are considered a witches brew. Not many really are. For me, one is Aromatics. The other is Ivoire. Review based on a 200ml edt splash from either 1980 or 1981. Ivoire is hard to describe or decipher for that matter. It’s a bitter green perfume, where all the other notes simply exist to balance. Every time I’ve worn it, my feelings range from surprise to awe. I find it sometimes a bit rough around the edges, but like a drug it keeps pulling me in. The first few wears were a little bit difficult and I could actually see why many would consider it old fashioned. But one thing happened; I couldn’t keep my nose away from my wrists! It’s as if I was smelling a bitter soap, a green ointment rubbed on nails to avoid bitting them. But nothing was off, nothing felt out of place, and my bottle is as fresh as the day it was made (it came boxed and unused so that helped). The closest fragrance to Ivoire, for me, is Missoni’s original first release, and I’m starting to think the raspberry in both is making the connection in my mind. Ivoire on me is a wonderfully green and bitter soapy floral. I can’t really separate the notes, and even though it changes and evolves, all I’m left is with a living forest emanating from my skin. I find it far more green than N°19 and Silences, far more bitter (something I love) than Armani or Aromatics, less sweet and floral than all the above and also less animalic. For me it’s a study in galbanum, moss, woods, all covered in a bar of ivory soap that has mosses covering it. The late drydown reveals the alchemy with Missoni and then it’s when they share that same mystique of smoothness, that dry feel in your mouth after a cup of tea, and skin that is slightly sweaty, musky, warm. Sexuality vs sensuality emanating from your pores. I find Ivoire different from similar offerings, highly complex with evolution that defies one’s abilities to decipher it. It breathes and changes but it doesn’t allow you to come to close to reveal its layers. Much like the fleeting beauy dressed in ivory that, at the opera, caught the attention of its creator. It’s a stunning fragrance, it brings to life emotions, and while every wear shows small aspects of its beauty, it decides what and when to reveal itself. I absolutely love it, I can’t stop inhaling it, and the fact that it boasts an impressive sillage and longevity makes it ideal for a date with yourself. I don’t consider it similar to the ones that it reminds people of, so it’s very much worth owning it. Although it might be a little hard if you don’t REALLY enjoy green in all its power. A masterpiece!

Review based on the old version Incredible aroma !! From the deepest essence of emotions this fragrance is born. Balmain believes it supported in the purest sophistication of the elegance of a lady dressed in ivory color. The touch of the aldehydes produce that air of fresh sophistication that when combined with the oak moss, the vetiver and the woods produce a vibrant, powerful, unique effect, with personality, taken from the bowels of the earth, the camomile and the calendula It smells like a floral scent, which lasts quite a trick, a country scent, natural, fresh, like being in the middle of a meadow full of freshly cut hay, hay that smells of expensive soap because of the added effect of a rich, Complex, where the rose that is attached to a soft musk, feels a different rose, is not the rose Otto, nor its Absolute, rather shades like the rose of France, is nothing juicy, is clean, dusty, as if Out pollen, looks like a rose in a book of memories, that when you open it gives off that incredible aroma of the flower, yes, Ivoire gives off an aura of nostalgia, yearnings and desires. The duration and the stela are pronounced and perfect, it seems more a EDP (how well these things were done before) It represents a mysterious, beautiful, cultured woman who knows how to smell good but is also rebellious, fresh and natural like a white rose that has just bloomed. Ivoire is one of my all time female favorites, masterpiece, with unisex current potential and I get every time I want to smell a rotund and lively aroma, which is full of multiple nuances, where the deep aroma of oak moss Of truth (no, its substitute: evernil) here is a king without complex and without restrictions IFRA. An aroma of the past, dead, that in my nose and my memories will always be present and very alive. Rating: 9.3

Ivoire is the latest classic Balmain for me to try. Balmain as a fragrance house had a particularly consistent output of top-notch perfumes during the twentieth century - Cellier creations such as Vent Vert alongside underrated gems such as this. I have a vintage miniature of Ivoire from the 1990s, and it is a beautiful vintage chypre, bright and airy rather than dense and rich. Ivoire opens with bright, soapy aldehydes alongside green, herbal florals. I get daisy and narcissus in particular, alongside aromatic marigold. Galbanum adds grassy greenness, with some bitterness given by herbal notes. It is a little bit Private Collection, a little bit Vent Vert, a little bit Armani, but with more aldehydic soapiness. Citrus adds tart freshness. As it develops, powdery florals emerge, namely clean jasmine and rooty orris. Rose follows, punctuated by some warm spice. I get some green violet here too. It remains green and herbal, with a hay-like quality in the background. A classic chypre accord develops as it dries down, mossy and grassy, with woody vetiver coming to the fore alongside delicious oakmoss. Smooth sandalwood keeps things grounded, and patchouli follows, enhancing the earthiness of the chypre base. A musky sweet amber accord ties it all together, playing second fiddle to the chypre accord. It fades to become a musky, earthy skin scent. With moderate sillage and longevity, Ivoire is a transeasonal, everyday scent. Unisex by modern standards, Ivoire is a beautifully composed herbal-floral chypre, brightened with aldehydes. Initially cool but becoming progressively warmer as it develops, Ivoire is light and cohesive despite its rich combination of notes. Relaxed, classic elegance in a bottle, it is of its era. An underrated gem. 4.5/5.