Revolution à Versailles

I've put it on because it's Bastille Day and it actually does work in summer because it's ripe, juicy plums and tropical flowers (better suited for autumn though). The florals are very balanced in this. It's like a deep, red wine and quite fitting as a sequel to Bal à Versailles, which is formal and elegant, whereas Revolution à Versailles is more of a bourgeois celebration.

I'm very excited to try my little EDT... My nose is anticipating something like Byzance, but I can't wait to be suprised. I'll update, of course! Update: Byzance, yes, but also Bob Mackie. Stone fruits, tuberose, aldehydes. I love it and will keep an eye out for a reasonably priced FB!

This is definitely a classic. I have to be honest, I didn't expect to be floored when I found this, but I was. Nothing with replace the love of Bal for me, but I find this to be a beautifully done Rose/Plum combination. This is by far one of the most beautifully composed scents.

Have I been looking into the hypnotic screen too long? Im seeing Shalimar EDC flacon. This reminds me of two hand bags one says Chanel the other Channel or YSL verse VSL. This bottle is playing with my emotions of imagery. I am being lured in by the love of Shalimar Old formulation flacon. Regarding the "actual perfume"...DEVINE, Wonderful. Its not the looks its the heart. And this copy cat packaging has a very original formulation. Some very unique perfumes have the most vises and some less intriguing, less publicized are the most pleasant. Launched By The Design House Of Jean Desprez In 1962, Bal A Versailles Is Classified As A Refined, Oriental, Gentle, Floral Fragrance. This Feminine Scent Possesses A Blend Of Soft Sweet Spices, And Orange Flowers. A wonderful evening sweet perfume.

To my nose, the EDT is a lightly stripped down Poison EDT, with creamier frangipani being more dominant than tuberose. It is very much a syrupy floral from the 80s, which coming at the end of the decade, may have neutured the house a bit. I do have a mini of the parfum, but honestly it taps my nose out so quick I'm almost scared to let her enter me again! I think the rose comes more alive in the parfum, correct me if I am wrong; also I get something along the lines of raspberry. Definitely a bit more complex than the EDT.

I tried this and hated it. I left it in the closet for a few years then tried it again before dumping it. Surprise: I went from hate to like. Not love, but like. Here are my notes: ick; think this has gone off, floral but smells very woody and kind of tobacco, a chypre; dries down woody floral reminds of Estee; on the next testing a year or more later I really like it, completely different, a sweet, fruity floral with a hint of tobacco and civet, very animal and sexy with a sweet fruity edge; nose changed

The Sequel To Bal A Versailles The French Revolution Bicentennial Fragrance Notes in Revolution A Versailles Head Notes: Mirabelle Artemisia Plum Heart Notes: Rose Frangipani Jasmine, Cinnamon Tuberose Gardenia Base Notes: Musk Vanilla, Sandalwood, Amber Cedar It was July 14 1989 Bastille Day in Paris. The City of Lights was in a festive mood. It had been 200 years since the start of the French Revolution of 1789. The sitting President was Francois Mitterand. This was a national holiday unlike Paris had ever seen or will ever see. Visiting Presidents included the sitting President of the US at the time George Bush Senior and his wife Barbara Bush. A spectacular parade was seen along the Champs Elysees. At the Place de La Concorde, Metropolitan Opera singer Jessye Norman sang a passionate rendition of the French national anthem the Marseillaise. The Charles Garnier Paris Opera Company had moved into the newly built Bastille Opera, and the Ballet found a new home in the Garnier Opera House. The Pyramid Entrance at the Louvre had been completed. This was like a new Paris embracing the future and forgetting the horrors of it's war ravaged past. Jean Desprez, the perfumer who created the classic Bal a Versailles fragrance in 1962, was commissioned to create a new fragrance to commemorate the Bicentennial of the French Revolution. It turned out to be this beautiful rose perfume with notes of fruits and woods which make it a floral chypre but has nothing in common with Bal a Versailles. This is it's sequel. I own a vintage Revolution eau de parfum in a glass bottle. What you find selling on ebay are mostly the EDT eau de toilette which smells lighter than the discontinued rare EDP eau de parfum. The EDP is such a fragrant heady scent that to my relief smells just like warm blood made into a perfume! It's not what others are smelling but to me this is like someone at the end of the French Revolution felt compassionate enough to take some human blood of the victims of Robespierre's Reign of Terror (Marie Antoinette, King Louis the 16th) and masked the smell of death with a large red rose dipped in honey. This is beautiful and more fruity than floral. It has a definite vintage air and smells so beautiful. If you like woodsy notes, sandalwood, amber, honey and rose, this one's definitely for you. I would not call this an Oriental as it smells too much like France. It's very European and like a fine cherry wine. It could almost pass for a fragrance worn by the next leader of France after the Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife Josephine. This is a fruity wine which they drank over the blood of the deceased Bourbon monarchy, or maybe I'm reading too much into it. But this perfume is very much like intoxicating liqueur. This has a definite reddish color and there is clearly notes that are not listed like honey. The fragrance smells so much like sweet honey. The mirabelle is also strong and the plum, so I found it refreshing to have opening notes of plum rather than the typical citruses like bergamot and mandarin that most of today's fragrances contain. That's how you know this frag is from another time. The floral frangrance of rose and gardenia are the strongest floral notes to my nose. It also has what smells like grape and rum, a lot of booze. This is a boozy festive fragrance. I would say that it's more feminine than unisex unlike Bal a Versailles which is totally unisex. This is fruit juice, wine, plum and a rose coated in honey. The warmth and glow of the amber is also there and it dries down to the soft wood notes of sandalwood and cedar. This was very lovely. I am so fortunate to have found a vintage. I would recommend the vintage that comes in a red plush case and is usually a mini splash parfum. The Eau de Toilette spray is alright too but does not seem to capture the beautiful rich composition of notes that I smell in the parfum version. Another fantastic fragrance by Desprez. C'est si bon!

Why is this fragrance so underrated ? I was very fascinated by this perfume. I was able to pick it up from a rummage sale a month ago. There are 2 editions: Miniature dab on bottles and spray bottle The spray bottle resembles the current design of the bottle for the reformulation of BAL A VERSAILLES Jean Desprez created this perfume as a sequel to Bal (1962) but this perfume arrived many years later and was launched in 1989, to commemorate the Bicentennial of the French Revolution which was celebrated in Paris. This is a completely different animal than Bal. Bal was a musk civet bomb, and this is fruit wine The mirabelle plum which dominates the entire fragrance is rather plump, juicy and sweet, and while not listed as being a note in this fragrance, my nose detected currant, either black or red currant. Something about this fragrance, like the reviewer below states, has a taste or flavor of wine. I say, this is more like rum, punch or cordial. It's boozy and also honeyed. A note of honey straight out of a honeycomb is here and I'm wondering if that's the amber scent playing tricks on you. While it is amber, there is a honey and a touch of spice via the cinnamon or ginger. The ginger and honey give it a festive party vibe. It smells like Christmas or New Years Eve. A small hint of florals include white jasmine, white gardenia and a deep velvet rose, not to mention a tropical tiare or frangipani. My nose picks up on mostly white floral smells so while not heavily floral it has only the lightest traces of gardenia. The tuberose in this scent is very quiet. Finally the dry down reveals amber and musk. This perfume is unisex, as it smells like a sort of Oriental fruit, a European liqueur. This has a feminine touch because of the floral fruitiness but it doesn't seem to cry out heightened femininity either. It can be worn with either a party dress or a suit. Because it's so festive it's not easy to wear as a casual fragrance for work. I might wear it to lunch or dinner at a restaurant when the food scents mingle with the aroma of the perfume. If you like deep fruit, honey and amber, this perfume will ravish your nose. It's truly beautiful. I'm so glad I added this to my collection. The price is rather expensive but you can buy the EDP or EDT spray bottle for under 100 bucks. They sell mostly on ebay. The miniature dab on bottles are harder to find and more expensive as they are more like parfum concentree Delicious

Revolution .5oz EDP (Dab on) Round flask like presentation on red satin in round box. The EDP is much nicer, the mirabelle plum and plum notes with the faint white floral underneath. The artemesia is tame. Honeyed cinnamon, rose, and white floral add to its heart. Its beautiful, never shouts, and opulent. The amber, sandalwood, vanilla and musk supports the fragrance. It is important to note, in this edition there is an animalic presence, like a deer musk/castorum In its genre, the closest relatives are Balenciaga's Rumba; Talisman (closer, though RAV is fruitier); Leonard's Balahe; Guerlain's Mahora. Balahe was first -- 1983 to RAV's 1989. Rumba was just slightly pre (1988). Talisman was very post (94). In the Jean Desprez cannon of releases, this is fruitier, more of a stand out floral than Bal. Shereazade was much more complex. This seems to be the simplest composition for the Desprez house. My cat came up to me and hugged the bottle. He loves Jean Desprez scents. His favorite is Jardanel, but I think this is his close second.

My eyes absolutely lit up when I found a almost untouched 100 ml bottle of the edt at a car boot, snatched it in a heartbeat at only £6! Hmm, now I haven't smelt the original Bal A Versailles so I guess I cannot compare them but so far my impression is favourable. This starts with juicy plums and subtle spices with a huge dollop of honey, although it's not listed! Not quite Christmassy but not far off! It is rather sweet and heady, actually reminds me slightly of Caron's Montaigne, if they did a festive edition. Seeing as I already own Montaigne I doubt that I would seek this out but as a random find, I'm not complaining. I must add that this feels pretty 'mature', and whilst I love the older perfumes like Arpege, Shalimar and Habanita, this one almost feels perhaps a bit too mature for me...

I bought a sample size bottle of Revolution à Versailles online a few years ago, and expected great things, as I have always loved Bal á Versailles; however what I received was a very nondescript and completely unremarkable white floral fragrance. Having read the other reviews of Revolution, I think the perfume I was sent was either very much past its best, or, more likely, a different fragrance entirely, decanted into the sample bottle. Still hoping I'll get to try the real thing one day, along with some of the other wonderful-sounding, but elusive Jean Desprez fragrances.

Similar to Red Door to me. Perhaps fruitier and less powdery. I can understand the comparisons to Poison in the sense of perfumery style, but this is harsher and more vulgar. This is a perfume that could easily give me a headache just smelling it on myself. It's more tolerable from a distance.