BalMan (2004)
by Pierre Balmain

I'm surprised there are not more reviews of this one. Fans of sweet and modern stuff should be all over this. It has some parallels with body kouros and le male, but has a character of its own. It's not too complex a character, but nevertheless. It also happens to be a sweetened fragrance that is appropriate for a warm climate. The citrus and camphor provides balance, and choice of cardamom as a spice cools it even further. A sherbet-like vibe overall.

I actually enjoyed it for a while, despite being very cautious with vanilla especially when coupled with tonka. You could do much worse, lover of sweet aura with a limited wallet. I approve.

20th December, 2011.

The name “Balman” was a mistake, this scent is too unisex to have a gender attached to its identity.
Balman opens with clear cameos of eucalyptus, tangerine, lavender, and licorice, all fresh and uplifting. The heart, the real show here, is a perfect Mirabelle plum, barely sweetened with tonka and vanilla and spiced with cardamom. The bottom is lightly weighted with wood, moss, and musk. Stepping out into the heat of a summer night, I can see this becoming a heady fragrant bloom. Yeah...... .....that sounds good!

10th February, 2011. (Last Edited: 18th May, 2011.)

Sweet, dark, and masculine: another under appreciated fragrance from Balmain.

To my nose, there are different kinds of sweetness: ranging from sugar syrup at one end of the scale to earthy fruit sweetness at the other end. Things that are sugar syrup sweet are nothing but sweet: the sweetness is narrow, intense, and all pervading. Things at the earthy fruit sweet end of the scale combine sweetness with other notes: other notes are made sweet rather than sweetness being the predominant note.

BalMan is an earthy fruit sweet fragrance. The plum note has a tangy citrus top (from the cardamom), a spicy middle, and an earthy stone fruit base (from the oak moss). The plum note seems odd to start with, because it is not simple or narrow, but becomes more rewarding over time.

The liquorice and tonka bean in BalMan add depth without adding sweetness, lending the fragrance a spicy feel something like Boucheron’s Jaipur pour Homme EdT.

When the oak moss arrives BalMan becomes deeper and darker. The stone from the plum and the oak moss give the base extra masculine gravity, which contrasts interestingly with the fruity top notes. There might be sandalwood (or something like it) in here, somewhere, but it is kept in a supporting role between the tonka bean, plum stone, and oak moss.

Sillage and longevity are very good, as with all of Balmain’s fragrances.

To my nose, BalMan neither smells cheap or synthetic. It is a highly integrated fragrance, in which the notes very much become as one. The notes are not handled in the way that one might expect, and, consequently, BalMan needs to be approached with patience and an open mind in order to be fully appreciated.

28th January, 2010.

A sandalwood based fougere with a rounded tonka bean and musk base. Top is very crisp and clear and slightly cooling and has a floral heart with spicy cardamon. Not bad overall but very cheap/synthetic ingredients seems to have been used to produce this. Other scents from Pierre Balmain seem much richer.

23rd December, 2009.

I've changed my mind slightly on this one. I still don't think the ingredients are the highest quality but I think when I wrote my first review I was suffering from some sort of sensitivity problem. When I tried it again today, it impressed me as a light version of Michael for Men by Kors. Over time, it becomes more and more like the typical, recent, men's designer fragrance with a woody tonka base. There's still a hint of tobacco and something like dried fruit, but it's quite light. I find it a bit too generic, and I've got other like this in 100 ml bottle size, so it's not something I'd consider, but I can understand why some would like it. I'd rather just "go all the way" with Michael for Men, though.

My old March, 2009 review: As rodent said "there are many more notes fighting for attention." This is a highly unbalanced fragrance that is also very "perfumey." If you want something similar to this, but less abrasive and more "masculine," I suggest Jacomo Silver/for Men. BalMan is good if you want to really stand out in a crowd (not necessarily in a good way), make people ill, or be known as "the cologne guy." It is quite powerful, though I don't consider that a positive characteristic with this one. There's really nothing good I can say about it, in terms of what I look for in a fragrance.

8th March, 2009. (Last Edited: 16th May, 2011.)

Somewhat faceless, fresh fruity-tobacco-y thing. I don't see any similarities to D&G PH other than the tobacco note lurking in the background. This one is far less citrusy, much sweeter, and there are many more notes fighting for attention.The bargain-basement prices for which this goes probably also reflects the budget that poor Antoine Maisondieu was likely given to compose this disappointing outing. If you're already a frag collector, you will smell the ghosts of many scents past in this -- yet no clear identity of its own. Pass.

31st August, 2008.