Olivier Rousteing Revives Balmain’s Beauty Legacy with Bold New Fragrance

On the Tuesday following this year’s Met Gala, Balmain designer Olivier Rousteing took a trip to Estée Lauder’s headquarters in New York City. He had a particular idea to discuss with the multinational cosmetics company: launching a fragrance for the storied French house he’s helmed since 2011.

Months later, that kernel of an idea has popped into a full line of luxury fragrances, a major debut for Balmain Beauty. Les Éternels de Balmain features eight fragrances, four of which are part of the house’s slate of legacy scents—there’s Vert Vert, Ébène, Carbone, and Ivoire, the latter of which Rousteing told Vogue his “French coquette” grandmother wore.

“[I’m bringing] back the legacy of Monsieur Balmain, because he was a pioneer in fragrance in 1945 and 1960,” Rousteing added in the interview. “I’m bringing my origins as well because I’m half Ethiopian, half Somalian, so there’s a lot of Africa in this collection.”

Rousteing tapped Balmain’s extensive beauty archives to create the line, using the brand’s vintage perfumes as a jumping-off point for inspiration. (The new fragrances nod to those original scents—Les Éternels come in bottles designed after the metallic and jewel-toned flacons of the 1940s.) Not only that, the designer even enrolled in fragrance school to learn the ins and outs of his newest venture.

Rousteing is known for his robust celebrity friend group, which tends to become his clientele. (Kim Kardashian famously wore Balmain for years in the 2010s, including to her bachelorette party in France circa 2013. Plus, Dove Cameron stars in the new Les Éternals de Balmain campaign, naturally.) So it makes sense that the new perfumes have already received a stamp of approval from the Queen herself: Beyoncé. At a photo shoot last year, Rousteing told Vogue, “Beyoncé hugged me and she’s like, Oh my God, I love this fragrance. What are you wearing? And it was Carbone.”