Bottle Design:
Nicolas Ghesquiere

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Balenciaga L'Essence Balenciaga 2011

7.8 / 10 167 Ratings

A popular perfume by Balenciaga for women, released in 2011. The scent is green-fresh. It was last marketed by Coty.
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Main accords

Green

Fresh

Floral

Woody

Spicy

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Green notes

Violet leaf

Heart Notes

Violet

Resins

Vetiver

Base Notes

Leather

Moss

Woods

Perfumer

Olivier Polge

Ratings

Scent

7.8167 Ratings

Longevity

7.2124 Ratings

Sillage

6.2115 Ratings

Bottle

8.5131 Ratings

Value for money

6.911 Ratings

Submitted by Kankuro · last update on 09/10/2025.

Source-backed & verified

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Simply Eau de Parfum

Skin

Balenciaga

Violet Blonde

She Wood

B. Balenciaga

Reviews

16 in-depth fragrance descriptions

11/14/2012

6Scent 7.5Longevity 5Sillage

Sherapop
1240 Reviews

Sherapop

Helpful Review 3

Woody, Watery Violet

Balenciaga PARIS L'ESSENCE is a slightly tweaked flanker of the popular Balenciaga PARIS, the primary difference being that the flanker contains more wood than the original. This extra woodiness brings L'ESSENCE a bit closer to Dsquared SHE WOOD and Ellen Tracy BRONZE. It's the sort of combination--woody, watery, violet--which people are either going to take to or not. So anyone who likes one of these perfumes is likely to appreciate all the others. They all have a somewhat synthetic sheen to them, but it's not an off-putting one to me. I also happen to love violet and violet leaf, which are key to all of these perfumes.

People who do not like violet will find little of interest here. L'ESSENCE, like its namesake, is light and refreshing, slightly woody, somewhat sweet but somehow simultaneously aquatic. The least expensive of the rash of recently launched perfumes in this style is by far Ellen Tracy BRONZE, which I recommend as a high-value, low price alternative to the Balenciaga compositions, though I expect that their price, too, will drop soon. The bottle of the Balenciaga perfumes is much nicer, to my eyes, but the composition is not very different from the less expensive perfumes of this type.

02/17/2014

8Scent 7.5Longevity 5Sillage

Icekat
97 Reviews

Icekat

Helpful Review 3

Subtle Elegance of Violet Leaf and Leather

A graceful rider on a white horse is dashing through the morning mist on a beautiful spring day. The calm serenity of green scenery is surrounding her while the birds are greeting the arrival of the first light. The dawn is breaking, softly unveiling the mystery of a new day. The air is filled with a scent of fresh leaves, mist and a gentle scent of leather. This beautiful moment is captured perfectly in the soft, elegant and fresh scent of Balenciaga L’Essence.

The composition is centered on the violet leaf with its gentle green and fresh beauty. It is so soft and calm, cool and refreshing. I love how the composition creates this aura of freshness without going into the laundry or straight-out-of-shower scent category. It is clean but also very sophisticated. As the composition develops, there is a gentle leather scent that is layered on the green notes. The floral presence is only slightly powdery and never overpowering. All notes are perfectly woven together creating this absolutely gorgeous and elegant scent. The scent is not too strong, but it certainly is noticeable and lasts for hours.

This is a great everyday scent. Sophisticated yet subtle and easy to wear. I love this scent and would not hesitate to recommend it. Overall score 8.5/10

12/22/2014

8Scent

Rickbr
190 Reviews

Rickbr

Helpful Review

I find this fragrance very interesting, a chic take one a very loved and, due to this, overused essence: violet. What makes me intrigued about it is that i cannot decide if it's more masculine with a delicate side or more feminine with a rough edge. It's both maybe? It tries to find a balance between the violete leaves, the sweet, sugary violet flowers, the slightly rubber and leathery side of some violet materials and the clean, laundry-like aspects that other violet chemicals possess. They aren't very intense, it feels more like a blurred, watercolor impression. Altough there are some woody notes listed, they don't make the base super woody or dry, as if the base followed the fragile balance of soft-rough with some creamy woody impressions and something more discretly dry.
It's a beautiful fragrance, not one that relies on innovation, but one that makes me think that beauty is able to be created with known melodies played on the right way.

11/17/2012

6Scent 7Longevity 7Sillage

Gold
726 Reviews

Gold

1

My weird "drydown-experience"

Very good in the beginning - I'd even say wonderful - the first 120 seconds. Green and woody, with a touch of violet. But after two minutes, the gorgeous topnotes are no longer discernible for me. I can only smell a synthetic leathery-mossy heart and then, after 30 min, a rather faint, woody drydown...very faint.
Interestingly enough, I had a similar and weird "Balenciaga-drydown-experience" when I tested "Florabotanica" the other day. I loved the start, but could not enjoy the synthetic woody drydown, in spite of the fact that "Florabotanica's" drydown is much stronger than the one "Essence" is blessed with. Or - am I anosmic to the base used in "Essence"? At least Balenciaga does not release one fruity-floral girly fragrance after another and tries to come up with perfumes for grown-ups. But I'm afraid these fragrances are not for me. And it's COTY behind it all... once again.

03/08/2017

8Scent 5Longevity 5Sillage

DonJuanDeCat
2047 Reviews

Translated · Show original

DonJuanDeCat

Top Review 16

It Greens So Sweetly

Actually, I wanted to publish a men's fragrance again. But then I saw that the Google banner had changed once more. So today must be some special day. And what does a foolish, ignorant person do? Of course, they click on the banner to automatically start the appropriate search. Naturally, this banner consists of several images, so you don't get redirected to the right search term immediately, but have to click on the banner multiple times to finally move on (or you should open your eyes, as there is a magnifying glass symbol somewhere if you don't want to look at all the images!).
Well... and what came of it? It's International Women's Day... Here I always write about how great (or delicious? :D) you ladies are, and then I don't even know what day it is today, argh!

So, instead of a men's fragrance (by the way, I had planned to feature the new Armani Code Colonia today, which is not really a good fragrance, by the way...) I should fittingly publish a women's fragrance again... hmm... let me think... what have I already written that I could quickly publish?? Hmm... Putain des Palaces is probably not the right choice at the moment, um... :DD

Ah yes, how about L’Essence by Balenciaga?
Because despite the rain and wind, spring is just around the corner, so I’ll share my thoughts on this spring fragrance today.

The Scent:

The fragrance begins with green notes that are hard to describe. You could say it smells like crushing a bunch of leaves in your hand to inhale the wonderful, rising scent like a junkie :D
But you can also smell the violets well, which give off their light-sweet scent, making the fragrance very feminine. I can already smell the resins indicated in the heart note well; I think I would mainly guess mastic resin here.
In the base, you still smell green notes, even though they have become a bit weaker (but still smell distinct). Additionally, the fragrance remains resinous-sweet, with some light woods coming through. You can also smell a bit of leather, and even though it is not strong, I think it could have been a bit weaker, but whatever, that’s just my opinion since I don’t always love leather in fragrances; strength-wise, the leather seems to compete with the moss, as both are equally strong, but the moss fits better with the overall scent progression. However, I’m not so sure about the vetiver, as the scent seems only moderately earthy, and you can't really pick out the actual note well.
A generally nice and pleasant fragrance. The sweetness sometimes reminded me (and I don’t mean this negatively) of the sweetness of chewing gum, but maybe that’s also due to the combination with the resins, and as I said, it’s all very pleasant and by no means bad.

The Sillage and Longevity:

Yes, yes,... I know,... I always complain about sillage with spring and summer fragrances. This fragrance is also not particularly strong, but it doesn’t need to be, as it does its job well as a casual companion. Additionally, the scent is definitely noticeable up close.
Summer-typical, the longevity is not record-breaking, so you just get about five hours. That’s a bit below average, but still okay.

The Bottle:

The bottle is polygonal and slightly curves inward on the individual sides as it rises up to the neck. It is filled with a light turquoise fragrance liquid. The neck is thick, round, and chrome-plated, with the brand name on it. The cap is round and I believe made of dark glass. A very beautiful bottle that somewhat reminds one of the Art Deco style.

Yes, the fragrance fits very well into spring, should spring finally arrive :D
The green notes, combined with the sweet notes, feel as if you are smelling blooming flowers on a beautiful, sunny day. Even though I described the fragrance as not particularly strong, its projection is still absolutely sufficient; "if necessary," you just spray it on again.

It is a fragrance for any time of day, for relaxation, office, shopping, chilling,... you can see, it can be used for many occasions. So feel free to test it out :)

And I wish you ladies a lovely Women's Day :)

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