Reviews of Monsieur Balmain (new) by Pierre Balmain

I am impressed with the sheer beauty of this citrus scent, one of the best to greet the nostrils, for sure.

Upon application, I am greeted by the most glorious larger-than-life sweet meyer lemon and verbena, with a radiance that puts so many other citrus frags to shame.

The dry down is what sets it apart from others as well, as more of the zest and the rind of the citruses come into play, and a dry smoky vetiver enters the stage, with caraway and thyme shading and darkening into a truly masculine character.

This segues into a more pronounced crisp vetiver, with lilting sandalwood and simmering musks.

I am wearing this in August and it is the perfect time of the year for Monsieur Balmain. Bear in mind, I have the formulation in the lemon-yellow cylindrical bottle in the yellow box.

Lemon 🍋 with just a touch of sandalwood, so that it's not another boring lemon essence.

My father would be always wearing this in the summer and I just managed to get a few bottles... A little hard to find but to me this *is* the beautiful scent of a summer evening when you walk by the little streets of Taormina going for dinner.. Enough said.

Nice citrusy frag .I have got the cylanderical I opens with opulent clemon and bergamot and vetiver and oakmoss make it more clean and deep.
Overall it's a joyfull and refreshing scent in a well-quality way.It's synthetic but in a natural disguise.

I had a cylindrical bottle that I was only too glad to part with. Extremely harsh and abrasive lemon opening, followed by a dominant lemon accord that's not far removed from lemon pledge. Very synthetic, and also quite cheap-smelling. Just when I was wondering if my bottle had gone off, the lemony onslaught subsided around the two hour mark to reveal a restrained mossy character. I take this as an indication that the bottle was fine, the composition - questionable. Anyone looking for a lemon fragrance would be strongly advised to look elsewhere.

1.5/5

I have a cylindrical bottle of this scent. On first application it reminds me of R. White's lemonade. Zesty and sharp and very lemony, with a modicum of sweetness. As it dries down it becomes drier, dusty and woody. Nose tingle is heightened by pepper. A sandalwood impression is there, but it isn't very strong.

Projection and persistence are both low. It is more or less a skin scent after an hour or so.

I group this with other lemon/woodys like Blenheim Bouquet, Wellington Cologne and Agua de Colonia Concentrada by Alvarez Gomez (this latter being the best value for money, but sweeter than M. Balmain).

Overall, quite nice but nothing to write a paean of praise about.

I tried the new version in the square bottle. It has none of the complexity (the old version had little complexity, but the new version has even less) and charm of the older version. It doesn't have that oakmoss counterpoint in it. It is a very faint lemon, very linear, and has almost zero projection and sillage.

This could have been a great lemon scent. The main reason I will not buy this is the protracted cheap sandalwood note that resembles BO.

The interesting thing is that after that cheap BOness goes away, the lemon returns in a nice way - close to the skin but still wafting every few minutes and making itself noticeable. This is unusual for a citrus accord.

If MB did not have the sandalwood note and just settled for the lemons, it would have been my quintessential lemon scent for such a great price.

Very much like L'Occitane Verveine in the beginning, after 10 min or so the lemon grass smell turns slowly to an even more adstringent lemony smell, tending to something like cypress mixed with lemon bark, sort of herbal accord that remindded of Les nuits d'Hadrien's top notes.
A refreshing fragrance with an awesome beginning and regular drydown.

Not feeling this one. A sort of translucent herbal lemon, very watery but smells cold and dated to me, in a way similar to Penhaligon's Blenheim Bouquet in it's austere and astringent way. Refreshing and good longevity for a citrus but ultimately leaves me cold.

Bright, zesty, realistic lemons transition into a smooth and sturdy sandalwood base. Monsieur Balmain's sophisticated simplicity is a classy, comfortable, and easy wear. An absolute must try if you're looking for a fragrance that is centered around lemon. Projection is moderate, which seems appropriately calibrated for this scent. At a price of around $40 for 100 mls, this is a great value. Thumbs up. *Note: This review is based on the frosted, cylindrical bottle pictured above.

Genre: Citrus

Monsieur Balmain starts off with one of the most beautiful lemon top notes I have smelled. Crisp, green jasmine and dry aromatics soon follow in what promises to be a rich variation on the classic eau de Cologne formula. During its second hour of wear Monsieur Balmain flirts dangerously with Lemon Pledge, but then a marvelous, buttery sandalwood note comes into focus and provides a luxurious cushion to support the citrus accord. The smooth sandalwood persists as the core of the drydown, whose four to six hour duration is quite generous for a citrus based fragrance.

Monsieur Balmain is notable for being sophisticated without a trace of the stuffiness that characterizes some other traditionally structured citrus scents. (Yes, Blenheim Bouquet, I'm talking about you.) I'd place it right alongside the Acqua di Parma Colonia variations, Guerlain's Eau de Fleurs de Cedrat, Bahiana, and Cristalle as one of the most gratifying citrus scents I've encountered. Monsieur Balmain is a polished, versatile, and vastly underappreciated fragrance for men. And besides the name, I can't see why the ladies wouldn't wear it, too!

The opening blast is a most wonderful lemon that one can fathom - bright, light and sunny - like the flâcon it is sold in. Later some bergamot and mint continue the refreshing summer theme. After the first hour or so ginger, nutmeg and rosemary are added, and in the base a touch of sandalwood mixes with a very light moss-and-white-musk note. I like it how the unusually late addition of neroli in the base add and extra injection of freshness towards the end. This is the remarkable feature of this scent: the top notes bear all the hallmarks of a splendid but traditionally very short-lived cologne, yet this is a full fledged EdT with interesting developments throughout various phases. Initially with decent silage and projection, this is a rare summer lemon fragrance with a comparatively excellent longevity of five hours. Very well blended, and although the vintage version overall sports a higher quality of ingredients, this is one of the few cases where the reformulation is still excellent and not far behind. One of my all-time favourite go-to scents for hot days.

The Lemon Complex: Not So SimpleThis was a blind buy, and, as we know, blind buys can be disasters, sometimes expensive ones. This buy, however, lived up to the hype. But I would disagree with facile characterizations of this fragrance a lemon bomb. There is lemon, to be sure, and lots of it, but lemon here is about theme and variation -- the lemon is a constant that interacts differently with the various notes in the dry-down. This is perfume-as-process. The lemon and the pepper, which is very strong, and the sandalwood are not in lockstep. Rather, there is a tension among them that renders these ingredients somewhat unsettled. But this is not discord, it is communication. There is a linearity to this unsettledness, but it is not clumsy or awkward. It is highly choreographed, and is, therefore, quite confident and poised, despite its deceptive simplicity. It's rougher around edges than Dior's ultra-sophisticated original Eau Sauvage, and bone-dry compared the luxuriant, lemony sweetness of Chanel's original Pour Monsieur. I think it would layer well with a range of other scents, including Atelier Cologne's Orange Sanguine, a some of the vetivers. The pepper note would work well with Ellena's Bigarade. It's elemental enough to invite wide experimentation. The dry-down is very close to Oscar for Men, but the pepper isn't quite as overwhelming as it is in the Oscar. Curious to see if the new bottle (à la Carbone) will contain a reformulation.Pros: Elemental, classic.Cons: Could have dialed back on the pepper.

A refreshing blast of lemon citrus on top with woods and vetiver in the base. It's a refreshing simple Summer fragrance for that zesty pick me up to start the day.

Top: mint, bergamot, lemon, bitter orange
Mid: rosemary, ginger, pepper, caraway, rose, nutmeg, thyme, moss, sandalwood
Base: musk, amber, clary sage, vetiver, sandalwood

This is a lovely lemon scent -- very natural. Good hints of herbs, mint and moss. It is a refreshing spritz, and a worthy alternative to Eau D'Orange Verte. Nice mossy dry-down with herbs and vetiver.

This is an amazingly zesty fizzing verbena bomb!

If you like your citrus sharp and tart, this is for you. I found it had fairly good longevity for a citrus scent, at such an inexpensive price, you can afford to reapply every couple of hours anyway.

Tiny let-down...the packaging is fairly cheap looking, especially compared to the vintage. No biggie!

* Idiotically I missed the massive ginger note in this. It wasn't until I was grating some that my brain switched on and I thought "Monsieur Balmain!" The ginger in this is as big as the verbena. Wonderful!

A really playful and clever exercise on the lemon theme. I say clever because the real 'lime-yellow-green' impression of the scent is actually built up by other carefully placed notes. Yes, there is the initial bright citrusy blast but it quickly makes its way to a woody-ambery composition without actually losing its initial face. Amazing! The 'greener' side of the fragrance is then taken by vetiver and some herbal notes which then lead you in the woody realm with amber and creamy sandalwood enough just to keep the 'juicy' impression of a 'freshly squeezed' something.
All in all, this is a perfect illusion: it keeps the 'lemony' feeling going to a point where no real citrus notes would be able to , and it does it by emphasizing the corresponding facets of a variety of notes, in a series of smooth transitions. Like in a relay race! So, mind you Monsieur Balmain has nothing to do with the Italian cologne style. It's summery in a way, yes but it has depths. It's bright but it has this old school complexity in the mix. Shines even more in colder weather. Nothing like it!

In many ways, Monsieur Balmain may be the answer to your quest for a great lemon scent that's affordable, pleasant and long lasting. I get a little bit of Pledge for the first couple of minutes, but it settles down nicely into a smooth, creamy and classy fragrance that can stick around for most of the day. It's sillage won't clear a room, but it radiates outward in assertive force field close to the skin, so only the people in your orbit will get a whiff. This is a great antidote to an oppressively hot day, but frankly, it's got enough body to be a great pick-me-up on a cold winter day too.

Searching for the perfect lemon fragrance can be can an exhausting and elusive proposition. Lemon scents are often ephemeral for reasons I'll leave to chemists to explain. And then, of course, each fragrance has its own take on the genre, and you can wind up with a lemon that smells medicinal (I'm looking at you, Art of Shaving), too much like rotting vegetation (yes, Eau de Sauvage - that you would be you), and so forth. Acqua di Parma has a stable of lemon scents -- Colonia, Assoluta or Intensa -- that are quite good, but are really pricey or fleeting. (Personally, I think Assoluta is the best of the bunch). Chanel Allure Edition Blanche Pour Homme is ok too, but the lemon gives way quickly to cedarwood. But for value, it's hard to beat Monsieur Balmain as a pure lemon fragrance.

Monsieur Balmain opens with a sharp blast of semi-sour lemon that is quite like the real juice. The fragrance soon combines the lemon with a sandalwood undertone that grows as the lemon slightly recedes over time. Very modest hints of amber and bergamot are the only other detectable notes of recognition to my nose. Projection is minimal and longevity is above average.

Monsieur Balmain is a very simplistic scent to my nose, at least. While the official list of notes is quite long, it really is all about a natural lemon on a semi-synthetic smelling sandalwood base; nothing more, nothing less. I have heard the scent described by some as "Lemon Pledge," and I confess I too have that same association too. I very much think of a fine lemon wood furniture polish when I smell this one. Lemon Pledge association and formula simplicity aside, the recent formulation of Monsieur Balmain does smell good, and is a superb value at its current street price of around $30 for a 100 ml bottle. I give Monsieur Balmain a "good" 3 to 3.5 stars out of 5 rating.

Opens up with fresh lemons. Quickly becomes a candy like lemon. I smell some geranium and mint somewhere in here. A soft woods base ties it together nicely. The dry down is very reminiscent of Green Water, as is the entire fragrance really. The difference.. One is lemon, one is mint. Green Water also has better longevity, as I only get about 6 hours out of MB. Projection is about average. My biggest problem is the sprayer, it is horrible! Maybe I just got a dud..

Lovely, sunny-day lemon. Smells natural (contrary to Clinique Happy), but not like a household product (such as Eau de Hadrien) and it lasts amazingly well (as opposed to Guerlain's Eau Impériale). All this may frequently be had at a bargain price, which makes M. Balamin a default recommendation for summer-time or whenever you need a good mood-enhancer. Personally I've always thought of the drydown as rather demure - it doesn't much get in the way, but manages to carry the lemon along a good while.

I wore this to sleep last night. Lots of lemon, but I found a sweetness on dry down that I didn't care for. That did pass and what I was left with was a soft pleasant fragrance that was easy to wear and not overpowering.

a great lemon with what i would describe as a very cheap sandalwood dry down, disappointing

at first I felt it as a very dry fragance, but as time went by the citrus aroma came alive and made me love it. good fixer, I could say, a mature mans fragance.