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Jolie Madame(1954)

At a glance

Created by Germaine Cellier for Balmain, Jolie Madame opens on bergamot and green notes, moves through a heart of violet, gardenia, and jasmine, and closes on leather, musk, and oakmoss.

Did you know? This scent's leather note traces back to 16th-century Grasse, where perfuming foul-smelling gloves accidentally built the world's perfume capital. Read the full story →

Brand

Balmain

Perfumer

Germaine Cellier

Launched

1954

Family

Floral

Created by Germaine Cellier for Balmain, Jolie Madame opens on bergamot and green notes, moves through a heart of violet, gardenia, and jasmine, and closes on leather, musk, and oakmoss. Continuing the leather-floral juxtaposition she had pioneered with Bandit a decade earlier, Cellier here pairs a powdery, ladylike violet against a dark, assertive leather base, producing a composition that plays deliberately on the tension between its refined, feminine name and its underlying toughness. Jolie Madame is frequently cited alongside Bandit as one of Cellier's two definitive leather-floral achievements, together bookending her remarkable run of genre-defining work across Piguet and Balmain.

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Top notes

Heart notes

Base notes

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