Bon Vivant

[vegasblueblood]

An effervescent blend of crystalline champagne notes and sweet strawberry

Like a lovely fruit champagne, very effervescent and bubbly. This scent is light as air and as it dries on my skin, retains that lovely bubbly quality it has. It is amazing to me how Beth is able to capture these sorts of things with such accuracy and make a champage that literally seems to float off your skin like the bubbles that float to the surface in a champagne glass. The strawberries are ice cold and very quiet in the background of this blend on me and the chilliness of the strawberries makes the blend itself chilly. It's not a warm scent at all but yet still comes across as golden and fizzy. Edited January 5, 2009 by vegasblueblood

[lupidog]

from the imp: bizarre strawberry bubbles.

 

Sadly, my review of this will be brief: My earliest memory of vomiting was throwing up Hawaiian Punch outside, and once on, Bon Vivant is unpleasantly reminiscent of that hot summer day. I had to wash it off. It also weirdly reminded me of... tomatoes?

 

Sad. I love champagne, and I love strawberries, but it was not meant to be.

[LizzyLies]

In the imp, it smells like champagne-y strawberries to me. On however, it reminds me of strawberry rock candy in the best way humanly possible. I'm not sure it warrants a bottle--at least not yet, I wouldn't be surprised if I end up with half the GC in my box someday--but I will treasure the imp.

[donnatron]

Imp: Effervescent. I wouldn't identify it as champagne if I didn't know the notes but it's definitley a bubbly scent. Faint hint of strawberry.

 

Wet: The champagne goes straight up white wine on my skin. I smell like I've been on a bender.

 

Dry: Soft, powdery strawberries with a hint of plastic. I feel like I've been taken away by Calgon. This reminds me a lot of the body sprays and lotions I used in junior high/high school. Very young, not the most true-to-life scent on my skin and not a very me right now scent. It is, however, a very me-at-14 sort of scent.

 

Throw: Strong but you don't register it as perfume so it's more forgivable.

 

Overall: So... this weekend my boyfriend and I were at my parents house and he was looking at photos of me on our dining room wall. We went to the same high school but never knew each other until we met a few years later. He was looking at my grade twelve grad photo and said "Wow, I wish we'd met in high school." It was flattering but a little creepy. And that's what this scent is like. Pretty but a little creepy. Instead of a little girl playing grown up I feel like a grown ass woman playing little girl and I am not a fan of that feeling. I like the scent but the association with my adolescent self is just a little too... too for me.

[copagirl]

This one I wish smelled more like Champagne on me because I love love love Champagne!!

This was the very first Bpal I sniffed. In the imp it smelled sweet and tart, a teeny bit of Champagne, a little spicey and something floral like Frangipani. On, it became softer, more sweet strawberry and rose. Later on it still smelled very sweet but more like a creamy strawberry sweetness. Yummy!

 

P.S.-I put this on a week later and TOTALLY smelled the Champagne! It's weird how these oils smell different all the time.

Edited March 1, 2009 by copagirl

[CynicalPink]

Imp: Sparkly strawberries

 

Wet: I Strawberry

 

Drydown: Very bubbly and bright. Strawberry is the dominant note, but the champagne is there. Just taking a back seat

 

Overall: I like it! Bottle audition! Should be a lot of fun for spring and summer.

[angelicruin]

Yep, sparkling strawberries sums up the description of this scent. Scent holds true on my skin for hours. I love it.

[milo]

Ugh, strawberries do not work on me, and I had high hopes for this one as I love effervescent scents. But there it is, the Bonne Belle chapstick from the seventies that my sister used to eat on me.

I bet I would have been all over this one then!

Edited March 26, 2009 by milo

[asciident]

Wet: Sweet perfume.

 

First on: Same on the skin.

 

Dry: Same on drydown. Meh.

[tajana]

Bon Vivant is just packed to the brim with that too-sweet grapey note that killed Perversion for me. Wine and champagne notes in BPAL don't register as such to my nose, they just seem like white grape juice. The strawberry note is delightful at first, but goes quickly to strawberry-flavored candy, and finally to artifical, crushed up powdery straberry candy residue congealed by grape juice. Too sweet, not for me!

[catatonic1242]

In the imp: Smells like those strawberry candies that are wrapped up to look exactly like strawberries.

 

On, wet: Strawberry bubble gum? It's very bubbly, but also fake strawberry.

 

On, dry: Oh, crap. Plastic. This sucks, because I was *so* looking forward to this one!

[sirensea]

In the imp: It reminds me of a strawberry wine cooler. Fruity, with a hint of something alcoholic.

 

On my skin: I agree entirely with the person above me, that said it smells like the strawberry candies made to look like actual strawberries. That's the first thing I thought of after the dry-down. It's sweet, soft, something to wear when you're going out with friends. Not a 'date' scent by any means, but great for those times you just want something simple and fun to wear.

Edited April 9, 2009 by sirensea

[anna1850]

This was nice for about half a minute with lots of bright strawberry but then it turned on me and smelled like somebody had drunk too many alcopops and thrown up all over my wrist.

 

1/5 Eww.

[lishal]

It's a sweet and sparkling strawberry scent in the vial I got of Bon Vivant. On me, the strawberry flares up and is really pretty, it's nice and juicy and sweet. Then something goes wrong . The strawberry fades and this weird almost plastic, powder, cream kind of combination flares up. I am hoping that it's not the strawberry note that's doing this. In either case, the powerful whiff of strawberry lasts a few seconds and then goes awry on me. I wish this would have worked, there aren't any GC strawberry scents that have played nice with me so far.

[ShadowsDance]

You know those little strawberry candies that are wrapped in little strawberry wrappers.. and they're hard candies, but kinda gooey in the inside. Yeah. This is them. Smells exactly like they do!

[Ravenclaw79]

It's creepy sometimes, what Beth can create. This is EXACTLY what it says -- champagne with strawberries.

[Lyrical]

In vial: sparkling white grape juice with a whisper of strawberry.

 

Wet on skin: still a sparkling grape juice drink, garnished with a fresh strawberry! Very nice!

 

Dry on skin: still the same, but with a soft hint of pale musk. This is a sparling, fun scent - perfect for summer! Short wear length.

[milica]

I must stay away from strawberry scents. This smells like rotten strawberry on me, no champagne. Mania was sour, this is rotten, so no strawberry for me.

 

But this sure smells like it can be great on someone else! It reminds me of Lush's Strawberry Twin Tub shower gelle.

[Monster]

Not much to say about this...exactly as described! This is a sparkling, boozy white grape paired with juicy strawberries. This is sweet, delicious smelling and a lot of fun.

A lot of people reported this as smelling "plasticy" but I don't think it is at all. I'm surprised it too me this long to discover Bon Vivant! I love this one!

[kaliflower]

this was the first bpal that i tried, and i wasn't sure if i liked it at first. i was expecting a ripe, fresh strawberry smell and what i got was more like strawberry candy, or strawberry incense. i did however, decide to give a second shot and i'm so, so glad that i did. the second time around, the champagne note turned all musky and velvety on me and now i'm totally in love

[Saya]

The strawberry in this blend isn't a true strawberry, it's more of a candy, super sweet take on the fruit. The champagne makes this bright and light, but mixes to come out smelling a bit like a wine cooler.

 

I'll keep the imp, but pass on a bottle.

[crebbsgirl]

Hrmmm.. this went plastic strawberry on my skin after just a few moments. The champagne note was present VERY briefly in the wet stage, but quickly disappeared. The strawberry just doesn't like my skin I guess.

[topazphoenix]

There's a sharp note of champagne in here, but the strawberries aren't real, but candy. Captures the lightheaded sourness of being drunk and giggly quite well imo.

[Argentwolf]

Slightly-sour champagne, with candy-like strawberry. It's not bad, but it never really steps up and asserts itself much, and drifts away.

[Balame]

In the Imp: Exactly like the descriptions says, sparkly strawberry.

 

Wet: My skin is making the “alcohol” very prominent. It wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t push the strawberry so far into the background. What I can smell of the fruit, it’s more of a sugary, candy scent on me rather than the real deal.

 

Dry: The strawberry lasted for about two hours, died down into a powdery version of its former self, then disappeared entirely to leave me with the booze. This is the first oil I’ve tried that actually made me a bit sneezy as well.

 

Verdict: It’s not horrendous, but this cutesy version of strawberry is not the sort of thing I’m fond of – I’d rather have it more robust and realistic. Not only that, but it faded far too quickly. I don’t mind alcoholic scents but to be left with that single sharp note alone was too much.

 

Rating: 2/5