Ballets Rouges

Ballet Rouge is a beautiful rosy chypre in the classic style. Thank you to Ellen Covey for providing a sample! The fragrance it most recalls for me is one that I love but found I actually couldn't wear: Ungaro Diva. Thankfully, the two are not identical and whatever was "too much" about Diva is not a concern for Ballet Rouge. Ballet Rouge is smooth, sensual curves ensheathed in a little red dress, walking on stiletto heels. Yes, it's sexy. Yes, it's a grown-up fragrance for adults, but so far away from "old lady." You must love roses to enjoy this fragrance, but I would argue you must also love potent musks equally to fully appreciate it. There is no sweetness here, but the beautiful interplay of rose, musk and moss goes on and on for hours. This is exactly the kind of mature, complex fragrance I love and find so few good examples of anymore. I'm so excited, too, that it's a new artisan fragrance and not some pricey vintage I'll have to chase on ebay. Bravo, Ellen and Olympic Orchids, for giving us a stellar example of a chypre that will delight both appreciators of classics and modern niche perfumes!

I am an avid fan of rose fragrances but I have to admit the feminine classification and the aldehydes in the note pyramid gave me a wrong impression and I would have missed out on Ballets Rouges completely if my friend had not thrown in a free sample of this along with my order of Golden Cattleya, Dev 4 and Cafe V. Boy am I lucky!! This is a Rose chypre for the ages. Aldehydic Rose, citrus notes from the bergamot and mandarin and green notes from the oakmoss and patchouli balanced in perfect harmony with some musk in the base.Slightly on the feminine side of unisex but any Man who likes rose notes should check it out and can totally pull it off. I get the Ballroom comment that Teenlove mentions below, this would be Catherine Zeta Jones in the ballroom in Zorro totally, that scene with the red rose in her hair,something gorgeous and timeless about it. Ellen Covey keeps knocking them out of the park one after the other. I am enjoying the heck out of Ballets Rouges.

Ballet rouges is an amazing cchypre and aldehidic floral perfume. The main note for me is the rose with the Moss, making a Green floral scent which brights with the aldehides geting a bit his typical soapy vibe. It is a bit spicy for me as Well, with something plastic in the base. The musk gives to the fragance a very good longevity. The sillage is good also on my skin. It projects quité good and i can feel It on myself most of the time. I think the perfume is unisex because It goes on the línea more or less of perfumes like eau du soir by sisley, superstitious by Frederic Malle or noir de noir by Tom Ford. I dont know if i would wear this smell confortable because this is not really mu cup of tea, but i must say that the quality and the performance is very good, as in the other olympic orchids perfumes i have tried. Inthink is perfect for daytime use un summer ir spring. Scent: 7 Longevity: 8 Sillage: 8.5 Quality/price: 7 Versatility: 8 Originality: 9 Global: 8

Ballets Rouges opens with a lovely, full-bodied, liquored red rose with a touch of dry green bergamot and a subtle mossy backdrop. Minute by minute, the rose only gets bigger and deeper, while still retaining that slightly sharp green ambiance. This is a classic “mossy rose chypre”, a genre that became popular in the late 1970s through 80s. Ruby-red, jammy roses full of damascones, set against earthy oakmoss, combine to produce a femme fatale sensibility. Ballets Rouges is a perfectly canonical mossy rose chypre, exactly as it should be: mostly red rose with a hint of thorn. In fact it’s somehow “more canonical” than any of its vintage inspirations which always seem a little off-center to me – Coriandre is more green herbs than rose, Knowing has more complex floral stuff going on, etc. Ballets Rouges is a winner. Dramatic, glowing, satisfying.

I'm working my way through the Olympic Orchids catalog and this one is a huge surprise to me. It was an afterthought--I needed to pick a tenth sample for my sample pack, and thought, eh, what the heck. This is such a gorgeous perfume. It's a rich, sweet, yummy rose with enough earthy notes to ground it so it doesn't smell like a confection. I'll concede that the longevity is not great, especially compared to some of Ellen Covey's other perfumes. I get a strong Tom Ford Noir de Noir vibe from this, which is high praise coming from me--NdN is one of my top 5 all time favorite perfumes. Seattle Chocolate & Sakura are also both absolutely stunning.