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serg99 – :
This is an example of what real perfume is ladies and gentlemen! Smells delicious! Not in the cupcake way either. It’s powerful so a little goes a long way and lasts like a good perfume should. It’s sweet floral and very complex but I love it! Can be pulled off by young and old alike that is if you’re not scared. Worth a try for sure, very inexpensive.
Afumeheadtoo.
kirill_dj86 – :
If you like an old school powdery floral oriental chypre with leather, imagine one that fell out of the sky dripping in plum and honey and pretty much any desirable note you can think of and you have Rumba. It’s a dream fragrance if you like this style. Magnificent actually. The bottle is a little less than desirable and it has the bad plastic cap but just ignore it because what’s inside is worth it. It’s what a lot of people refer to as “old lady” and if you’re like me as soon as I hear that description I break out a note pad because that usually indicates something good. I have only smelled the old Balenciaga version with the dark juice. No idea what the newer one smells like. But the old Rumba will blow your socks off, again if this is the kind of fragrance you enjoy. This is a mega powerhouse so it’s a bit of a surprise that it was co-created by Jean-Claude Ellena. Rumba and First are quite a departure for him but when he decides to go large he goes to Jackson and doesn’t mess around. Scent is subjective and one person’s “OMG this is the best thing I’ve ever smelled in my life” is another one’s “meh”. For me, it’s a 10/10.
Anatolxp – :
Reviewing the vintage by Balenciaga:
No need to fall down the rabbit hole with this one. I think that some people rate a perfume more highly the more nostalgia it has for them. As a modern sniffeuse, this is enjoyable, but it is not “OMFG, THIS IS THE AMAZING BE-ALL, END-ALL PERFUME OF ALL TIME!!!” that a lot of the reviews make it out to be.
There’s some civet, some honey, some incense. It’s fine. It’s not quite a full perfume to me – it’s like a house made out of three different rooms, and there are a few steps missing from one of the staircases to get to each room. Something just doesn’t quite fit.
Maluwecka – :
My aunt used to work in this company where the perfume was made. It’s a heavenly woody floral scent.
mikkki – :
Vintage (Dark Juice) review:
This is a realm perfume, and I truly respect that. Absolutely unisex, dark, rich, full, warm.
Lasts 12- hours easily.
If it but had a bit of a bite to it, say a little oud or vetiver, some sharpness as well, it might be my favorite.
As it is, it deserves a place on the shelf of any true amateur of real perfumes. They don’t make them like that any more.
Sudronic – :
I just got a bottle of this (the Balenciaga) from EBay. I am SO happy. It is EDT (though the juice is dark), but it lasts a sight longer than most new EDPs. Sweet, but in a dark, smoky way, not candy floss. I love it!
6160 – :
This review is for the brown juice, not the pale juice as shown above. This is a fragrance with a real vintage feel. Very boozy Rumptopf sort of start, a tropical floral heart and a lovely warm, amber drydown, quite skanky, with a touch of powder. I like the drydown a lot, but am not at all sure it’s worth waiting 2-3 hours and ploughing through all those fruit to get there. Definitely a powerhouse fragrance – lasts a long time under clothing, a bit less on exposed skin. I’ll keep trying with this one, but it’s like rather than love for me.
cherkas39 – :
spicy, woody, sweet; chypre, heavy, sexy, strong, long lasting; sweet, carnation
Embeweedo – :
Balenciaga Rumba is a great smell, nowadays it is produced a reformulated and very soft version of Lapidus with the same name “Rumba”, on concession Balenciaga.
It’s a Poisonesque.
Beautiful woody and fruity. Mirabelle, orange, peach, plum. The heart is oriental-floral: gardenia, jasmine, orchid, magnolia and tuberous. The perfume closes with equally intense notes of amber, vanilla, oak moss and leather. A pale, liqueur, even unisex for today’s tastes, beautiful plum mirabelle, and the vintage version is for a little money, crazy because it is beautiful as a scent, intense and very Dioresque.Do not confuse with the license given by Balenciaga to Lapidus for the same perfume, in the same bottle but different formula and graphics.
mishawap – :
Rumba-Balenciaga or Ted Lapidis. Had both and sorry I did not really compare the two to see if they changed and added notes. This to many,may be a little fruity. Gave a small half-used bottle to a co-worker, it smelled so nice and woody on HER. I don’t know if it did me like that. I smell the fruit mostly on my skin.
This not a shy fragrance. You will be noticed.
DarkTsar – :
This is so unique. You know how sometimes you find a fragrance and it kind of resembles another fragrance in some way that you can compare them to one another? With Rumba Balenciaga I cannot find anything else that comes to mind. It is so sweet and yet smoky, which makes it very interesting. I also cannot make up my mind if I really like it or not. It is not dislike for sure, because it is way too interesting to dislike it. But it is far away from love. On me it doesn’t smell good enough that I want to wear it when I am among other people. It is more a scent that I like when I am home alone, a thunderstorm brewing outside and a good glass of red wine in my hand. A bit of a melancholic feeling, but rather in a pampering way than sad way. She will be a staple for those special moods of mine.
faq657speagoessenda – :
Very complex and sweet. A beauty with a thousand moods. A dance of fruits and flowers. Wonderful. And GREAT sillage!
dzigo29 – :
God… A huge NO to me. I have this bottle, it was a present and is so saturated, intense and woody… Almost like medicine to my nose. Is loud to a point that everybody notices you’re wearing it and even using just a touch, seems like you sprayed the whole bottle. Caused more than one migraine when I wore it and a serious sneezing – allergic reaction. I wouldn’t try it again.
vittalli – :
Hold on to your fruit hat!
Carmen Miranda would have loved this fragrance back in 1945 and it’s a shame she never wore it. It’s a joyous fruited fragrance that matches up with fruit hats & fruit print tablecloths, curtains, dresses and market places in Trinidad in the Caribbean. It’s a beautiful if old fashioned floral fruity perfume. But oh such sweetness and white floral creaminess, honey and vanilla. Each note turns up like different colors and hues in a rainbow.
It’s amazing how long lasting it is and how it can be so beautiful if you give her a chance. I embraced this fragrance whole heartedly in the first 2 years of the 90’s. I discovered Chloe Narcisse and forgot how to Rumba.Recently I rediscovered her and fell in love again. A good perfume is worth wearing more than once; and unlike wearing the same clothes over the years, a perfume is an invisible apparel that only you know is on you, sort to speak.
Rumba is a multicolored fragrant fruit drink the likes of which perfumery had never seen. When I first wore her, back in 1989 I thought it smelled like Femme by Rochas with more floral notes and a more elaborate development into vanilla. Now I no longer see this as a Femme inspired scent; but rather an early prototype to the fruity florals of the 90’s. I’m referring to TRESOR by Lancôme, Volpute by Oscar De La Renta & Donna by Pavarotti; fragrances I adore. Very much a fruit themed fragrance of casual day wear.
The notes that come together in this fragrance as it opens include citruses, orange blossom and fruit accords of mirabelle plum, peach & raspberry. If you ask me, the peach & bergamot orange are the 2 most prominent notes. The peach in this fragrance is more a peach concentrate or juice, sweetened by the chemically recreated plum & raspberry. These fruit flavors provide it with a tropical air and a festive mood, and though others have compared this to the opening of Dior’s Poison to my nose it’s more like Yves Saint Laurent’s CHAMPAGNE. In fact despite my allusions to Volupte, Tresor & Donna, Rumba is to me closer to smelling like Champagne.
The floral notes are subtle but detectable, particularly the white flowers. This is a heady scent of tuberose, magnolia, gardenia and heliotrope, all of which are white-colored and far from turning powdery, it goes into the direction of vanilla flower. This is a vanilla floral scent. The magnolia & gardenia are suited to each other and have never come across such a fine pairing of magnolia and gardenia. It has a bit of a shampoo smell at times. You know, like a floral shampoo. In addition, this heavy floral includes carnation, which is quite detectable, marigold, jasmine, orchid and lily. Yes it IS floral but the flowers are there to provide this fragrance with a mature femininity as with the fruits. Some call it unisex but for me there’s no mistake this perfume was made for ladies.
On me the base notes do not develop broadly.
The dry down is vanilla, cedar, tonka, sandalwood and honey. These notes would not have gone well together in any other fragrance but here it is trying to turn into an Oriental, but not succeeding. It’s too sweet and fruity, and too floral, for it to turn into a traditional sultry smoky Oriental. There was a brief patchouli which smelled herbal but it’s more the kind of herbal essence of shampoo to my nose. The styrax is reminiscent of the styrax in Donna by Pavarotti, and it is very deep, and a tad oily. The moss and woods would effectively convert her into a chypre, which this most definitely is.
A delicious sweet honey, creamy vanilla, and amber are left to give your skin that amazing dry down to have you swooning and reaching for more of this fragrance. It packs a powerful punch, so you’ll be pleased with just one or two spritz and it will last you a long time. Again, this is definitely day wear. However, today, this perfume, outdated as it is, would be welcomed as an evening perfume but she doesn’t come off as sober, conservative or formal. She is and always will be a party animal.
My memories of Rumba are joyful & involve pool parties, conga lines, limbo, fruit cocktails, floral print dresses and Caribbean cruises with my first husband Richard. This is a Happy fragrance. My husband loved it on me and would hold me tighter on the dance floor as we danced in the ballrooms of such ships as the Queen Mary (the first one now docked in Long Beach California) and Princess Cruises that went from Florida to the Caribbean back in the 70’s. This perfume reminds me of those days and also makes me think of the 70’s sitcom THE LOVE BOAT.
A beautiful fragrance, not for everyone, but tailor made for vintage classic lovers and fans of fruity floral chypres. The fragrance has been reformulated but it is the exact same scent from ’89 and is available for purchase online in such sites as Amazon.com and Ebay. This fragrance can also be found in a few perfume stores that specialize in discontinued or older classic fragrances.
Such a bright, cheerful festive fruity floral with that rainbow color.
If anyone needs me I’m doing the Rumba.
wadianya – :
RUMBA PARTY
This is an amazing full bodied luxurious long lasting fragrance – to die for. Where has this fragrance been all my life? I was looking for the perfect fruity floral party perfume that didn’t have a celebrity name on it, that wasn’t too sweet or too much of a gourmand scent, and nothing that was cheaply made of linear. What you get is a rich, decadent and colorful work of art. At the first spritz I was surprised at it’s super projection. This is from the old school and so it packs a punch from the beginning. I had to spritz only once.
The scent of plum as a note is listed 2 times so this is like a very juicy plum. It’s delicious but dark, a plum juice or like the opening to POISON by Dior. This is almost a dark berry scent. There’s peach and lots of it, providing that summer time almost tropical air to it. If you like your top notes to consist of lots of fruit, this has one of the loveliest fruity openings ever. Plum for days, peaches, not to mention raspberry. Yumminess.
But does it stay yummy? No. It develops into honeyed flowers. This is a honey perfume. There is a honeysuckle that is incredible, and it mixes and mingles with flowers of magnolia, tuberose, gardenia, orchid and carnation. The florals are sweet and succulent. This is more a white floral scent to me than it is a carnation or rose. It also turns into an exotic tropical orchid scent, with ever present honey to keep it from smelling too floral.
The dry down is deep with styrax, woods, patchouli, amber and sandalwood. There might be a bit of musk. The fragrance turns into a warmer and somewhat more masculine/unisex but I like that in perfume. It could also be described as a nocturnal dry down. It smells of night and warm musk. This fragrance has a life! It has character, it has personality. It has marvelous projection, sillage and longevity. This is a perfume atom bomb.
The imagery that comes to my artist’s head:
A beautiful Caribbean native girl in a floral print multicolor dress, barefoot, sitting at the beach next to a basket of fruit. There’s grapes, plums and peaches. She is innocent and oblivious to the fact that has attracted a lot of male attention. She is beautiful but she is not stuck on her looks and doesn’t even really dress to impress. She is a local girl who sells fruits to tourists. She speaks very little English but she can charm the pants off any American.
Also at times this fragrance reminded me of the erotic B movie WILD ORCHID in which a young American girl is seduced and corrupted in Brazil during a business trip. This is like an island of exotic flowers, fruits, and filled with nude beaches, handsome young men in speedos, and sexy girls in thong bikinis. This is a vacation every time I wear it. It’s mature but sexy, very sultry and sweet.
My husband loves this perfume on me.
I love to wear this to parties in the summer time. This fragrance is not going to work on everyone’s skin chemistry and it is really much more suitable to be worn in the hot summer months when the fruits and floral notes of the body of this perfume smell good. They might rot in winter time. This is the most voluptuous and grandiose fruity floral ever.
viilisro – :
Wow this perfume packs a punch! And it evolves on my skin into something like I’ve never had before! I love the layers! I get a sweet smell and if rum and raisin ice cream had a smell I imagine it would resemble this! But to me this is also a huge chypre even if the chypre accords are whispering in the background – they are definitely there!
It’s a perfume that becomes richer on skin hours later but still the chypre is there.
Very intense. One spray projects and lasts for hours. I like it, it’s unusual, multi faceted and addictive.
TinityXtor – :
Gorgeous fruity floral fragrance. I’d seen a review of it on YouTube and it was described as being mature, and they threw in terms like “mature” “white floral” but I don’t give a damn about such things. When it comes to perfume, I wear what me and my nose likes. This I like. It opens very fruity in a Femme by Rochas kind of way. Juicy plum, sweet peach and delectable citruses. It’s a fruit bowl. When the fruit scents go away, you’re left with flowers, honey, sandalwood, moss and amber. But the evolution of this fragrance is totally worth it and very remarkable. The honeyed flowers did it for me. When the peach is gone, I smelled honey and a floral bouquet of jasmine, gardenia, heliotrope and carnations. I would say that it does smell like the flowers are all white; including the heliotrope and carnation, but it does not seem like a wedding bouquet at all. The orchid’s presence and the gardenia with vanilla smells tropical, as if it was a Tiare or plumeria scent, even though this is not on here. It has a festive and theatrical air, like something a Brazilian showgirl dancer would wear in Rio De Janeiro during Carnivale. This is a very showy perfume. If the notes were not notes they would be sequins on a dress. It’s very feminine but the aromatic patchouli-woods-oak moss base give it a heft and throws out a slightly masculine aura; so it’s more on the unisex side, really. It has amazing sillage and longevity. This is beautiful and glamorous. It smells very expensive because it has such great composition but the price is affordable. Bottom line: if you like vintages, if you like fruity florals, honey, white flowers and oak moss, this fragrance is a must have. I think it’s such a great experience every time I wear it. Wearing this for the 4th of July.
PS other fragrances that come to mind while smelling this scent:
Yves Saint Laurent Champagne Yvresse
Femme Rochas
Fidji Guy La Roche
Donna Pavarotti
Lancôme Tresor
Casmir Chopard
talos8 – :
Fragrance Review For Rumba Balenciaga
Top Notes: Orange Blossom Plum Raspberry Peach Basil Bergamot Mirabelle Plum
Middle Notes: Honey Magnolia Carnation Tuberose Gardenia Orchid Jasmine Marigold Heliotrope Lily of the Valley
Base Notes: Leather Sandalwood Plum Tonka Bean Amber Patchouli Musk Vanilla Oak Moss Cedar Wood Styrax
Rumba is a sublime musical fragrance that inspires you to dance while wearing her. It’s a hot night in Havana Cuba and you’re visiting a nightclub which happens to be right across the street from a Cathedral. That’s the images that come into my head. And I know why. The woods in this scent are Church wood, the rows of seats in old churches with a lot of wood. In addition there is something that wears like incense. The sandalwood is what gives this scent it’s aroma. But it’s a sandalwood that has so many other scents on top of it.
The fragrance opens with an explosion of fruit scents: peach, a raspberry and 3 notes of plum. It’s interesting how they have 3 plum notes. It’s synthetic as plums have no scent but the plummy juiciness of this scent mixes well with the raspberry and deep peach nectar. The fruit is very reminiscent of other fruited fragrances like Tresor Lancôme Donna Pavarotti Casmir Chopard and Yvresse Champagne Yves Saint Laurent. The fruitiness is rather strong too but wait.
Then the strong white flowers appear: gardenia, tuberose jasmine and magnolia. These flowers are joined by carnation, lily of the valley heliotrope and orchid. Flowers everywhere. The flowers are hanging in there even when a honeycombed honey scent arrives. Delicious honey. This is the first part of the fragrance’s performance. It’s a sweet but mature fruity floral. I have always enjoyed fruity florals but this is like fruity florals on steroids. Loving it.
The fragrance’s second life and final phase is more nocturnal. It has that Church wood. It’s Vespers and you’ve decided that because you were partying drinking and sinning on Saturday night you need to pray for forgiveness and for salvation on Sunday morning. The incense, the woods, the aromatic styrax, the cedar, sandalwood, musk, patchouli and leather are all there. Wait long enough and you can detect every one of these base notes. This is my favorite part of the fragrance. It turns unisex because of the men’s cologne components of leather, patchouli and woods. A guy can totally rock Rumba. I have some guy friends that wear it and wear it well. The honey and fruits and flowers disappear and all that is left is that sandalwood and amber. It’s so beautiful.
I first discovered Rumba on vacation in Ibiza when a girlfriend from India who wore it let me borrow it. I was blown away. “Are you sure you won’t think it’s too much of an old lady perfume?” she asked me. “I love it what difference does it make” I responded. I don’t put labels on perfume. There is no age, gender, or demographic for perfume. I wear whatever I like and I like Rumba. I do find it more on the formal side however like something to wear to a gala, black tie dinner party, a wedding, an event where you have to dress up. It’s pretty strong so if you’re gonna go out with this beauty keep her as a tenuous cloud on you and not a volcano. 2 spritzes on my collar does the trick. It has so much life in it that even if you spritz once on the right pulse point you enjoy it all day or night long.
This is a real perfume with a long lasting life, with sillage, with a full body, volume, color, music, and passion. This is a perfume you want to smell/wear/experience if you’re studying how to make perfume. It’s a Perfume 101 type of fragrance. It has everything! I love my Rumba and would never ever part with it.
MichaelOLааа – :
Vintage Rumba EDT to sum her up…TECHNICOLOR.
“Technicolor became known and celebrated for its highly saturated color”
This is technicolor in a bottle.
Its fruity, its floral, its leather, its dry, its incense, it takes you everywhere with the volume turned up. I loved it.
This is too much, expertly blended, big powerhouse perfume. Sometimes it nods to poison then changes her mind, morphs into something else. It is just bright, loud, flashy and wonderful. Just like Technicolor old movies…
mousy, weak, subtle perfume lovers need not apply….
Edit: I also came upon the parfum in a black bottle. So chic, the plums and the florals.. richer than edt. Gorgeous.
Yaroslaw1007 – :
Oriental woody? No. Chypre through and through.
Beautiful. Intricate. Zesty with fruits… woods… herbs… and sharp, interesting florals amped up with aldehydes- all leading to a fabulous drydown that ends on oakmoss, amber, and patchouli, with subtle threads of animalic notes woven in. And it lasts… like, it’s definitely detectable 24 hours later.
Truly, I feel it’s a shame that dense, complex perfumes like this aren’t made anymore- what an absolute treasure!
google – :
It’s strange because this one smells exactly like the apartment of my schizophrenic aunt (!). Cigarette smoke and some marigold-like Yves Rocher scents. For this reason I don’t see myself wearing it, but it is interesting how a single scent can remind me so much of a place.
bomoLonduby – :
In this I smell like a business lady from the 80s. I had to have it because when an association is that strong with a perfume, it is like a time capsule. I feel like yelling, “Get Tokyo on the phone! I don’t care when the markets close! Just get it done!” Very powerful.
xxguts – :
Same story: this vintage one by Balenciaga is better.
Into the Lapidus ones I suspect there is a low quality of rose (and of all maybe), anyway the first Rumba was a rich complex rose surrounded by dark fruits, but luminescent an explosions of golden flowers bees spice girls etc etc..
Well? What to say? Have you seen the notes? There is the entire world of essences inside. Rumors says J.C. Hellena has work on it. And yes it was a dance of fat flowers luminous honey rich cream and red and blue berries. Opulent & Gentle. Masterpiece.
The new version is similar but more flat and too zesty, especially the first 15 minutes, then it calms down and become a joy. It is even green and glossy citrusy someway.
An episode.
I remember I gave this to a friend of mine for Christmas (1989), she was a fan of sexy strong enveloping perfumes (Giorgio Beverly Hills, Boucheron, First). Balenciaga was not so famous anymore in the end of 80s as brand and even the fragrances were difficult to find, and was funny because after Christmas she call me and says “oh my god, everybody is asking me what a gorgeous perfume am I wearing and I do not know what answer to them!” I replied “Jesus only say Rumba by Balenciaga!” “Sure but if I say so they make strange faces and ask me what is it and where to find it! What Should I say?”.
Sometimes to wear well known perfumes can save your time. I discovered.
And she feel safer wearing famous brand probably… like those that loves to show GG D&G LV YSL FF on their clothes and bags. Don’t ask me anything. Read.
Ali_G – :
Rumba by Balenciaga is almost a sweeter, more tame version of Dior’s Poison. Both of these classic fragrances are what I’d call ‘power scents’. A scent with a loads of class, femininity and maturity. You’d be hard pressed to find a fragrance like Rumba on department store shelves, especially when we live in a day and age where women now smell of cotton candy and fruit salad.
I love wearing Rumba because to me it’s complex and inviting on the skin. It opens with powdery tuberose, jasmine and marigold with the subtlest hint of citrus. The more this fragrance develops on the skin, the richer, smokier and sweeter it becomes. I smell powdery leather, syrupy honey, juicy plum, dusty incense and soapy white florals. I find that Rumba changes on me from day to day, so no one wearing is the same.
In all honesty, yes, Rumba does smell a little dated. But the fact that it smells of by-gone days is all part of its charm. Not surprisingly Jean-Claude Ellena is one of the noses behind this elegant scent, and Ron Winnegrad is the other talented nose.
It’s unfortunate that Balenciaga felt the need to discontinue this fragrance to make way for predictable scents like Florabotanica and Balenciaga Paris. I strongly believe that if Rumba still graced our shelves, it would still be selling.
Thankfully I have a sizable decant of Rumba to last me quite some time. I enjoy wearing it most during a Summer evening, however I could also picture it being worn during the colder months with a few more generous sprays.
keepeesh – :
This may be a first. I received a single ounce of Rumba and before that day ended had Repurchased another 3.3 oz. Rumba shattered another record. It’s only the second perfume since Arpege by Lanvin to score marks as high as only a civet can in my book – without having any civet. How did Rumba not become a household name? Maybe it was the name? Too ethnic? Maybe Poison already cornered the Plum market? Whatever the reason, Rumba delights me. I am a lucky bunny who can (really must) wear a powerhouse well. I am much like Rumba. We can be loud but are not obscene. You can take us anywhere but are not for the inexperienced. This is a high quality fume and I bought the Balenciaga version btw .. for some reason I always fail to buy anything Ted Lapidus .. I come close but never seal the deal. Thought didn’t care for honey as a note but now am noticing it is prominent in more than one of my favorites. hm. Rumba is what you expect from the name, it is expansive and theatrical but hardly cheap (although quite affordable). I am #teamrumba for sure. Again, like many perfumes I love, this is best worn by someone who knows themselves. Be you male or female, if you can’t confidently carry a confident scent this will make you seem like a toddler stumbling around in mommy’s high heels. If you are suited to Rumba be prepared to dance the day and night away!
kesha_o – :
One night on a dinner date with my man I wore Rumba, an elixir of plummy-tuberose-honey-leather-the-whole-nine-yards, in an attempt to be seductive. The waitress purred over me. “What is that amazing smell?” she asked, closing her eyes with an expression of contentment, quite possibly lost in her own scent memory reverie. My fiancé seemed indifferent, even slightly annoyed by my suddenly scented body. “My mother always wears strong perfumes. It’s hard to breathe around her and now you do it too.” he explained. I tried to go lighter but if no one could smell it, then putting it on at all seemed wasteful. Rumba is not meant to be a secret. It’s meant to say HEY YOU. DANCE WITH ME.
lohoduwv – :
Very powerful potent fragrance with a lot going on. Not good at descibing notes or scent development all i know is that it goes on strong and stays strong. You know how barbequing fruit like say pineapples releases the sugars and makes it more sweet, in this case the plum , honey and i’m sure leather give that sweet heady effect. This is delicious and a woman or man who wears this will not go unnoticed. I dont know why this is classified as oriental woody.This imho is more
fruity oriental. I do detect a sharp note, which I’m sure must be the carnation& marigold but it keeps it interesting to stop it from being too syrupy. Beautiful,unique and quality are just some words to sum up
this fragrance ,i’m so glad to have it in my wardrobe. A true work of art!!!
brabus-sti – :
It’s a lovely fragrance but on my skin the leather really shows up and i like it when the floral shows up more,I lean more towards floral. I bought based on the wonderful reviews and I get the woody oriental vibe and I do like the fragrance, it just went the other way on me, I love big florals but this dry down got too leathery and smokey 😀
Filth66 – :
This is a definitely the 80’s. This is what many fragrances were like during that era. Super sillage and projection. I can’t help but like it. Great memories of a much better time.
irinanike – :
Oh. Ohhhh.. No. Rumba. *tongue rolling the R* RrrrrrrUMBA!
BOOM! Duck and run!
As much as I adore the big bombs, I cannot do this one. I ordered a Balenciaga perfume mini and one tiny drop to the wrist is frying my nose. Entirely way too much of something even for me, known for loving the monstrous stink bombs and this is a chypre if I ever smelled one, though listed here as a woody oriental. It is that too, and every other thing except gourmand and fruity floral.
I recently left a glowing review for the monstrous Hermes 24 Fauborg. Oddly, I loved 24 until the dry down when something cedar/mothball/decay began to unfold and it began to nauseate me. Rumba is reminding me so much of a darker version of 24. I am on the dry down but do NOT detect the indolic, fetid dry down of 24 (thank goodness, what a stench!) but to me, they are nearly identical with Rumba being HF 24’s meaner, older sister. Rumba is more aggressive with better hygiene than her brighter, sweeter sister, but has no right because she smells bad also. I really do not mean to offend lovers of this but there is just so much… too much of so much in here I don’t even know how to begin describing the catastrophe this is on my skin.
Must scrub… and as usual, this will be the kind I scrub 10 times with Dawn soap and it is now in my pores and bloodstream. Will have to boil it out with peroxide same as Hermes 24. Ick!
khv655Bessinepome – :
I found a bottle by Balenciaga on ebay and I love it. There is plum, plum, honey and plum riding on a leathery base. There are also florals in the background, in fact, there is actually a lot happening back there, but plum definitely dominates. When I wear this it makes me think about drinking sangria and going to evening summer parties on the building rooftop. Rumba is not a wall-flower but the one who wears this is womanly, sexy, and ready to hit the dance floor.
sitsruptsouri – :
I definitely have a nose. And, I disagree with most of the posts here. I do love Rumba. It is deep and seductive. It is heavy and sexy. But, it opens as a chypre and stays a chypre. It does have a spicy, woody mix that some might call floriental but this is not a floral and not fruity. It is not incense either. Not tobacco. Leather is a note but very well blended. This is a big perfume for those who like Balenciaga, carnation scents, chypres and spice. Love it.
viktorminsk – :
I don’t have a sophisticated nose or know very much about perfumes, but the glowing reviews of this perfume motivated me to blind buy it. I thought I was ordering the Balenciaga version but instead received the Ted Lapidus version. I don’t know what to make of it. It is strong, a bit overwhelming initially. At first, it reminded me of sitting close to older ladies in church and being surrounded by their perfume, but slowly it settles into something more pleasant. I am intrigued that anyone sense