BalMan Balmain 2004

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6.1 / 10 25 Ratings

BalMan is a perfume by Balmain for men and was released in 2004. The scent is fruity-spicy. The production was apparently discontinued.

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Main accords

Fruity

Spicy

Floral

Citrus

Woody

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Lavender

Mandarin orange

Eucalyptus

Heart Notes

Cardamom

Freesia

Base Notes

Musk

Tonka bean

Vanilla

Sandalwood

Perfumer

Antoine Maisondieu

Ratings

Scent

6.125 Ratings

Longevity

6.918 Ratings

Sillage

6.622 Ratings

Bottle

5.935 Ratings

Submitted by VERIT, last update on 14.11.2021.

Reviews

3 in-depth fragrance descriptions

06/06/2018

8
Bottle 2
Sillage 5
Longevity 6
Scent

ShaunBaker
66 Reviews

Translated Show original

ShaunBaker

2

Do we know each other?

In this case, yes.
For a long time I was interested in the Balman, who has been discontinued for a long time. At this point I would like to thank Cappellusman, to whom I owe the rare fragrance!

Now for the fragrance.
What did I expect? A fruity scent I don't know yet.
I got a scent that I already have. Anyone who has ever smelt their way through the oriental world of fragrance and stumbled across Rasasis Maa arwaak knows how Balman smells. Unfortunately, it doesn't smell similar or almost the same, but exactly the same. The term "Duftzwilling" could not be better! In principle, there's not much to say about Balman. The scent is quite linear, in the opening you can smell lavender, the eucalyptus lies down in the background, after a short time the tonka bean joins it, a shiny cardamom and with a lot of imagination still musk. So Balman also sounds good, but unspectacular and above all anything but fruity, who has rated this fragrance fruity?!

Balman is best placed in the corner of Rocha, Nikos for men, Le Male and Body Kouros. I think the bottle is quite successful and the presentation is not bad, but I expected a different fragrance, although it is quite well made. He deserves a 7.0.

05/13/2015

ColinM
516 Reviews

ColinM

Helpful Review 1

Under-the-radar & respectable

Despite the bottle reminding me of that scene from “A shot in the dark” where Clouseau clumsily attempts to put a billiard stick back on the rack (“whoever invented that rack should have his head examined!” – if the bottle doesn’t seem that ugly to you, try to hold the 100 ml and spray), the juice inside it is fairly nice. I barely heard about this fragrance until I blind bought it today, and I found very little information about it as it seems nearly none cared for it. I wonder why, because it’s a really decent scent – or, say, nothing worse that many other more famous scents. Antoine Maisondieu composed it and you can definitely recognize his “hand” and his “signature” notes: Balman is in fact a mellow, crisp, kind of balmy and totally contemporary scent mostly featuring a really pleasant balsamic-sandalwood accord (“eucalyptus” they say, to me it seems plain generic mint) with violet, lavender, tonka, something smoky and slightly similar to leather which may however be just a darker wood note. The drydown features a prominent accord of tonka and sandalwood with a powdery and still breezy-balsamic feel, so be prepared for a smooth, light, sweet sillage around you. Surprisingly long lasting albeit really close to skin. Something halfway Paul Smith London and Jil Sander Man, with a sprinkle of Gucci Rush Men’s drydown (just a sprinkle, sadly). Maisondieu’s skills are really good for me when it comes to create subtle, refined and soft yet sharp scents, and Balman makes no exception. Surely quite a bit “generic” and pedantically complying with most of early 2000s masculine perfumery clichés, but the quality is nice and it makes Balman sit way above other similar, similarly-priced but way cheaper (quality-wise) fragrances. I mean, it’s Balmain after all – a certain level of decency still remains. It won’t give you goose bumps, but for the price (some 40 eur/100 ml) it is a respectable, versatile, pleasant, anywhere-safe unpretentious good deal for me.

6,5-7/10

04/15/2012

5
Bottle 7.5
Sillage 7.5
Longevity 7
Scent

Sherapop
1239 Reviews

Sherapop

Very helpful Review 4

An Invigorating Unisex Eucalyptus Cologne

I purchased this by accident--one of those rare times when it actually paid to not read between the lines, in this case, the right-side line of the A and the left-side line of the N! I thought that I was buying Balmain's BALMAIN!

Suddenly in possession of a 3.4oz edt and being a big fan of non-sweet fragrances anyway, I thought that I'd give this one a shot. Seemed like an opportune time: I had just got out of the bath and slathered Borghese's Tono all over my body. The Borghese body line, fyi, is filled with great things such as rosemary, lavender, horse chestnut, etc. Really a wonderful unisex line, though for reasons truly inscrutable to me, they market only to women!

To return to BALMAN: the rather aggressive eucalyptus and lavender opening may be too much for some women, but after a few minutes they tone down quite a bit, leaving a great clean and crisp unisex scent behind.

I would definitely advise putting this on several minutes before going out the door, especially if it's hot out... And please be forewarned that the eucalyptus remains dominant through to the end. On the other hand, that's a virtue as well: highly aromatic BALMAN makes a wonderful treatment scent (along the lines of Clarin's EAU DYNAMISANTE or Dior's sadly discontinued EAU SVELTE), which could be comfortably and beneficially worn in a spa setting. The eucalyptus/lavender combination is truly invigorating and imparts a sense of well-being.

In a rare of gesture of magnanimity, I gave this bottle to a male friend of mine, but I've been pining for it ever since and will be acquiring another bottle of this hidden treasure soon. The house of Pierre Balmain has impressed me yet again!