Sublime Balkiss 
The Different Company (2008)

Nice fresh 'transparent' perfume, feminine or unisex. Might be compared to Chanel's Cristalle perhaps, or as someone below has suggested, Calyx. The most obvious comparator however is Eau Sauvage.

Basically it's a flowershop scent, quite strong, with blackcurrant bud in the foreground and no doubt a fair dose of hedione high cis, it captures some of the astringency of cut stems.

You can relate to the ingredients in the official description of this perfume, which is not always the case. The rose is quite evident, and if you concentrate you can pick out the accord it forms with patchouli, the mainstay of Aramis 900 and many other fragrances. But the freshness overall is what stands out.

Although some have suggested an analogy with Angel, Sublime Balkiss is not spoilt by a horrid biscuity base which is what I remember about Angel.

Does blueberry, blackcurrant and rose equate to grapefruit? That's what I get anyway. Cocoa in the base? What?
A zingy grapefruit that eventually becomes more floral, but not feminine to my nose. Amazing tenacity. I love it.

Genre: Floral

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 Elléna, 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.

This reminds me of that part of my childhood, when, bored on the sports field under the baking Indian sun, I'd be tempted by the cool shade of the abundant mahua tree (madhuca longifolia). The scent of the soft and creamy yellow mahua fruit – a bit overripe, somewhat fermented, intoxicating – invited daydreaming and languor. So does Sublime Balkiss, creating its own headspace of sweet and pulpy indulgence. There's a whiff of burnt sugar if you sniff too close which can be slightly jarring, but there's also a suggestion of leather in the base which is just right. A surprising Different Company offering – and the one I'm most tempted by.