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viknik.nik – :
Balalaika cologne in one ounce cylindrical bottle by Lucien Lelong, New York Chicago:
This must be a reformulation from that found in the beautiful bottle shown here on Fragrantica, because it does not smell at all like my loved Patou Moment Supreme or any other of my favorite vintage scents. Instead, it dries down to smelling like Chanel No 5, which I hate.
From the other reviews below, really want to try the original formula, found in that gorgeous bottle!
Levantos07 – :
I originally fell in love with the beautiful hob knob bottle, but the fragrance made me swoon. Then I saw the dresses that this fragrance inspired and I was done for because each one is more beautiful than the next.
This vintage bottle was well kept because the top notes are still intact. Balalaika by Lucien Lelong is a Floral Woody Musk. Balalaika was launched in 1939. Top note is mandarin orange; middle notes are violet, gardenia and palisander rosewood; base notes are woody notes, vanilla and musk. What it smells like is opulence.
All I know is that this fragrance makes me feel so worldly and bohemian. This is the perfume equivalent of musican George Abdo, who was known as the King of Bellydance music. This is the music I practiced to for hours on end when I was new to the beautiful world of bellydance. I especially loved his song, “Laila, my love”
One day, in class, we heard that George Abdo had become a fundamentalist and had destroyed his own masters — ALL OF THEM. Never in my entire life had I heard of an artist destroying their own work on purpose and I get incredibly sad when I think about it. His music is hauntingly beautiful, just like this fragrance, and both make me incredibly happy to experience them again.
alien123 – :
@grayspoole I am happy too the this offering of Lucien Lelong is now on here. It is the only one I own although I would love to find some others from this brand. It is funny because the bottle I have is mostly violets. It smells exactly like those Kiddle Cuddle toys from the 70’s the violet one with the white hair. I have only worn it a few times but it is still nice by todays standards. It does end up a little powdery on me. I am glad I have the bottle because I never owned a Kiddle toy and if I want to smell that smell I just open my bottle of Balalaika.
tumbochka – :
I’m so happy that more of Lucien Lelong’s vintage perfumes have been added to the Fragrantica database. There’s very little information available about these perfumes, so it will be helpful to see reviews appearing here. A balalaika is a traditional Russian musical instrument and thus the perfume’s packaging was decorated with imagery of charming Russian folk dancers. Balalaika evokes the brief period during WWII when the Soviet Union, Europe, and the US were allies. A1943 ad for Balalaika clearly alludes to its wartime context: “Whether you serve, or strive, or wait, be still your loveliest self…lighting your valiant heart with laughter. Never more needed, never more loved, is Balalaika perfume.” In the vintage perfume formulation I own, which probably dates to the 1950’s, Balalaika is a sophisticated floral scent with orange, gardenia, neroli, lavender, and clove notes. Its base becomes warmly, slightly powdery, almost verging on an amber, with oakmoss, labdanum, and a touch of animalic musk. Balalaika reminds me of Indiscret and Moment Supreme. These vintage spiced floral chypres are so subtle and complex: they resist categorization. (In the 1990’s, Balalaika was reissued by a Parfums Lucien Lelong company based in New Jersey. I haven’t tried this newer version, but it seems to be a different scent.)