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ribolov969 – :
I’m chronically untidy and picked up my bottle of vintage Ivoire because I couldn’t find Brand X. How did I forget I had this? It’s beautiful. A work of art but one that can go everywhere as they say anytime anyplace. It doesn’t shriek like the new fruit and candy scents. One doesn’t have to be ‘in the right mood’ for it. I wore it when I was sick with flu and it did nothing but comfort me. All the ingredients are there but never elbow each other out of the way. They don’t make perfumes like this any more. It’s all shrieking, attention seeking …. and profit.
AndreyUK – :
I just rediscoved that beauty that was sleeping in my perfume wardrobe. What a shame. Ivoire is so chic. Now The vintage version is pretty extensive on eBay. I am very happy to bought a 100ml bottle a few years ago at $50.
aarwuxbbwd – :
I absolutely adore initial aromatic blast of marigold, chamomile and artemesia (my favourite note) slightly sweetened by mandarin or orange. I wish this stage stays forever on my skin, but of course, true to its chypre nature it develops into mellow, creamy herbal/floral amber dry down and stays like this for hours, eventually becoming the most wonderful, “soap clean skin” smell. Ivoire de Balmain is a stunning, chic, classy, strong herbal-floral chypre for a stunning, chic and classy strong woman. I treasure my vintage EDT.
seh4 – :
Vintage –
Bitter, clean, aldyhydic, green, floral-spicy. The opening is a blast of bitter green vetiver/oakmoss/soapy aldehydes. The galbanum, oakmoss and aldehyde scent continues throughout the evolution of the scent, though it smooths a bit over time and becomes more floral. The floral heart contains that a touch of that indolic jasmine + rose combo that was in every woman’s perfume in the 80’s, but the dominant floral notes on me are a slightly spicy white floral that smells of marigold + muguet. Far too soapy and bitter for my modern tastes, though better than some of the chypres from that era.
RUCHKASI – :
This perfume made me look up asofoetida. Ahh, so that was the strangely spicy, borderline garlic-sweat note in here. Let me make clear that it’s not a bad thing but it was a very unusual note that I had not encountered in the past. I don’t get “ivory” color from this but I do see shades of copper and bronze in my minds eye, like a sunset over a field of black eyed Susans. This is a weird perfume and while I like it a lot, I cannot wear it just any old place. It has a definite vintage feel, lots of oakmoss and bitter herbs mixed with sappy green wildflower stems. I wore this on a road trip to our family country house this summer. It was perfect for a weekend in the pollen filled air of the country, in a house built by my great-grandparents, full of dusty antiques and that mossy smell of the surrounding woods breezing in the windows. If you’re not into challenging retro scents, you probably aren’t going to like Ivoire. But if you are like me and will use scents to transport you into another era, please give this one a try. There is an intensive pepper note in here that will appeal to lovers of that. Asofoetida though. Wow, funny to say, funny to smell.
Bigstocks – :
Review based on the old version
Incredible aroma !!
From the deepest essence of emotions this fragrance is born. Balmain believes it supported in the purest sophistication of the elegance of a lady dressed in ivory color.
The touch of the aldehydes produce that air of fresh sophistication that when combined with the oak moss, the vetiver and the woods produce a vibrant, powerful, unique effect, with personality, taken from the bowels of the earth, the camomile and the calendula It smells like a floral scent, which lasts quite a trick, a country scent, natural, fresh, like being in the middle of a meadow full of freshly cut hay, hay that smells of expensive soap because of the added effect of a rich, Complex, where the rose that is attached to a soft musk, feels a different rose, is not the rose Otto, nor its Absolute, rather shades like the rose of France, is nothing juicy, is clean, dusty, as if Out pollen, looks like a rose in a book of memories, that when you open it gives off that incredible aroma of the flower, yes, Ivoire gives off an aura of nostalgia, yearnings and desires.
The duration and the stela are pronounced and perfect, it seems more a EDP (how well these things were done before)
It represents a mysterious, beautiful, cultured woman who knows how to smell good but is also rebellious, fresh and natural like a white rose that has just bloomed.
Ivoire is one of my all time female favorites, masterpiece, with unisex current potential and I get every time I want to smell a rotund and lively aroma, which is full of multiple nuances, where the deep aroma of oak moss Of truth (no, its substitute: evernil) here is a king without complex and without restrictions IFRA.
An aroma of the past, dead, that in my nose and my memories will always be present and very alive.
Rating: 9.3
гнус – :
Ivoire de Balmain
Pierre Balmain
Year
1980
Green Sleeves
I wore the vintage eau de toilette upon the first release back in 1980 and through 1981 at the dawn of the Eighties but have always felt like this fragrance, a no holds barred chypre, is representative of the 70’s with it’s theme of green peace green is good love your planet. Those are the kind of perfumes I like most, big greens. We who have worn this frag call it ‘green’ and a chypre, or rather a floral chypre, because that’s the label. So this is for us with a penchant for chypres especially classic chypres in the style of Vent Vert (also by Pierre Balmain) Chanel No 19 Bel Respiro Y by Yves Saint Laurent, Givenchy III, Estee Lauder Aliage and perhaps even to some degree the dry down of White Linen and certainly Charlie by Revlon. This fragrance was unique to me however. It’s beauty is beyond words. This is a lovely green juice that you just have to smell.
Opens with a boozy aldehyde note, refreshing and effervescent, a tad like the opening to Chanel No 22. There is a sweet fruity prelude to the green notes with distinctive lemon, raspberry and mandarin orange. They swim in the aldehydes with a passing neroli and some orange colored flowers (tagetes) before the floral notes emerge. This smells an awful lot like green florals of lily of the valley, green carnation, jasmine bushes, herbaceous rose and a touch of powdery root of iris.
The florals mixing with the ever present foliage is as so many of us have pointed out, reminiscent of green soap, expensive old fashioned herbal soap. But this is a good thing. It comes off as clean, not overly sweet flowers, no candy, no big fruits or heightened feminine airs. She is conservative but not timid, mature and authoritarian rather like a British girl’s school headmistress. I can picture Margaret Thatcher wearing Ivoire, or perhaps Theresa May!
While a young lady can definitely wear this if she likes vintages and chypres, this is definitely designed for a grown-up mature lady. She is old enough to have known heartbreak. There is a inward-looking contemplative melancholia in the make-up of this fragrance. It smells like a woman who has loved and lost, more than one marriage, children, ups and downs, a woman who has lived through many significant experiences and has come to the point where she doesn’t give a damn about what other people say, who has come to live within herself and her own world. This world is a private garden in a country house, her sanctuary. This could be Coco Chanel at her rural retreat Bel Respiro in France (the name of one of her chypre fragrances by the way), or Audrey Hepburn who reportedly wore this fragrance in the late years of her life, having retired from the public eye in Switzerland where she did in fact have her own garden. It’s like a beautiful lichen green suit with green sleeves or a Renaissance era gown of mossy, grassy green, seemingly made of oak moss, with yellow tassel on a belt around the waist.
The note of Evernia Prunastri or lichen is very noticeable even before the dry down. Today this note has bee banned in usage of perfume by the IFRA. The oak moss in this perfume is detectable but not a green monster. The whole thing, as has been said, is soft, clean and subtle. There are spices thrown into the mixture to give the flowers some edge. I do smell cinnamon, pepper and nutmeg. There is also a whisper of incense, sandalwood, musk smoked grass patchouli (not marijuana cannabis folks don’t get me wrong) and vetivers. The magic of those aldehydes keeps this baby from every smelling like mold or fungi, despite the large amount of green notes.
Starts off fresh, turns aromatic and herbal, floral, peppery, spicy, oily, musky and in the very final stages it’s a warm amber. So yeah a lot happens during the time this perfume wears on your skin. It has phenomenal staying power though the projection is soft. I used to wear this baby to court when I was a lawyer. Ivoire matched up with very conservative women’s suits both skirt-suits and pant suits.
Ivoire is wearable as both a formal or ‘business’ day and night fragrance in the autumn months of September October and November. This is the perfect fall fragrance. It doesn’t cry ‘holidays’ so it seems descriptive of September and early October, when the summer has come to an end and the leaves in the trees start changing colors. This smells of forest floors, moss, leaves, and faint flowers. And like other reviewers have said, this is unisex. In other words it is a woman’s perfume that by today’s standards, is unisex and wearable for both men and women. Men who can just as easily wear vintages like Opium by Yves Saint Laurent – which has just as many or more notes than Ivoire – or frags like Aliage by Estee Lauder. This is more floral than Aliage and has a little fruitiness as well courtesy of mandarin and tart raspberry, and definitely more complex when it dries and turns green, spicy and dry.
This is a gorgeous green garden fragrance and I’ve enjoyed wearing it for years. But do yourself a favor and buy the Eau de Toilette preferably in splash or dab on form from sellers on eBay. The EDT spray bottle is not bad and it’s the same as the splash miniatures but I prefer the miniatures as they are easier to dab onto your neck or collar and has less volume. Ivoire is absolutely beautiful. If you like green aromatic fragrances and unisex florals/chypres, Ivoire is definitely for you.
MyclideTide – :
Ivoire’s beauty is cold and aloof. Makes me think about the wife of an Autrian imperial officer in 1896 going on vacation on a Croatian island to get well after a long illness. She’s pale and somber but still beautiful, making the men want to protect her.
I like to wear Ivoire in the summer: it’s not fresh as of today’s standards, but still has enough greenness that it doesn’t ever become cloying. Aldehydes always smell clean to me, making Ivoire the perfect elegant/formal day scent.
KQikelB – :
Ivoire de Balmain (1980) is a little green bar of soap almost exactly like Irish Spring soap but more expensive and engaging in it’s aromatic gorgeousness. There is a more of a 1970’s chypre nod and has less in common with the 80’s frags we think of like Coco, Poison, Giorgio. This is more like Aliage and Chanel No. 19, a clean green earthy herbal galbanum based cologne. I purchased a vintage eau de toilette which is quite amazing and my review is just overkill when we look at how many people have loved and talked about this scent. From the moment I inhaled the fume off the bottle, my nose would never be the same. This is going to end up being my new signature scent. Surprisingly this is a little bit like my actual signature scent Bijan for Men. The fragrance has a lot going for it with this many notes but it has a moderate projection, it’s hardly detectable and does feel like clean green soap and a patchouli oil. It’s relaxing and soothing with a note of chamomile like a calming green tea, herbal, therapeutic and serene.
The opening is of fresh alcoholic aldehydes which has a citrus flavor but goes green almost immediately with galbanum, artemisia and some floral notes of violet, narcissus, jasmine, iris, marigold, ylang ylang and lily of the valley. Florals for me can be harder to detect if the fragrance has a lot of other notes playing like this one. It is not terribly floral but it is more green floral and or aromatic, spicy-floral like catching whiffs of some bushes with a few jasmines and lily of the valley. The pepper and spices come into the forefront and the heart is more spicy than floral. The scent warms up into a smoky incense with Oriental and chypre notes of sandalwood, oak moss, patchouli, musk, amber, and a dash of vanilla.
Ivory? Like ivory soap? No. It’s Irish spring green soap. This comes with a color and it’s green. A specific scented definition of a chypre. At times it can get powdery, at times musky and woodsy. Such a wonderful study in green notes. And yes they don’t make them like this anymore, not even for women’s fragrances. This is unisex by the way. To me this can easily be worn by a guy who does not mind wearing fragrances that are marketed to women but end up smelling unisex and or more masculine in it’s nature.
Ivoire is a green natural herbal smoky scent which can be worn by a classy and very bold guy who can also wear something like Opium by Yves Saint Laurent or Kenzo’s L’Elephant. It doesn’t suit every guy but it can be worn by a mature guy experienced in wearing many different fragrances and has a penchant for chypres. This fragrance is best worn in the autumn and winter when it envelops you in it’s greenery and musk, and can feel like such a hot springs type of aroma, a green woodsy clean and very crisp scent. This matches up with cardigans, cashmeres, pea coats, turtlenecks. This has an academic collegiate intellectual East Coast vibe, like a Bostonian college student or New York Colombia professor or student, and charmingly old fashioned – 1940’s 50s 60s.
And I repeat unisex. This is not some powdery sweet fruity super feminine girly candy and rose scent. This starts off fresh with aldehydes but dries quickly and turns mossy and herbal, patchouli and incense with musk, and though it has weak projection it has great and lengthy staying power. The people that come to mind when I smell this! Adlai Stevenson, Woody Allen, Andy Warhol, Allan Sherman, you know, a smart but very funny clever academic. This is a writer’s fragrance, an artist or photographer’s scent. Great for wearing to museums, art galleries, recitals, the symphony, ballet, opera, or chamber music concert, not to mention college class! Bottom line whether you’re a guy or girl, as long as you are mature and have had experience with multiple chypres, this is for you.
mumic2002 – :
This perfume is NOT masculine. It is one of the most beautiful, feminine, classy and elegant fragrances I have ever smelled, very similar to K de Krizia …. that is the only thing available now that the vintage Ivoire de Balmain is impossible to find unless you’re willing to fork out a lot of money. If you look at K de Krizia, the notes are very similar. The current version is nothing like the original … a completely different perfume. At first it smells fresh and after a while is has this annoying musky smell.
I love Carolyn Parker’s review and totally agree … a perfume masterpiece .. but Carolyn, where did you find a bottle????
lida999 – :
theladymay Thanks a lot for your info. I tested it but in 1995, I can t recall it but It sounds as First or La Nuit by Paco Rabanne (two masterpieces that I wore) Love and wear some vintage fragances. You are right: no gender! Nice to read you, thanks!
8a82c0 – :
@diego.lesgart Ivoire de Balmain works very well on a man. I have heard young women reject it as masculine; the newer version has been reformulated to more closely match this eras perception of feminine even. Of course fragrance has no gender, it’s just marketing that wants it to. So much of what was most popular in the 70s/80s with women would be labeled either as unisex or masculine today due to trends. But all that theory aside Ivoire de Balmain is very suitable for men, so go ahead and rock it!
drandar224 – :
Can this fragance smell as unisex??? I mean… I read in here tan First by Van Cleef and Rive Gauche classic for woman could seems unisex … And I really interesed in Ivoire about its components. Thanks for answered me!!!
jcy171intitytek – :
Ivoire is an herbal masterpiece!
I first wore her between the time of it’s release 1980 and through 1985. This here is a beautiful lush green chypre, the likes of which had not come before or after. Though there are chypres which outrank her in name: Chanel No. 19, Estee Lauder Aliage, Elizabeth Arden Bluegrass, and Pierre Balmain’s own Vent Vert, for me truly Ivoire de Balmain takes the trophy for the all around greatest green chypre fragrance. I purchased the eau de toilette dab on bottles and later the sprays. The sprays are a bit too vinegary and rather too harsh especially that opening which can be so aldehydic as to induce a headache or to make your nose twitch (y’all know what I mean!) but the spray acts more like the parfum which is heavier and tougher on you. Try the EDT miniature dab on bottles instead. They’re absolutely gorgeous. The fragrance is captivating. First of all it is a real perfume! By that I mean long lasting, comes with superior sillage and an aroma with more notes than fragrance industry churns out today, a throwback to 20 to 30 note formula of the days of Yves Saint Laurent Opium and Magie Noire by Lancôme. Although some reviewers have made comparisons to 80’s fragrances I don’t see it as a high powered 80’s frag at all. In fact it’s more like the 1970’s green peace, green is good earthy grassy chypre fragrances.
This cologne is a discreet soapy and powdery green floral. It’s autumnal and contemplative. Some reviewers have called it melancholy or funereal but I’m not smelling what they’re smelling. This is a dignified classy fragrance to wear in the winter or fall to special occasions. It matches up with formal wear especially black clothing: dresses or suits. I also do think it’s unisex. The fragrance does not come off as all that feminine nor masculine. It has a dual nature and can smell like something a man can easily wear and a woman but both would have to be mature and experienced, older. Ultimately it’s a classical chypre and boils down to green aromatic herbal scents of patchouli, vetiver, asafetida, artemisia, galbanum, woods, musk, and lots of oak moss.
The aldehydes in the opening are brilliant and sparkling like golden champagne. It is also vaguely familiar with something that smells of hair gel or shoe polish, tea, vinegar and soap. It smells quite domestic. It makes me visualize an Amish lady in Pennsylvania who churns her own butter and wears drab dark dresses and bonnets. Conservative is the perfect word to describe this scent. Nothing about it is slutty or liberal. Artemisia and chamomile give it a green touch from the start along with asafetida. Spicy as hell. But sweet as well. Sweet mandarin and citrus notes are briefly there before it starts turning sweet and soapy with floral notes of violet, marigold, carnation, narcissus, and lily of the valley. These floral notes are not excessive and not as floral as most traditional floral fragrances for women so again a male can pull it off because it’s just not that floral. Being a perfume that evokes the autumn, not the spring, it makes sense that it would not smell heavily of flowers.
This fragrance is called “Ivory” but it does not smell “white” or “beige”. Rather it has a grassy green, earthy green, pea green color mixed with a subdued pale yellow or a dark brown. It matches up with a conservative dress that your grandmother wore or something for Eleanor Roosevelt and ladies of the Great Depression. So understandably I can see why so many have stayed away from this fragrance and are not even bothering to wear it much less review it. It’s not youthful and it’s not sweet or airy. It’s not flirty sexy or “hot”. But it is BEAUTIFUL. I wondered why they named it Ivoire and I read the background story. Pierre Balmain the French fashion designer based in Paris was at the Opera and he caught sight of a beautiful and mysterious single lady in a white evening gown and white hat and gloves. She made an impression on him during the performance but she disappeared as soon as the concert was over. He was inspired to formulate a fragrance that captured the spirit of that woman or of the evening of classical music/opera. The scent does not smell like a theater nor is operatic and yet it is formal enough to be worn to such a venue. It has a wistful longing and symphonic beauty. Tchaikovsky’s final symphony, the Pathetique, Mahler’s Fifth, or Beethoven’s Pastoral 6th. It is a poetic and artistic fragrance. An artistic person can wear it, whether male or female, in the right weather: wintery, cold, rainy, or a crisp autumn afternoon. It also smells of a sunset in a park. It’s a respectable perfume. That lady that caught Balmain’s eye must have been wearing a chypre that was equally as attention grabbing. It is a classic French chypre with all the glorious notes that make up such a perfume, notes which are unfortunately becoming extinct in perfumery today. Galbanum. Oak Moss. Oh when are these new modern noses going to bring back galbanum and oak moss. These notes are so beautiful and more than any other note it has such an emotional power and such heartbreaking beauty.
In the dry down the scent becomes progressively more oily and more masculine and like a man’s bar of soap. It is brown and the green is gone. This is smelling of spices. Pepper, nutmeg and cinnamon. It’s equal parts vanilla although not a vanilla we are used to in today’s fragrances. Not a gourmand yummy vanilla. A burnt Shalimar type of dark vanilla. It matches up with the amber and the sandalwood. The woods embrace balsam an incense. And yet despite all these heavy hitters: patchouli, sandalwood, vetiver, galbanum, oak moss, amber, musk, there is a sweetness that is left over from the aldehyde-citrus and the florals, and the strange raspberry tart. Yes raspberry! In this raspberry plus asafetida note it is similar to Magie Noire by Lancôme although that one is much more profound and really more intense and moody, witchy. Ivoire is calm and sweet, no nonsense. She is not a witch but a very proper English lady who went to the Opera. This is a very beautiful scent and I wish to God that more women would wear it. I love to wear it in the colder chillier months and it always brings me pleasure. I must say that my late husband never cared for this scent or Magie Noire but I wore them for my own pleasure and comfort. If you too wear fragrances as therapy for yourself, Ivoire de Balmain is a therapy session in fragrance.
mafiya – :
I received a still packaged bottle of the original perfume for Christmas this morning, and I was instantly brought back to the 80s when this scent evoked the yearning my teenage self had for reaching adult sophistication. It’s what my young mind thought a woman would wear at the height of her powers, creatively and sexually, the White Witch to Opium’s Dark Witch. It’a a timeless masterpiece.
cheapestwowgoldaky – :
I have a bottle of the original IVOIRE DE BALMAIN, circa early-to-mid 1980’s (sorry – I don’t have the batch code). I haven’t tried the modern reissue and can’t compare them, but from the notes and reviews I have the impression that they are different fragrances.
The original IVOIRE DE BALMAIN is a polished, sophisticated and formal fragrance with distinct aldehyde notes. It’s not sweet or overtly floral. Initially, there’s a coldness to it that eventually wears down into a smoother and somewhat warmer scent, but it’s not one that gets cozy. As the hours pass, there are subtle hints of powder and spice. To me, this one goes best with good-quality, tailored outfits in strong, but neutral solid colors, accessorized with bold jewelry. This isn’t a fragrance for pastels or prints or fussy details. The sillage is on the higher side of moderate and the longevity is excellent.
nonlife – :
This perfume blew my mind!
It’s late September here in Nashville Tennessee where I live with my husband and 2 children. The autumn is here and all you need to do to “see” it is drive north up to Kentucky and also up to West Virginia where the leaves are already starting to change, the foliage is going from green to gold, yellow and red. Maples, oaks, cedars, poplars, umbrella trees and all softs of flowering trees are embracing the Fall. The air is beginning to cool and this is the kind of season my skin craves warmer scents, more pensive, intellectual, deeper fragrances. This is almost sad. It’s like a fall fragrance to wear to a funeral. October has long been a month that has seen many a death in my family: both grandparents, my husband’s parents, and an uncle. The melancholia of colors like black, brown, tans and the imagery of overcast, sunless cold mornings are all in this bottle.
Don’t think for one second that this perfume with the description of the mood and images it creates for me, makes it unpleasant. It is a very beautiful and pleasant aroma. I have never in my life come across such a fragrance. I cried the first time I wore it. The very first time I applied the Eau de Toilette mini splash bottle, my uncle had just passed away. He was my favorite uncle who would take me horse back riding when I was little. I wore Ivoire to the funeral and I know he would have loved this scent because he was fond of green and woodsy perfumes, chypres, on women, that is. This fragrance also matched up with my black mourning dress and the weather: chilly, overcast, no sun, cold, and gloomy.
The notes are copious and they are not always easy to make out. The aldehydes come in loud and clear. Fresh and old timey perfumy aldehydes but for some reason not similar to the more famous aldehyde openings of Chanel No. 5 or First Van Cleef & Arpels. This is a very distinct aldehyde with a strange vinegar type of scent. It smells like a perfumed version of putting your nose to vinegar or olive oil. It’s more oily than aldehydic. A tea type of scent emerges from the chamomile and there is a balsamic (or again oily) scent projecting from the asafetida aka ferula, slightly reminiscent of cooking oils. There are no fruity scents whatsoever so that mandarin orange must have been the weakest of the notes that were thrown into it. I smelled a marigold and Artemisia, a violet and raspberry, all in the first few minutes. The violet and raspberry are sweet but the sweetness vanishes rather quickly. The same goes for the floral notes of lily of the valley, jasmine, carnation, rose, narcissus, ylang and iris. To my nasal detection, there are barely any flowers. It’s like a cruel, deliberate disappearance. The nose behind this scent allows you to capture a fleeting sensation of florals before they are gone for good. I would have to say that the strongest floral note is the marigold. Somewhere within that marigold sweetness is the little citrus note.
After the flowers fade, the autumnal landscape is visible. It’s a grove of trees that are bare and their leaves of gold, red, and brown lay scattered on the ground. There are a few of them hanging on trunks and limbs, and with them, moss. This was an unmistakable moss scent. The base notes are what you are going to mostly get out of this perfume. There’s sandalwood mingling with other woodsy notes like oak, and mossy oak at that. There’s patchouli, and green notes, shrubs and patchouli leaves that you’d think would be strong, but they aren’t. This is not a patchouli at all. There is more of that vetiver and green grass and leaves. Vetiver is the strongest of the base notes. This is a very masculine dry down and vetiver is the most commonly featured base note in men’s fragrances but here it’s presented as a woman’s chypre. It’s glossy and like shoe polish. I like that scent. A little bit of vanilla courtesy of Tonka emerges but doesn’t make too much noise.
Finally there is an incense but it’s a soft smoky scent, detectable, but not overpowering. The incense plus the sandalwood makes me think of Church. It’s a Church perfume, funeral service fragrance, religious, contemplative, complex, mysterious, and spiritual. It can be worn with black clothing and formal wear. It’s not meant to be used casually as an office scent, or even as a date night fragrance. Nothing romantic or sexy about it. It’s a serious scent of quiet reflection.
It has a touching wistful longing.
It smells like someone is sad to be taking a far away and extended trip, and perhaps they won’t come back. It has a sepia color, like old framed sepia photographs of your great grandparents. It’s a mature perfume of such intense sorrow. I don’t think you’re going to find too many people wearing this perfume. If you don’t mind it, it can be enjoyed as a theatrical scent for actors/actresses who would get inspiration out of it. Something to wear when you play Ophelia from Hamlet during the Mad Scene, or you’re a Goth kid and like to wear strange perfumes that no one else is wearing. This is deep, aromatic, emotional, dark, and beautiful. So very very beautiful.
t6666 – :
Classy, elegant, stunning, sillage-bomb (careful!) and longevity on me is 12 hours and counting. Talk about getting my money’s worth for the vintage Ivoire on Ebay! This is just as I remembered it from the 80’s. What a treat. My bottle is in the black and gold striped box, btw – this is definitely vintage and still fresh!
Godfather79 – :
Does anyone know if this perfume is going to be brought back and why it seems to have been discontinued?
I LOOVE it and am so gutted it seems to not be available anymore. The new Ivoire is nowhere near as nice as this original Ivoire de Balmain.
pozgan – :
Discovered a forgotten vintage one at a local boutique for a great price …If you are aldehyde lover this one is for you …Very well blended though it has so many notes ..
jcz609InsuffBooni – :
Ivoire by Balmain is indeed a creamy, ivory tinged chypre. It’s not an easy scent to wrap your head around, as the long list of notes clearly suggest this is complex old world perfumery, but so well blended that singling out notes is tricky.
Ivoire opens very “ivory colored” indeed with soft creamy, soapy aldehydes, and right away i recognize the marigold of “Montana”, such a sexy leathery floral note! Right away though the chypre base peeks through, Ivoire becomes more herbal, green and oily-floral, like Magie noire and Fidji let’s say.
The overall aura is very chic, very elegant, and the composition dials down to an aldehydic, slightly woody, herbal chypre with a rounded and soft floral heart of rose, ylang and carnation and a chypre sandalwoody base. Quite versatile and easy to wear, like a sibling of Chanel No.5 edt.
EDIT: Sillage of Ivoire is g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s smelling and reminiscent of No.19.
scent: 8/10
longevity: 6/10
sillage: 5/10
FADEEV – :
Ivoire de Balmain is an aromatic green galbanum scent not for the faint of heart. It’s a beautiful autumn fragrance of fallen leaves. It smells like wet leaves after a rain. It’s got a lot going on and packs a punch: aldehydes, violet, galbanum, artemisia, chamomile, asafetida, patchouli and oak moss. This reminds me of when I was a little girl and I would wander off into the forest near my home in the UK where I grew up and I would put my little nose to leaves on the ground or on grass. It doesn’t smell like grass from Chanel No. 19 although this perfume has been compared to it. It smells like opening up leaves that are stashed together. That might not sound like it would smell good but trust me it does. There’s a sweetness to this perfume too courtesy of raspberry plus the sweetness of violets and iris flowers. Whoever made this perfume made it with a real undemanding of what makes a perfume a perfume. It’s got everything. It’s old fashioned but it speaks volumes about the woman that wears this. It smells sophisticated, elegant, refined and simple. It matches up with a clean woman’s suit, an evening gown or a white blouse and skirt very cons