Sballo – Eau de Parfum

There is a dry, dusty barn where freshly cut antique roses are stored, by a straw bale garden and a meadow, where wild sage and pelargonium grows. It's windy and warm, a soft kiss of sunlight through wispy clouds. Sballo is a high, a trip, the euphoria that all has fallen into place just as it is meant to be. There is a sweet mustiness that feels so familiar, like an old relic that's been waiting forever for its new lease on life. A mossy simmer, a hazy air over tilled earth, Sballo seems at first to smell like a 1970s chypre but then feels like a folk curative. It is at the junction of "some other time in the past" and "anytime, really, maybe even the future." Feral indoles and violet ionones percolate over spiced woods. It feels as comfortable as a favorite pair of brown corduroys, as textured as their wales.

this is fantastic. i immediately thought of bernard chant's classic aramis 900 which i've had for decades. sballo is more complex and deeper than just another rose chypre and sballo steers towards the oriental with spices and later woods & very dry patchouli. the review below describes it very well. i recently discovered acampora (sballo, jasmin, iranzol) and must say there is an impressive classicism in his work that i really appreciate.

I agree with Colin Maillard's review. I can only add that I really love this scent. It smells natural and very beautiful with notes of geranium, hay and moss dominating. IMO very aromatic and relaxing to wear. Although I usually wear this scent for daytime, I will sometimes wear it to sleep, particularly on cold nights. I've tried both the EDP and the oil. I prefer the oil because it is a little more feminine and the EDP skews unisex.

This perfume makes me smile. Even if the EdParfum is dated 2012 the first version of Sballo was in perfumed oil and dated 1977 so that is what we smell: a 70s scent. Sballo is definitely unisex, or perhaps we could say that it is too feminine for a man and too masculine for a woman and also a little dated, but fascinating and "romantic" precisely because of these vintage and androgynous characteristics. "Sballo" means high, blast, hight. You are under some kind of addiction or you are euphoric, immensely happy. It reminds me of many 70s and early 80s perfumes with notes of woods, spices, flowers and herbs. Among these most of all is Christie by Veejaga and her sisters: Aromatics Elixir, Genny, La Nuit de Paco Rabanne, 1000 de Patou, Versace, up to Cabochard. But also masculine perfumes such as Aramis 900, Aramis, and mostly Marbert Man, up to Kouros for those notes of tobacco and aromatic herbs roses and animal notes like castoreum. Undoubtedly vintage. I have the body cream of this fragrance which has a very rich and nourishing and highly perfuming texture.

To me it's absolutely green. Androgyn. A bit cold and metallic. Airy, windy. A very refined perfume for those who believe that less is more. Suitable for women and men. EDIT: I am learning to appreciate SBALLO. It's a fragrance that I have never experienced before. It invites me on a trip that I have never ever made. To places where I have never been. SBALLO is countryside, arts and crafts, forgotten places and gloomy corners.....It's hard to describe, it's easier too imagine. And as time goes by someting utterly weird is developing in my brain. The smell and energy of Sballo becomes familiar. It places me in a long forgotten time. It's almost like coming home. Not 'home' as the place of house where I grew up, but 'home' as a place or state of mind where we possibly all come from. Like a planet. Don't ask further, I don't understand it myself. But I truely feel enriched.