Rumba

I adore this - it has such a fresh blast of everything and the kitchen sink initially - then settles a little bit. Warm, glowing, floral and spicy...such a mishmash but it works.

I love this spicy orange blossom suede

It smells like when I’d hide cigarette butts in my nana’s flower bush

Rumba Bitter oakmoss, leather, and civet too. Under-sweetened with honey and plums. There are a few other subtle, but identifiable nuances: cloves (carnation), more greenery (marigold), vague faint white florality. This a very deeply green and animalic scent. The fruits and flowers are present, but they don't have the upper hand here. All my other heavy mossy scents turn into lightweights compared to Rumba. I do like smelling things like this, though I rarely commit to an all-day wear.

I feel like I've been wearing a genuine leather coat all night and slept in a mossy bed in the woods. I get leather the most on this with something faintly sweet on the side. Definitely unisex. The leather in this smells so real.

Very nice and suitable for men and women

This definitely has a vintage flare and I don't mind. Rumba is an older more mature relative of Givenchy Amarige...honeyed peach with marigolds are main players here followed by leather and oakmoss...gardenia gives it a slight creaminess and lily of the valley adds a soapy touch. I could totally see a guy rocking this as well as leather and oakmoss keep this scent from being too sweet. Hard to believe it's an edt as it behaves like an edp. To me this is a night out scent probably best suited for fall/winter. You'll appreciate this scent only if you're into vintages otherwise might find it polarizing. For me it's a nostalgic Love.

@anton ego I have been in the exact situation 2 years ago when I first bought this. I simply didn't get a lot of the notes listed, including the plum. I left it in its box for more than a year, after basically giving up on it and putting it up for sale. And today, I tested it again and wow, the plum was the first thing that hit me. Its longevity now is extremely impressive. One spray only 4 hours ago and it's still going strong. So, IMHO, it needs to sit for a long time, and it has to be worn only in cold or very cold weather.

Plums? where they are? because I can't find them in my bottle. Peach, leather...? - maybe more flowers as jasmine and tuberose. Honey - yes, this opens your nose first, defo is present and in a well blend. Is anyone here who find an association to Ciara? also Ted Lapidus pour Homme...? My 30ml bottle is not as explosive in longevity as described, sprayed late at night before asleep, in the morning it was gone. Not bad fragrance, in fact may have many lovers. I bought this Rumba looking for plums, being curious about how they smell, maybe the producer used them to make slibovitza - just another ''juice'' of plums ;-)

I have been on a vintage kick lately, in my perfume journey and it's so much fun to revisit "old friends"...back in the days when everything was big, loud, outrageous and so very fun! I saw this for a good price and thought to give it a try once again. I sprayed Rumba on and oh, the memories. I love the boozy plum opening. The sweet honey- carnation-rose heart, with the bombastic plum-sandalwood-patchouli base ... that lingering honey note...it's a strong and polarizing perfume that, thank goodness, hasn't been reformulated far as I can tell. I canNot believe the price these days, as this was NOT cheap back in the day! This is the strongest toilette I've ever used...and to think I used the perfume! Beastly performance. It trails and wafts in the breeze. Sexy...my guy loves it. So did my UPS delivery guy the other day. I have spent so much on perfumes you have to reapply constantly, it makes me wonder...this cheaply priced baby, outperforms MOST of those in my large collection. It does smell vintage, so the youngsters who have Britney Spears as their signature scent won't be able to appreciate it. It's certainly not for everyone. (But it's really hard to take anyone seriously , who picks a run of the mill celebrity perfume, from the drug store, as their signature scent. Just saying). The long drydown is all honey rose and patchouli. If you don't like patchouli, the drydown won't be your cup of tea. Still, any vintage lover will appreciate this. It has that signature of a time when no one held back. ...this perfume certainly doesn't!

This was a blind buy along with Joop Femme. Rumba starts out fine and golden floral, but as it develops there is a Hay-like barn yard smell I can't stand. I do love the florals but now it has a lasting yuck note that lingers. So does Joop. At first they are similar, then Joop fades away to honey and then nothing within 30 minutes. Rumba lasts, is sexy for sure, but there's some kind of stank I don't like. I gave both away to a neighbour who will give them to her mother. However, I love Rumba Passion, it is more my style, big like the 80's!

Love love it. It's a good chypre and projection and longtivity is above average. The floral and Oriënt is not projecting very strong on my skin just slightly. Most of Ted Lapidus perfumes don't project very well with a short longtivity. But this one and the rumba passion will do the job perfectly. Both are delicious and making me happy wearing them. I have a vintage one of maybe 8 to 10 years old. 😊♥️

If I were a deranged, gambling, coke head alcoholic pornography director in the 1980's, this is what I would spray the polyester hotel sheets with before shooting a scene. Honestly, disgusting. Baby wipes, dusty mildew, toilet water left stagnating in an abandoned suburban home. It is a fragrance that could inspire terrible depravity, despair, loneliness and hopelessness. Truly evil.

The plum and honey is quite straightforward in the opening, and it gets more and more animalic as it dries down. It shares the same structure as Diva of Ungaro. It is a beast mode, so please do not overspray! Overall I like it, although I'm not sure if I love it. I think Ted Lapidus usually have high-quality frags with interesting ideas behind them, that's why I bought one when I noticed a local Chemist Warehouse displayed some really old stock of Rumba selling at AUD 40 per 100ml. The opening itself reminds me of White Diamonds if anyone agrees? It's sweeter than White Diamonds though. And White Diamonds doesn't go down the animalic path as Rumba does. I speciafically tried to compare it with Aromatic Elixier of Clinique, as the bottle design and color both reminds me. AE leans strong on oak moss, while that's not so obvious in Rumba. And AE is more simply structured. Overall AE leans on the bitter and medicinal side while Rumba floral and sweet. It's a good vintage feeling one! Glad I got a bottle to play with.

This is a very interesting perfume. I love vintage perfumes but I don't have a perfume like this in my collection. I can smell the leather and a smokey incensey accord. I can't really notice any sweetness in particular, my skin amplifies the florals but I get barely anything sweet from the fruits (I wish I got more sweetness, but its just my personal preference). The plum reminds me a bit of Femme Rochas but without the cumin, it reminds me a bit of Plum Japonais from Tom Ford too. I keep spraying my wrist everyday to "study" the scent and I swear each day I pick up another different note from it. By the way I think it suits a man too, its quite unisex. Unfortunately on my skin there is a strange unpleasant note on the dry down that I'm not a fan of, so I have to give it away.

This is perfume perfection. I sprayed some this morning and 10 hours later I can still smell it. It is flower bomb booziness...but no soft flowers here, it's very strong like you were smelling a bouquet of the headiest tabbaco flowers soaked in fruit liquor. It has the spicy sparkling quality of old Yvresse - YSL, but this one is aged in ambery woodiness. It is reminiscent of Talisman - Balenciaga, even Diva - Ungaro without the powdery feel. It remindes me of my paternal grandmother but not in the sense that it's old fashioned. She was ahead of her time, emancipated and well educated, she loved to travel, smoke and talk politics, drink greek style coffee and a shot of whiskey from time to time, she wore bespoke dresses with colorful prints...she was always an apparition. Her apartment was full of art, curious objects from distant lands and books. This perfume smells like that.

I don't know where to start. She’s badly good! i don't bother you by describing the scent because it’s extremely complex and unique to my nose. All i can say is this is a very good fragrance and it’s very inexpensive. If you enjoy classic fragrances, do yourself a favor and grab a bottle. It’s easily 10/10 for me. Jean-Claude Ellena and Ron Winnegrad knows how to do it right. When two masters work together, you know the result is something special. And indeed this is a special creation. For such a low price it’s very surprising that how great it is. Though we have lots of good stuff that are cheap, but this one is on another level. Extremely sensual-sexual-very romantic-passionat-joyful-somehow sad and happy at the same time-very complex-deep-full of contrasts-balanced-thoughtful-meaningful It’s create a very clean and clear picture in my mind with all the details, but it gets too long for share. Don't fool by notes and main accords, you should experience it. And it’s chypre. Performance is excellent. Masterpiece *_* ( beware is not for everyone )

Why theire is no perfume projection like this one nowadays ?

Que DELICIA de manjericão!, nossa, ele brilha na minha pele e combina perfeitamente com essas frutas gordas e esse mel (que parece explodir em mim desde a saída ), em seguida o festival de flores desabrocham e os cravos e tuberosas estão em peso nessa festa saudando o mel, as frutas carnudas e os seres verdes, este perfume parece ser algo divino, ritualístico, para atrair fartura e prazer, sabe? É maximalista e nunca imaginei que algo assim pudesse ser tão elegante e sedutor, imagino que quem contribui fortemente é a nota de couro e com toda certeza é um dos perfumes com construção mais prazerosa que senti na vida. Perfume de mulher pagã que cultua a natureza. ✵✯✶⚝✧٭*

Smoky and honied plum and peaches, becomes a heavy cacophany of spicy florals, settles into a lovely oakmoss & leather base with more smoky plum reemerging. Major powerhouse, hits you over the head and doesn't stop as it settles on the skin. Projects around the entire body and leaves a very noticeable trail. Best in cool weather, because this only requires body heat to bloom and shine as intended.

Perfectly blended ! Strong in the beginning but in a good way, sensual as a real woman should smell. However it makes me think about Dior poison I think is the tuberose, plum, the fruits mixed with the spicy notes! Really enjoyable for a confondent woman! PS: personally I am not agree that’s it’s a vintage from another generation or some sort for grandmas!

This and Creation are my personal perfumery nightmare. Well, at least now I know.

Another piece of nostalgia for me. As far I can remember its performance was nuclear. One spray was enough. Overspraying will definitely choke you. My my it was strong. The scent is definitely vintage, smelt pleasant with moderations. If you overspray the animalic notes in it will choke you. I have experienced the stinky horror caused by overspraying so I am warning everyone. For current demographic it's not a safe blind buy unless you love strong animalic vintage scents.It always surprises me how potent the perfumes used to be in the past, now a days most of the fragrances are watered down in comparison.

Just finished my first bottle today and thankfully I have a backup ready to go. This is the perfect cold weather scent. The wafts in clouds with utter extreme boujee vibes. Sweet, ambery, raspberry, honey, 80's lipstick in a New York tower wearing chic couture. Up close, it's dirty, animalic, smokey and offensive. I love both sides of this fragrance, but it's the wafting clouds that makes this such a rich, complex, old money "Pretty Lady" frag. 10/10.

The best way to describe this fragrance from my point of view is the one that follows: I like it and I also hate it. Let me explain: Firstly, I get a spa vibe from it. It's a vintage herbal fragrance with a honey base. That's also floral, I get the marigold note very well, actually this reminds me of marigold cream somehow. I also can smell something bitter, and I think that's the leather note. I would've love the leather to smell like suede here. I like the frag, but I need to be very confident to wear this outside. The downside is the drydown. I hate it. It smells like bad breath, I think that's from the civet note, I guess? That's why I fell this duality towards Rumba. It's sensual, clean and dirty at the same time. Very vintage. I saw it has some votes that it is similar with Dior Poison. Although I can see some reseblance, I would say I like Rumba better haha. It doesn't have the quality of ingredients like Poison, but I like the blending options for this one better. The performance is incredible, idk if I have any fragrance to last this long. Wish the drydown didn't smell like bad breath though, it ruins the fragrance :( Scent: 6/10 Sillage: 10/10 Longevity: 10/10 Bottle: 8/10

Sadly, my first experience after opening the package was not a happy one. After 2 short sprays, one on the inside of each wrist, there was no fruit or flower whatsoever, only bitter and harsh notes which lasted for at least 5 hours. The drydown was a pissy musk, smokiness and a whiff of vanilla. I know that scents need to rest after being in transit. So I will let Rumba rest and mature for a while, in the hope that all the wonderful notes described by the lucky users below, will come to life on my skin as well. It sure is a strong and long lasting fragrance, and a very unusual one. Wish me luck ;) Update July 8: It does smell a bit differently this time, but because there are so many notes, it is quite difficult to identify them. I get some fruits and flowers, but also the same strong smokiness I detected the first time. This is definitely not a mainstream fragrance, but a very interesting one. Amazing longevity for an EDT, more than 14 hours, although I washed my hand/arm several times since I first applied it. If you like unusual and strong scents like Magie Noire, Obsession, LouLou, Opium, then you'll like Rumba. I got it for around 20 euro. Update October 31: still very strong smokiness, bitterness and woodiness, no fruits, maybe a little bit of flowers (I don't know how marigold is supposed to smell like). Great longevity but I am sorry to say that Rumba and I will part ways very soon.

Just like the mesmerizing Talisman Balenciaga, this one is an exceptional underrated fragrance. This is the way.

SO many ingredients listed for this one! I only thought it opened up with notes that some people call “dirty”. I believe it’ll suit people who appreciate LouLou by Cacharel and The Red Door by Elizabeth Arden. The bottle appears to be of very good quality, especially given how inexpensive it is. I later noticed that the bottle was an exact copy of Rumba by Balenciaga, which blew my brain. I didn’t realise one could sell a perfume to another house just like that - lock, stock, and barrel. PS: I tested it once again just because the next-day dry-down on the paper strip was pleasant, evoking a slightly smoky sour-sweet plum (and plum is indeed listed among the base notes). But to get to this fairly pleasant destination, one has to endure the very confronting and off-putting wafts of the first day. One must enjoy the smell of those Indian burning incense sticks to appreciate this fragrance. Go figure why many reviewers should be so enamoured of this one.

This is the way.

Ted Lapidus/ Balenciaga Rumba (1989) - chypre bouquet - Before his streamlined style, #jeanclaudeellena made this bombastic powerhouse of a scent for Balenciaga that they later sold to Ted Lapidus. I will not dare dissect individual notes as it’s far too complex to do so. I get an indolic and sultry Tuberose-Jasmine mixed by a wild assortment of floral components. Dark and fleshy stone-fruits and herbal aromatics. Animalic tanned leather hides, Amber accords amidst a chypre backbone. Not for the faint of heart who like clean & more modern scents, but those that enjoy chypre, orientals and complex florals - a definite buy.