Balmain Cuir Élysées is Good, But Nothing New

Balmain has introduced a new fruity leather fragrance to their Les Éternels Collection- Balmain Cuir Élysées. 

Balmain has other leather fragrances, namely Balmain Carbone from last year and Balmain Homme from the last decade. Here is a look at Balmain’s two other leather fragrances before we dive into this new one: 

Balmain Homme

This is a very standard commercial men’s fragrance. There’s the bergamot and violet leaf for freshness, cedar for woodiness, spicy sweetness with nutmeg, saffron’s leathery facets to complement the leather in the heart. It is nothing different, but it is simply good. The kind of fragrance you can gift a man you may not know very well and have a higher chance of him actually liking it.

Balmain Carbone

Notes

Balmain Carbone is part of the same Les Éternels Collection and is more recent. It’s a reinvention of their older Carbone de Balmain composed with elemi, incense, fig, and more. Balmain Carbone of 2024 goes for a softer suede note which is different from the stronger, more animalic leather note. The suede coupled with the rose makes for a powdery feeling. Like the bottle, it brings an aura of mystery and darkness.

Balmain Cuir Élysées

Notes

The new fragrance is centered in leather and softened by creamy sandalwood and a juicy raspberry note. The marketing represents this through a pink leather surrounded by raspberries, pink roses and wood and I would say that is a good representation of this perfume.

Balmain has decided to hop on the pink pepper trend with this one. I like pink pepper, but maybe I’m just a smidge tired of seeing it in so many fragrances. And there’s the raspberry-leather combo of course. I love a good fruity leather but I wish we’d have other combinations. We’ve seen the same partnership in Byredo Black Saffron, Tom Ford Tuscan Leather, Lancôme La Vie est Belle L’Elixir, Azzaro Forever Wanted Elixir and so many more fragrances.

Cuir Élysées is by no means a bad fragrance. It is well blended with creaminess from sandalwood, fruitiness from the raspberry, green floral accords from jasmine, and the softness of petalia. Petalia is a soft synthetic fruity-floral compound that brings lightness to the heaviness of leather, making the perfume feel somewhat fresh.

It is nothing new, but hey, it’s befitting the current trends of fruitiness in leather fragrances and pink pepper literally everywhere.