I’m not your most fashion-savvy person out there so although I will recognise certain names, I can never tell you what sort of clothes they make. So for example, when I saw the beautifully beaded eagle in flight suspended at the base of a plunging back of what is otherwise a very simple, even plain black sheath dress, I could never tell you that it was from the fashion house of Balmain.
But it is. I was terribly fascinated by this one because of the interesting back to the dress. From the front, it is a simple high necked deep navy blue sheath. Turn around, and the back pungles down to the small of your back with that interesting beaded eagle. I’d love to shimmy myself into that dress!
But we’re not here to talk about dresses and Balmain designs. This is about Balmain Ivoire fragrance – a reworking of a Balmain classic scent from 1979. If you can remember that and are reading this, I would like to a) take my hat off to you and b) meet you! 😛
The Ivoire by Balmain fragrance comes in a simple square glass flacon, and a clear lucite cap. I know making the cap out of glass would raise the costs even more but I could feel the jarring contrast of plastic against the glass base so that gave me pause. It is otherwise an elegant bottle.
The scent is described as having a fresh mandarin opening, mellowing down to a floral rose, jasmine and ylang ylang and rounding off with spicy vetiver, cedar and patchouli. To my untrained nose, from the bottle, it smells rather like a musky floral. The first impression I get is that of a fresh burst of scent, followed by flowers and musk.
Sprayed on a blotting paper or even in the air, I rather like it. I am partial to musky scents so the musk in this one sits well with me. Lately, I have discovered that I have a penchant for warm, spicy woody scents so this one is a bit more floral than I’d like but still smelt quite nice as the sample blotter fragranced the inside of my bag.
However, everything changed when I sprayed this on my skin. It initially smelled nice. A simple floral sort of nice. However, 1 hour later, I wanted to scrub it off my skin with carbolic soap.
As perfumes do, my body chemistry changed the scent of Ivoire into that of a strong, powdery, sourish scent. It was harsh and I actually smelled like I was steeping in sweat and needed a shower. It didn’t make me feel nauseous as some perfumes have done, but it was very hard for me to get through the one day I tried this on my skin. All I wanted to do was go home and have a long hot shower!
I’ve since learnt my lesson. These days, when I test perfumes, I test them on a weekend when I’m at home. This way, if the scent does not agree with me, I can immediately hop into the shower and scrub it off. When I wear a new scent to work, it is like playing the lottery. Some make me feel sick, some make me smell like a rafflesia flower (not pleasant despite the floral theme) and if I get lucky, I smell like roses all day long.
So no. This scent is not for me. I have not been able to bring myself to even look at it again because I’m reminded of that one day when I so desperately needed to jump into a shower and drown myself in scented shower gel but couldn’t because I was at work.
That said, my experience with Ivoire shouldn’t put you off. Perfumes react so differently on different skins that reading about it is quite fruitless. What you should be doing is going out there and testing it, not on a blotter mind, but on your skin. Its the only way you can tell if you want to run screaming for the shower, or walk around smelling like you just stepped through a floral garden.
And since this was not a pleasant reminder of the fragrance for me, here is another fascinating Balmain couture design.
The whole dress was heavily beaded and I was told that this was all hand-sewn on, every pearl and bead. The tapestry material was heavy and I cannot imagine just how heavy this dress would be to wear. Or how stiff.
Have you come across Ivoire by Balmain yet? Have you come across a fragrance that just doesn’t work on your skin?
I can’t recall off hand which scent it was that made me nauseous every time I wore it. It would be awkward in the mornings when I’d turn a little green, only to realise that it was the perfume and not that I’d eaten something funny. Naturally, I’ve never worn it again. Funny how smells can make your body react so violently 🙂
Paris B
Balmain Ivoire EdP Price: RM260/50ml; RM375/100ml Availability: Major departmental stores
That dress with that plunging back looks good 🙂 And I read your title as “The making of Batman…” until I read it again >_<
Some perfumes do that to me too. While some SAs always spray it on a piece of paper, I prefer to test it on myself then go back another day. I also realise that we're hardly given samples to test at home. When I say, "OK, spray on me, and I'll see how it goes a few hours later", they give me funny looks…
Haha Batman 🙂 I loved the dress too – very red carpet worthy! I get that funny look everywhere I go when I ask for perfumes to be sprayed on my wrist. I don’t know – do the SAs think we wear perfumes on blotters?!
Aw, I’m sorry the perfume didn’t work for you. The bottle is very pretty and reminds me of Chanel’s Coco perfume.
I have tried many perfumes that just dont work on my body! Namely the DKNY apple shaped ones! LOL It just made me smell really strange, like something I can’t explain. Too tart, too something. But gross. :p
Oh, that is such a pity because I really love DKNY apple and just recently purchased a twin set that also consisted of DKNY cherry blossom. I guess each fragrance react differently on differently skins. Hope you found a fragrance you love 🙂
I do like the simplicity of the bottle, but man! I couldn’t get into the shower quickly enough! LOL I do like the DKNY apple – its very… erm… apple-y hehe… That’s the beauty of fragrance – there’s one out there for everyone, even if it’ll smell like crap on someone else!
That’s a very sexy and alluring dress I must say 🙂 Sorry to hear that the perfume didn’t work for you. However, as always, for anything that didn’t work etc, you’d share the lesson learnt or tip with us. In this case, it is to test the perfume while you’re at home on the weekends. I fully agree with this practical trial and error idea. Sometimes I get sprayed at when I walk past the promotion roadshows at KLCC. That’s usually lunch time. By the end of the day, I would normally know if the perfume has gone right or wrong on me 🙂
I used to use perfume at work, but then I was self conscious for any odd reason…I had stopped ever since and to reduce the chances of me spraying myself silly in the morning when I am in a hurry to leave for work. Reduces the risk of going blind or staining my clothes. I am not too adventurous when it comes to perfume and typically a bottle lasts me forever. I was once attracted to Anna Sui Secret Wish but stick to my Raply Lauren Romance instead.
Yes yes! Always also get it sprayed on you not be content with a blotter, because you will wear the perfume, not spray it on a blotter 😀 I love how you can test perfumes at lunch time – its probably one of the best ways to know if it’ll hold up to a working day, and it’ll also mean you get rid of lunch smells! Haha… I usually just do 2 spritzes in the morning, one on each side of my neck and that’s it. I used to love RL Romance – loved the promo photos too! So romantic!
Hi Paris!
This is my first time reading about a fragrance by Balmain. For some reasons, I’ve never come across Balmain fragrances. Not sure why LOL. I’m sorry to know that you had a bad experience with it. I’ve experienced quite a number of times when some fragrances just don’t work on my skin. Somehow, I just cannot forget this one experience I had with Marc Jacobs Daisy. It was such a nice scent on paper but it was a total disaster on my skin. it was just so nasty that I wanted to go home straight away & scrub my wrist. Gosh, it was a terrible experience. I love the bottle though.
Not to worry Rin, when I read there was a Balmain fragrance launch, I went “Huh? Balmain does fragrances too?” I later found out that they do, but we don’t hear of them very much 😀 I’m sorry Daisy didn’t work for you. The bottle is pretty and the scent is ok but I’ve learnt I recently take better to strong, woody, spicy manly scents haha! Funny eh how our preferences change.
I love Balmain clothes and Balmain girls but never tried this perfume, I checked the notes and it looks like it has resin note.
I clicked too early- what I wanted to add is- I hate resin 😀 Flacon is beautiful tho!
Haha maybe it was the resin that smelled off on me >.< The bottle is lovely in its simplicity, and the scent on its own is not bad. Just not on my skin >.<
I spray it on my clothes, like a finishing touch before I leave the house. Doesn’t react with my skin, but perfumes always interact with the food smells of my lunch!!! 🙁
I’ve been told to try that too – spray on clothes instead of on skin so the scent stays on better and remains more true to the scent in the bottle. I guess that’ll work if there was one I loved, but didn’t like how it smelled on me – thanks for the reminder! I hate having lunch smells or food smells cling to my clothes! Quite a hazard here I’m afraid, which means carrying a miniature in my handbag makes sense 😉
Balmain pants, Rick Owens biker jackets – they’re on my fashion bucket list. More biker jackets though (then again, I don’t know how I’m going to carry off a hardware-heavy leather jacket when I’m 80!).
D&G Light Blue! On me, it’s rancid like birthday cake frosting gone bad. Ugh. Makes me want to heave at the thought of it!
Haha ok you lost me with the Balmain fashion. My impression of Balmain is stuck in the department store men’s shirts I’m afraid. You know those days when designer really spoilt their names? >.< I think I have a bottle of Light Blue somewhere. I'm going to see if I smell like bad birthday cake too 😀
I hated Tresor from Lancome because it had such a strong and awful scent and I wanted to remove it when I got home. But I know a lot of ladies love that scent. Have you come across fragrances that just refused to show up on your skin even after you sprayed like 8 times? I experienced this with Intuition by Estee Lauder. I am not sure why I can hardly smell the scent and I guess it is due to how the fragrance reacted to my skin. But I did love Pleasures for quite a number of years before I moved on to other fragrances.
I didn’t like the original Tresor but the lighter version was quite appealing, if ordinary to my nose. I used to like Intuition! Went through at least 2 bottles although Pleasures wasn’t something I liked very much LOL! Tells you just how different we can perceive scents right? 😀 I haven’t had one that doesn’t show up on me, but many light scents disappear after about an hour or so and that really sucks!
Loving the pun btw!
I love that dress. Saw it a couple months back in a video of their runway show and it was one of my favourites! I wish I got to see it in person- lucky you!
I have experienced nausea from a perfume once but don’t quite remember its name or brand. Might have been a sampler or borrowed from Mum. Good thing it hasn’t returned to haunt me…yet.
Ooh I didn’t know the dress was featured on a runway! It looks amazing in person – all that detail in the back! 😀