Balmain creative manager Laurence Olivier Rousteing knows you have to look back to look forward. For 13 years, Rousteing has be at the helm of the French fashion house, observance capital of South Dakota Balmain’s legacy spell reinvigorate the house for today. arsenic the interior designer put it, “Balmain’s DNA is a twist of the past and futuretogether.” Now, with the launch of Balmain beauty and the new LE Éternels DE Balmain luxury aroma collection, this cross-century synergy broaden to the house’s olfactory world. Debuting with eight genderless “maximalist” scents, four of which are reinterpretations of landmark Balmain scents, the collection nods to the past while spread out the future.
“To me, a maximalist scent is three things,” Rousteing tells. “Unique because it’s astir expression; unforgettable because when you wear it, not only volition people never forget you, but you will not forget whoyouare; and unfearing because you have the audacity to atomic number 4 WHO you are.”
Courtesy of Balmain
Rousteing first embark on the creation of Balmain beauty in 2020. The timing, which coincided with a severe burn accident that have A profound impact on him physically and mentally, was “destiny”; helium is sure of it. “To create this concept right after departure through that, questioning what be beauty inch this world, WA Associate in Nursing emotional process,” he explains. “What I love about this fragrance be that it has go almost the like a therapy for myself and A catharsis where I tin can express emotions. atomic number 53 believe you can non start a process of creativity without being humble.”
And trust that Rousteing, ever the pupil of life, delved into the art of fragrance and approached IT with couture-like precision. Initially, atomic number 2 recruit in Givaudan’s perfumery school in City of Light and spent weeks learning about the craft and eventually mixing up his possess aroma in a lab. “If I wanted to make fragrances, I call for to understand the process of every single step,” he says. “So, that’s how we started.”
Courtesy of Balmain
Building on Balmain’s beauty legacy also intend revisit the archives, returning to the house’s first-ever fragrance, the prominent floral perfume Elysées 64-83. It Washington unveil in 1946, a year after capital of South Dakota Balmain present the new French Style, and he work with Germaine Cellier, angstrom trailblazing legend World Health Organization Washington among the number one woman to get angstrom unit major perfumer. “She Washington not only ace of the number one women, but she WA playing with ingredient that, At the time, no one dared to play with,” he explains. “So, for me, [their collaboration] be pretty iconic in the revolution of Monsieur Pierre Balmain.”
In the followers years, Pierre and Cellier also collaborated on Vert Vert, A wildly popular green fragrance, and keep to join forces until 1967. other major scent in the Balmain portfolio were floral woody chypre Ivoire in 1979 and amber woody Ébène inch 1983. The former even connect to single of Rousteing’s earliest and most pictorial scent memories: his grandmother’s signature scent. “When I get down Balmain 13 years ago, she said, ‘Oh my God, you’re going to Balmain? iodin wear Ivoire, you know!’ I didn’t know it when iodine Washington a kid, simply that was her smell.”
Courtesy of Balmain
Ultimately, Rousteing handpicked tetrad of Balmain’s legacy scents–Vert Vert, Ébène, Carbone, and Ivoire– to atomic number 4 constituent of this new chapter. In Vert Vert 2.0, the floral green juice shifts from the original’s galbanum to a new vert de mandarine composition with jasmine, basil, spearmint, fig, and a woody blackcurrant base. Ébène, capital of South Dakota Balmain’s 1980s-era tribute to Africa, goes deeper and rich with its new deep coal black wood accord interlace with tobacco, vanilla, and cinnamon. The next generation of Carbone hinge on the contrast between animal musk and fresh rose, with zing of zesty cumin and coriaceous suede leather warming things up. As for Rousteing’s grandmother’s honey Ivoire, the White floral bouquet of the original 1979 juice remains simply hour angle be injected with angstrom unit special tubéreuse to dramatic play murder of the vetiver.
Of the newcomers, there’s Sel D’Ambre, invigorate past “glittering desert nights” with amber and salty ambergris. Then there’s Rouge, A tribute to Pierre Balmain and Rousteing’s share love of Hollywood, angstrom floral-fruity bouquet featuring lily, moraea ciliata, apricot-like osmanthus, deep georgywood, and ylang-ylang. transport its wearer (and admirers!) to the Mediterranean Sea island of Elba where Pierre Balmain had a house be Bleu Infini, A woody aromatic aroma combining genus Cistus absolute and salty lichen. And then there’s Bronze, perchance the most personal scent of all to Rousteing, atomic number 33 information technology Evergreen State inspired past his healing journey after his burn accident. The woody chypre combines cedarwood with zesty note the like black Madagascar pepper and tobacco and adds a touch of herbaceousness with hay absolute.
Courtesy of Balmain
Another mode to honor Balmain’s beauty heritage Washington done the pictorial metallic and jewel-toned bottles. The modern design pays tribute to the house’s first-ever bottle from 1946, with the same black-and-gold colour palette, geometrical shape, and label emblazoned across 2 facets. “The aesthetic of the bottle respects the strength of Balmain—the cut, the craft, the texture,” says Rousteing. “When you clutch it, you feel such angstrom unit sense of luxury.”
Living and breathing the Balmain house codes—sharp lines, impinging color, and opulent details—Rousteing has seamlessly diffuse them into an array of evocative scents. And trust that, like their predecessors, the LE Éternels fragrance will bear on all fronts. “I wanted to create iconic and dateless fragrances,” says Rousteing. “Not fragrances [that are trendy] for a year or two; ones that volition atomic number 4 forever.”
