Bon Vivant

[enui]

An effervescent blend of crystalline champagne notes and sweet strawberry.

On my skin, the champagne part disappears almost immediately, soon followed by the strawberry part.
What is left is a very sweet, candy-like smell, very heavy; it smells exactly like of the one Lush bubble bar I got for Christmas, I believe it's called Creamy Candy Bath.
I could still smell it after 24h, and soap; a bit too strong and plastic for me :/ Edited February 24, 2006 by Shollin

[Ryvre]

This scent is fantastic!

 

It's mostly champagne, with strawberry in the background. Sweet, but not too sweet, and sharp.

 

And it sticks around a while, unlike most of the scents I like.

[Christine Daae]

I got this as a frimp.

 

In the Imp: Very, very sugary-sweet (the strawberry) with a little...tingly feeling. Mmmm!

 

Wet on skin: Still very strawberry-sweet, but I can definitely smell the champagne now. This is LOVELY.

 

Dry on skin: There's really not much to say about this other than yum. I'm not a fan of alcoholic notes usually, but this is light and, yes, bubbly enough for me. The strawberry is so good, and the slight tingle/metallic sharpness of the champagne balances the sweetness out so nicely!

 

Drydown: I'm so glad I got this when I did - it ended up being the perfect Sara (a character I played in a show called A Little Quickie) scent. She's sweet but with a bit of sharpness. Plus she drinks a lot of champagne. It's grown up, but bubbly and sweet and as it dries, it becomes more...champagney, but the sweetness of the strawberry still sticks around. I <3 it.

 

Final Impression: Doesn't last very long, sadly - but while it did it was absolutely perfect, especially for the show. A going-out-and-dressing-up sort of scent (which I don't get to do often enough, sadly). Evokes an image of a classy woman in a black dress, holding a champagne flute, wearing red lipstick and throwing back her head in laughter.

[klio]

This seemed like a safe one to apply as a brand-new, never-tested, never-before-smelled imp this morning.

 

In the imp it has a light, sweet, gardenia-like quality, hence I figured it would be safe to try wearing to work. My imp is filled to brimming, so of course I spilled it down my thumb, and thus was committed to it.

 

Wet on skin: Still sweet, more sugar than fruity, but very faint. Hit by a spark of madness, I decided to open up Rose Cross and try sniffing the two scents together. Because I am not well trained in the art of opening imps, I spilled Rose Cross on top of Bon Vivant.

 

Bon Vivant x Rose Cross: Roses and champagne! This made a lovely combination. Within about fifteen minutes, the Rose Cross had flowered so exuberantly, the Bon Vivant was almost lost, except to add a bit of sparkle underneath. I headed to work. Some unknown fella' smiled at me on the elevator on my way up.

 

5 hours later: Rose Cross is still flowering strongly and Bon Vivant has almost, but not quite, vanished, and I have to wash up after a big lunch in the conference room. Rose Cross is eradicated by nondescript dishwashing liquid (after surviving several previous hand and wrist washings during the course of the day), so I reapply Bon Vivant.

 

Wet, again: Much more fruity now--not definable to me as strawberries, but as some sort of generic sweet pie. There's a musty undertone as it begins to dry that hints at the champagne.

 

Drying: I find that when I apply this (and Rose Cross) to my thumb (from spilling the imp) and wrists, it diffuses rapidly across the palms of my hands, until I feel like I'm cupping palmfuls of fragrance. Nice, but distracting.

 

Dry: The flowery fruitiness is subdued and blended into what must be the champagne; it's still quite sweet but not quite as "Look! Over here! Sweet stuff! Ha cha cha!" I'm not enveloped in scent the way I was with Rose Cross, but I catch the fragrance on and off.

 

Overall impression: I feel girly and pretty in this. It's not right for me today--I'm going more for power-executive mode at the moment--but I see it for afternoon parties, going bowling with the gang, lighthearted activities. In this, I should be wearing casual clothing and doing something fun and frivolous. I was hoping for "black dress and champagne flute" evening vivacity, but this strikes me as unsophisticated in a happy, light way, bright and airy, young and guileless.

 

As with the other scents I've tried so far (all two of them!), I can't stop smelling myself.

[Torrilin]

Feb 19:

I feel like a Strawberry Shortcake doll.

 

The scent has strong plastic overtones, which I don't like. Under the plastic, I get strawberries and cream, which doesn't feel comfortable to me but could be nice.

 

Mar 29:

No more plastic, finally. I get the strawberries and a bit of fizzy creaminess. It's very young feeling, and I'm not drawn to it. The strawberry scent feels artificial, but a pretty good artificial strawberry. A real strawberry has a sharp, sweet scent before you bite into it. Very intense in how it strikes your nose, but not a strong scent. Then when you bite into the strawberry, you get the taste, which has a lot of layers that I can't describe very well. All throughout tho, there's the sharpness, which is very reminiscent of citrus. That's why when I do up strawberries for desserts, I season them with lemon zest and fresh grated ginger.

 

This scent tho has none of the sharpness of a real strawberry, and lemon and ginger are decidedly out of place here. However, when you breath it in through your mouth, you do get the taste of a strawberry dipped in cream. It's as if I'm tasting through a veil of bacon fat or something tho, because all the texture has gone out. It's flat and thin compared to the real thing .

 

I'm getting some interesting notions about what it is that I'm missing from a real strawberry. I'll have to play around with this some more mentally, but I'm pretty damn sure this scent is not a bottle for me. Interesting as hell, but not something I'd wear.

 

Kalli

[lookingglass]

Sparkely, boozy strawberry. If Bordello were a cheaper whore, this would be it!

 

ADDED 1/30/09:

 

Blech. Sicky sweet/sour/nasty. Smells like a strawberry airfreshner. Thanks, though.

[the_cat_goddess]

I can definitely smell the effervescence!

 

The strawberry is kind of like strawberry soda, artificial.

 

It smells like my Strawberry Shortcake doll from childhood, but like she grew up and spilled champagned all over herself. Pretty, but not for me...

[Rock Goddess]

Bon Vivant is really pretty. It's a nice, light scent...sparkly, creamy strawberries, exactly as the description says. I didn't put too much on, just one swipe on my wrist, but it's hanging around nicely. Probably not a scent I'd wear all the time, but it'll be a great one for spring days when I'm feeling in a girly, pink kind of mood.

[joiedecombat]

When I tested Bon Vivant, I kept waiting for the champagne to come out in the fragrance and do for it what the alcohol notes in Swank do for the pomegranate. Unfortunately, it never did, and on my skin Bon Vivant simply smelled of overly-sweet strawberry. It wasn't unpleasant, but it was a very sticky-sweet and young scent, like a little girl's lip balm or body spray. Too young for me.

[nerdcraft]

preconceived notions: When I think of this one, I think red! Bright, fruity, paint-your-toenails kind of red.

 

in the imp: Yessssssss. Strawberriesssssssss. I love strawberries.

wet: Very bright very awesome strawberries, right away.

dry: I will admit that this smells a bit like my beloved Strawberry Shortcake doll from childhood, but that's a good thing. A young, fruity, bright, bubbly scent that cheers me up. Not so much like a fresh strawberry, but more like strawberry lipgloss. Again, a good thing.

 

season: summer

office-friendly? Yes, and this would be perfect for when I volunteer at this elementary school library near me. Yeah. I'm approachable and friendly, kids! I smell like strawberry Lipsmackers!

 

overall: Dang I like this a lot. Bottle for sure! Just a drop of this cheers me up right away.

[Dandelion]

Not my first scent ever, but my first review ever.

 

...

 

Eep.

 

So when I first opened the imp it smelled like champagne, artificial strawberries (but very good artificial strawberries. like what artifical strawberries would taste like if, say, Godiva made artificial strawberries!), and a hint of something floral that I'm probably imagining but that makes the imp smell like a summer wedding. Yay! I like weddings. Five minutes after I put it on the imaginary wedding bouquet completely disappears (as imaginary things are wont to do), the champagne gets less noticible, and the strawberry intensifies. Now it smells like, as many have said, a strawberry lipsmacker. Only a bit tarter and with a champagne undertone. And it stays like this for the next five hours, at which point I have to reapply.

 

I like it. I doubt I'll buy a big bottle, but I'll use up the imp.

[Jettcat]

In the bottle: a smell of sparkling wine with a sweet layer behind it

 

Wet:The strawberry starts amping up and I've lost the champagne note

 

Dry: It's bubblegum candy, very child like in a way.

 

1 hour later: Sadly it faded to a big ol' hunk of strawberry bubblicious, I bet my god daughter would love this...she's made off with an imp of Bliss already.

[cameroncrazed]

In the imp: mmm, boozy strawberries

 

Wet on the skin: oooh! fresh strawberries!

 

Dry on skin: it varies between fresh strawberries floating in a glass of the bubbly, a strawberry wine cooler, and these strawberry candies I absolutely adore.

 

Overall: 9.5-10/10. Sweet strawberries - what more do I need? I adore this scent, and since it's GC, I can endulge myself whenever I want to. Light, but oh so very lovely.

[bifemmefatale]

Goes on strangely chemically--must be the champagne-then sweetens up after a few minutes, but to me this is disappointingly artificial, and very girly-not my thing. Bought it for my daughter but she didn't care for it either. Off it goes.

[Meg]

In the bottle: Fizzy booze and strawberry.

 

Wet: Quite a lot of acidic booze, very champagne-like, over strawberry.

 

Drydown: Still strawberries and champagne, a very rich, bubbly and warm scent, with a hint of bitterness and smoke. There's with something vegetal in it that reminds me (strangely) of artichokes and there's something a little bit like honey in there, too, as well as a hint of violet, I think.

 

Overall: I didn't like it when I first tried it, but I'm pleased to have given it a second chance. It's a rather dry, boozy, effervescent blend, with strawberries. It makes me think of a truly decadent bubble bath with a platter of strawberries right next to you. I do get more and more powdery and obvious violet as this dries down, which is a bit weird but not unpleasant. All in all, it's a pretty, fizzy blend.

[falcon in the dive]

In the bottle: This is a very sweet bubbly scent. It reminded me kind of of the bubbly bits of a light scent like pink phoenix

 

Wet: It's nice. the strawberry takes a bit of a backseat to the champagne. It's a little too champagne for me, but it is marvelously decadent and light.

 

overall: I don't care for the champagne. It's not that it's a bad scent, but. not for me. It dries up a little as it dries down, but I feel too much like a lush with it.

[mirutai]

I was hoping that the champagne would temper the strawberry and make this into a more sophisticated scent... but on me it's straight strawberry candy. Very, very sweet, and far too akin to a little girl's bubblebath for me!

[moonarcana]

reviewed courtesy of Quikslver's GC circle swap

 

 

Bon Vivant

 

first sniff: pink sugary lolipops. not at all unpleasant but a real girly girl scent.

 

tested wet: Reminds me of when I was a kid and had 'Little Kiddle' dolls that came in plastic perfume bottles that opened like a clamshell.

 

tested dry: primary scent does not change much, but it seems to fade pretty quickly.

 

conclusion: I wouldn't wear this myself, but I don't find it offensive.

 

2/5

[populuxa]

Mmm! Strawberryalicious! A sweet, happy bubbly blend. The champagne gives it a nice dry tang. And there is maybe just the very faintest hint of floral. This is in the same family as The Hamptons and Swank: simple, fruity, & boozy. I'm a fan!

[edenssixthday]

Bon Vivant - This is one of my all-time favorite BPAL scents. It's smells like fizzy sweet champagne and strawberry preserves. On some days, the scent wears off my skin quickly, but on other days, it lasts and lasts. I am almost finished with the imp I have, and am pretty certain I'll be buying a full size bottle of it soon [edited: two full bottles have since been purchased!] Another thing I like about it is that when I keep the imp in my purse, I get a whiff of the scent every time I open my purse. :-) It's a happy, light, and uplifting scent, and it's impossible to be in a bad mood while wearing it! (P.S. It also smells REALLY good blended with Rose Cross! Another favorite layering is Bon Vivant, Strawberry Moon and a tiny bit of Bliss. YUM!!!)

[alishathekitten]

This smells like an almost woodsy, fizzy champagne, with a hint of sweet strawberries. A really great scent for spring. Although I really do like this one, I'm undecided if I would every buy a full bottle. The woodsy note in the champagne is interesting, but I don't know if I can wear something like that in a perfume. Maybe I'll change my mind later...

[gloom bear]

Bon Vivant started out a very sweet, bad strawberry candy smell. After drying, it mellowed out to a less sweet, creamy smell, with the artificial strawberry in the background. It reminds me of Natural Escents strawberries and champagne. Admitedly, this is better, but I tossed that one, and this will probably go into the swap box. It is too sweet and fake-foody on me, and for my taste.

Edited July 26, 2006 by gloom & doom bear

[midnight_aeval]

My first impression from the vial- wowie, this is sweet and boozy! The strawberries smelled gorgeous.

 

So I put it on.. at first it was just what it was in the vial.. and then my strawberries went sour, and the booze came through rough & hard.

 

Literally, after it dried down, it smells like drunken sour patch kids. Which to some, that might be a good thing!

 

ETA: I forgot to wash it off and I have a NASTY headache.. boo on you Bon Vivant.

Edited July 1, 2006 by Midnight Aeval

[Miseraya]

I've been wearing Bon Vivant all day and I adore it.

 

On me it's mostly champagne, but there is definitely strawberry in there as well. The effervescent qualities of this are like nothing I have ever smelled before. It has a wonderful throw and lasts a long time on me as well. It was never overly sweet or heavy on me, even when I proceeded to sweat all over it half the day, lol.

 

I'm definitely ordering a big bottle of this.

[filigree_shadow]

It does smell like champagne, which is quite nice, but the strawberry scent smells artificial on my skin. It reminds me of a strawberry lip gloss. My hubby likes it a lot on me, but it's not really doing anything for me.