Ébène
Pierre Balmain (1983)

An air of mystery, understated classical masculinity, simmering and suave, the splendor of Ebene de Balmain has reached legendary status in certain circles. It's status as a unicorn to collectors has further pushed this appeal, and fortunately for me, I happened upon this lovely vintage, sealed, where the price was mercifully not astronomical.

From the first spray I immediately understood the magic, and was so very grateful that, in spite of its age it exhibited no signs of degradation whatsoever. Almost a hybrid between fougere and chypre style, Ebene opens like the former and dries down to more the latter. The top notes, nearly intact in this bottle, are a profusion of aromatics lifted with aldehydes, evoking the ether of the forest, reminiscent to that of the beloved Caron Yatagan, but here we have a pastel mint and a flourish of anise amongst the classic artemisia and various green herbs and woody spices. The heart has a pronounced pine harmonizing with geranium and carnation: all my favorite aromatic notes combined, manifesting rapturous delight in me. The sillage during this phase is phenomenal for could very well be a nearly 40 year old bottle for all I know. Whiffs and wafts suggest a dark, musky leather softened ever so lightly with tonka, and a foreshadowing of that chypre base, mossy and ambery.

Holy Evernia Prunastri, the dry down is gorgeous, too. For all its limpid, quenched herbs and florals early on in the development, the base is dry and dusky, the green pine needles on the trees are now the pine straw that lie on the forest floor, with that leather ramped up, a revved engine of sensuality, a subtle seduction in the shadows. Traces of anise and carnation remain and entre nous, things are beginning to get very sexy here. Yowza.

Ebene is a real treasure and a vintage for the books.

This is a nasty little stomach churner. I wore it once, was so disgusted by it that I threw the flacon in the trash. I believe I’ve only done this with one other perfume in my entire life and that was a vintage Bijan Men Cologne.

Ébène opens with what smells like mossy toothpaste that dries down very quickly to slobber soaked toddler toys in a baby nursery with just a ‘hint’ of dried up crusty baby formula for that nice touch. For real, the dry down on this smog smells like dried saliva, a tiny bit of wee and poo soaked dirty didees and unwashed toddlers who consumed baby formula hours earlier with the remnants of crusties still stuck to the corners of their mouth areas. Totally disgusting.

If you’ve ever had the unfortunate pleasure of smelling what a not so clean baby nursery smells of (like I have which was an olfactory horror), then you’ve experienced the stomach churning power of Ébène. My God, this garbage is horrendous to say the least. One of the worst 80’s perfumes for Men I’ve experienced to date and I’ve just about experienced the entire 80’s line up.

Just because it was made into a perfume doesn’t necessarily mean that that perfume is any good or should be worn. But hey, what do I know…

Ebony? Not really...
Ébène starts off as a strange version of the anisic fougère which is based around the hybrid minor key note of caraway - part spearmint and part fruity-herbal-spicy.

Centreing a perfume on this minty-but-not-minty note, bridges the anisic and spearmint sides of the profile but it makes Ébène feel like a strange outlier on the fougère spectrum.

Mint is usually approached with caution by perfumers, the toothpaste associations are just too strong for many people.
And caraway, mint's isomeric cousin, is also problematic; imagine the smell of minty rye bread (if you can) and you'll see what I mean. It gives the scent a strange rebarbative quality, uncomfortable, not quite right.


The drydown brings out the better side of caraway, where it tries to evoke the hardwood the scent is named after. But that only works if you can keep your mind on the rosewoody side and try to ignore the roggenbrot...

It was a bold move to foreground the (+)-carvone isomer in Ébène, and hats off to those who stuck their necks out in this way. But there's often a reason why some things aren't done, namely because they don't work, and - for me - this is a noble failure. Interesting, but not something I'd choose to wear.

Stardate 20170804:

A nice classic aromatic barbershop. From scent memory very similar to Aramis Tuscany but when I did side by side there were many differences.
Ebene is more rounded and better blended. It has mint (Green Water kind) and is more refined. Don't get me wrong, Tuscany is its closest relative but they are not twins - perhaps close cousins.
If you can get for cheap go for it, I would pass at current eBay prices.

A bottle of this would be nice. It smells leathery in the opening. As it develops, I agree it smells like Aramis Tuscany, perhaps with a lighter touch of geranium.

Giving this another wearing, it has turned dark on me. It started with a greenish note. Not something I love, but not a deal-breaker. This note then turned leathery. It's a challenging fragrance. I can understand people getting excited about it. It's not quite for me. It's too harsh overall, for me. That greenish note is just slightly cloying.

You want Ebene back ? Try Tuscany ( Aramis ) very very close.......