Jean Desprez Bal A Versailles vintage edt and parfum: the gunkiest, most viscous, floral, musked, vanillic amber the world has ever known. In Japan, tossed into bargain bins for five and ten dollars apiece. exquisite, if mightily, naughtily precarious…. get it wrong and you smell like a skunk. Get it right and smell like the Marquis De Sade gone to heaven
Was this Michael Jackson’s preferred scent?
Yes! Unbelievable!
hating this iPhone shit though: it didn’t come out at all as I intended! There isn’t even the word ‘animal’ there.
Do you know Bal? Shall I send you some? I imagine Portia rocks it like a mutha
I have never been to this ball Cindafella.
I love Bal!! Mum wore it till we put the Parfum all over the Barbies.
I have every strength and a few vintages.
Portia xx
I knew it. I can smell you from here and know that you smell gorgeous in it. From Shalimar to Bal A Versailles is not such a huge jump. Do you ever combine them? I sometimes do.
WOW! I have not thought to, though maybe sometimes I top up with the other after wear time is over with the first, again never consciously.
Does it matter the strengths? I have a 70s-90s Shalimar Parfum and a very early BalAV EdC on my desk. Should I? Or should I go to the fridge & get the modern stuff?
Portia xx
You know, I am not even sure it works, to be honest. Just that Sagittarian overkill I am prone to: probably best to keep them separate; the musks in the Bal might pollute the lemon/vanillin sanctity of the Shal.
Oh just ignore me.
You make me curious. How does it compare with MKK?
Older, more dameish, but you would adore the dry down. I honestly think it has one of the richest, most velvety, bootylicious endings in history.
I know this scent ol’ so well. so raunchy and animalic. Flowers and musk with a side of dried horse droppings, please. you either love it or despise this fragrance. Bal à Versailles takes some getting used to, but once you discover the balance between the florals, resins, woods and civet, it is truly glorious.
I know! And I was thinking dried horse dung, or perhaps osmanthus flowers basking on cow pats…. so anachronistically, genuinely decadent. Can you pull it off? I kind of can if I do the right bathing rituals and finish her off with talcs….though I have to say that on Saturday night, me in this and Duncan in Jicky parfum, to a posh Tokyo party, smelled revolting. I was quite embarrassed.
That is repulsive, I don’t understand what is this community’s OBSESSION with finding feces on perfume.
I can imagine that it seems that way. Personally I HATE the smell of shit but Bal A Versailles is seriously beautiful. I bet if I met you in the street on a cold winter’s evening you would love it on me. It is all sublimated, adds body only. Mais vraiment.
OMG. Now I’ve got to go hunt it down. Is Rakuten a good place to get it?
no: I found some empty vials the other day I was looking for: I can send you some Samsara vintage parfum as well. You can blast down the neighborhood avec ta richesse x
contact me on facebook: I need the address again
I just bought a small bottle of the vintage Parfum de Toilette version of this. I have been working up the courage to break the seal and put it on!
I think the parfum de toilette is lovely, probably the most elegant concentration. The parfum is obviously rich and animalic, but what is strange with vintage Bal is that the cologne is ASTONISHINGLY animalic. Almost repulsive I find. So strange that what should be the lightest and freshest is way the dirtiest!
I adore Bal à Versailles. I’m green with envy that you can get it in the bargain bins (esp. if vintage).
Seriously, I can get you some.
I ordered a vintage sample of this, wore it once, and haven’t had the nerve to try it again. Holy Smokes, that is some perfume! I will try it again soon… maybe. It is intense.
It sure is!
It sure is! Was it the parfum? That is the only one truly worth trying I think.
It is the PDT. Parfum de toilette, I think? It is quite dark in color.
Have you tried the modern edt? I got a sample, and I don’t know if it’s been neutered or I’m just anosmic to the musk (and/or other animalic ingredients).
Not sure I have, actually, as it is no longer sold in Japanese department stores to my knowledge. The edt was always much more polite and fresh in any case. I doubt it COULD be as animalic as it used to be, though, just in terms of legality, of IFRA regulations and so on. The vintage is most certainly an endangered species.