Reviews of Sublime Balkiss (2008)
by Different Company

Sublime Balkiss opens on an crisp green fruity accord that smells like an herbed grapefruit, but which the published pyramid claims to be bergamot, berries, and currant. Whatever you call it, it’s lovely, and I’m glad it persists for a time on my skin. Next out of the stall is a light, dry floral accord, still kissed by a hint of tart-bitter herbs and grassy notes, and all the more appealing for it. This central statement is well-blended, but rose and violet are both detectable as single notes within the blend.

Sublime Balkiss is highly transparent, as befitting of a scent from a perfumer with the surname Ellena, but it is at the same time relatively potent. As a result, it garners attention without becoming grating or oppressive. The floral blend slowly loses its sharp, green edge and becomes more conventionally “perfumey” as it wears. This may be because the rose outlasts most of the other floral notes, so that the structure shifts slowly away from abstraction and towards a single recognizable flower smell. Whatever the case, the transparency remains, and that keeps Sublime Balkiss from devolving into a stuffy, old-fashioned rose soliflore.

The endgame is a rose and patchouli drydown, one much subtler and less earthy, I might mention, than Voleur de Roses or Bond No. 9’s West Side. The cocoa in the scent pyramid may be a nod to Christopher Sheldrake’s much commented upon chocolate/patchouli accord for Serge Lutens’s Borneo 1834, but if it’s actually in there somewhere it is too faint for me to detect. While I regret that Divine Balkiss ends up much more conventional than it begins, I have to commend it as a very well-composed and well-constructed scent.

Very feminine, sligtly fruity and very floral. It's very fresh and sweet but has great personality. Though it's not in the "official" notes list I smell some orange flowers in it.