I smell powdery leather, syrupy honey, juicy plum, dusty incense fila disruptor 2 womens and soapy white florals. I find that Rumba changes on me from day to day, so no one wearing is the same. In all honesty, yes, Rumba does smell a little dated. But the fact that it smells of by-gone days is all part of its charm. Not surprisingly Jean-Claude Ellena is one of the noses behind this elegant scent, and Ron Winnegrad is the other talented nose. It's unfortunate that Balenciaga felt the need to discontinue this fragrance to make way for predictable scents like Florabotanica and Balenciaga Paris. I strongly believe that if Rumba still graced our shelves, it would still be selling.

The force is strong with this one. This is the most outspoken cousin of the three incense sisters, ie, Rumba(BALENCIAGA, NOT TL), Tabu, and fila slides Ciara. This opens with a spicy (actually feel the spice in the back of my nose), fruity insence blast. I just discovered this at my front door at 7:40am, and my morning nose did get rather a surprise. Yes, it's hot, but I could imagine wearing fila australia this in summer as well. With a flowing maxi dress, hair out, and way too much eyeliner on. Sexy, mysterious, and loud.It does have a spicy, woody mix that some might call floriental but this is not a floral and not fruity.

One can almost taste the Rumba on the tongue. The composition is balanced around waxe-y, sacred notes of honey and incense and they do not appeal to everyone for sure. It takes quite a bit of self confidence to wear Rumba. The fruity top note, especially the plum, floats throughout fila sliders the fragrance flow which is probably obtained without banal synthetic-fruity manipulation. It smells more like a delicious compote or a spiced plum jam. The flowers in the heart notes form such a perfect unity that I can not smell one by one. Even the dominant tuberose for me is not recognizable and restrains, almost hides itself.

As this settles and reaches the base, I like it more and more. It develops into a rich, smokey leather, with a hint of boozy sweetness. I normally choose fairly safe scents for day to day, but being a vintage lover, I am always drawn in by scents like this. This is not safe. Do not wear this to the office. You may end up with a no scent workplace policy as a result. I am not daring enough to wear this often but when I do, I feel like a 'bad girl' - all smoke, leather, and plum brandy. I like this a lot. My bottle says Balenciaga on the bottom. I have not smelled the Ted Lapidus version.

Rumba fila white shoes by Balenciaga: I wore the original version in my teens and it surely was a statement perfume, very 80's but very different too: frutity -powdery, oriental, mysterious, difficult to pinpoint what it smelled of, evasive, lasted forever on my skin and left a faint vanilla- flowery fragrance. Nothing ever since has been even remotely reminiscent of Rumba! So unique it is!not for the faint-hearted!I got a large bottle of the Balenciaga version as a gift many years ago. One whiff, and I said "ugh." Way too strong for me. So it just stayed in my collection, not being used.